Wanda (Childers) Krause

Wanda passed away peacefully at her daughter’s home on October 4th, just two days after the passing of her beloved husband of 68 years.

Her father, Clarence, was a Muscogee Indian who worked for the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Because of his work, Wanda spent her childhood on several BIA Indian Agencies, including Pine Ridge, SD; El Reno, OK; and Anadarko, OK. She grew up alongside three older siblings, enjoying board games, tennis, and ping-pong. On weekends, their mother would host lively dances, rolling up the living room carpet so everyone could jitterbug and swing to the big band music of the 1940s and ’50s.

In 1950, Wanda was honored as the Muscogee Indian Princess. She graduated from Anadarko High School in 1951, from Haskell Indian College in 1953, and earned her teaching degree from Central State University in Oklahoma in 1955.

Wanda met her future husband, Gale Krause, at the Nez Perce BIA Agency in Lapwai, ID, where her father was working at the time. The couple married in 1957 and moved frequently with the BIA, from Lapwai to Nespelem, Fort Hall, ID, Sells, AZ, Poston, AZ, and finally to Window Rock, AZ while raising two children along the way. They eventually settled in Shiprock, NM, in 1966, where Gale worked on the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project until his retirement, and Wanda continued her teaching career in various schools.

Wanda loved adventure and the outdoors. She was always ready for family tent and trailer camping trips that spanned from the East Coast to the West Coast, visiting most of the national parks in the Western United States and many in British Columbia, which she found especially beautiful. She could bake a perfect huckleberry pie and cook pancakes under almost any conditions. She learned to fly fish in the mountain streams of Northern Idaho and to ski in the southern mountains of Colorado.

Her love of tennis continued throughout her life, earning her several national Native American tennis titles in her age group. She also enjoyed dancing and dressing up in elaborate costumes for parties at the Senior Center and other community events. Above all, Wanda was a loving, steadfast wife, mother, and grandmother who will be deeply missed.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Ernest Gale Krause; parents, Clarence and Grace “Babby” Childers; brothers, Danny and Harold Childers; sister, Clarice Childers; and grandparents, Daniel and Mildred (McIntosh) Childers.

She is survived by her children, Robin Krause and Dawn Krause.

Wanda’s remains will be interred with the rest of the Krause family in Mount Hall, Idaho.