Loretta M. Koehler's Obituary
Loretta Marie (Mason) Koehler was born in Weiser, Idaho on August 5, 1934, to Julian Hamer Mason and Lilly Magdalen Shoemake. The oldest of five sisters, she was raised in Hermiston, Oregon, by extended family members, including her paternal grandmother and adopted grandfather, and a devoted aunt and uncle. While in high school, Loretta developed a keen interest in theater, speech, and fashion. She participated in many theatrical productions and speech tournaments, earned the Forensics award at graduation, and was selected as First Runner Up in the Miss Oregon competition in 1952. She later matriculated at the University of Oregon, earning a B.A. degree in Speech in 1956.
Loretta met H. Richard Koehler Jr., a young man from Olympia, while visiting family in Anacortes. In November 1956, they were married in Walla Walla, Washington. By then, Richard had completed his military service and Loretta had graduated from college. They settled in the Seattle area where Loretta began her teaching career and Richard earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at Puget Sound University. In the early 1970’s they moved to Eugene so that Richard could attend the doctoral program at the University of Oregon. Following that, they lived in Houston, Texas, Richmond, Virginia, and eventually, Marietta, Georgia, following Richard’s university career as director of university schools of music at Rice University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and finally Georgia State University.
During their 55-year marriage, Loretta taught literature, drama, and speech at high schools across the country, and became Richard’s most trusted confidante and ardent supporter of his career. She encouraged Richard to continue on in his education, saw to it that he was always the best-dressed man in the room, and juggled all the responsibilities of furnishing and entertaining in their lovely homes and keeping tabs on and pampering their various cats, dachshunds and Dobermans.
Richard unexpectedly passed away in 2011 and Loretta moved back to Oregon in 2018. She passed away peacefully on November 12, 2024, 13 years to the day after Richard, and surrounded by love under the care of nuns from the Holy Spirit Sisters at the St. Bernhard Bendel Care Home in Beaverton, Oregon. Loretta was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. H. Richard Koehler, Jr., the grandparents (May Swart Mason Gibbons and Andrew Ernest Gibbons) and aunt and uncle (Walter S. Mason and Ruby T. Mason) who raised her, her parents, and three of her four sisters (Patricia Mason; Sally (Standish) Stavig; and Julie (Naser) Shaver). Loretta is survived by one sister, Venice (Standish) Maling, of Grandview, Washington, many nieces and nephews and Mary Anne Anderson, whom Richard and Loretta considered (and dubbed) the “daughter of their hearts.”
Fr. Nicolaus Marandu from St. Frederic Catholic Church in St. Helens, Oregon, will preside over a vigil and memorial service at Columbia Funeral Home (St. Helens, Oregon) on Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. The following day, Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. Loretta and Richard will be laid to rest together at Willamette National Cemetery (Happy Valley, Oregon), with full military honors and a service presided over by Deacon Will Becker of Christ the King Catholic Church. Remembrances in Loretta’s (and Richard’s) honor should be made to the Holy Spirit Sisters, c/o Sr. Dominica Mchau, 12579 SW Fairfield Ct., Beaverton, Oregon 97005.
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