Florence Pratt




Annual Picture 1962 Lewiston Lewiston Morning Tribune,

Florence E. Pratt, 92, Lewiston, Wednesday, January 30, 2002



Florence Elizabeth Pratt, 92, of Lewiston, died Friday, Jan. 25, 2002, at Idaho County Nursing Home in Grangeville, where she had been a resident for the last two years.


Florence was born June 2, 1909, at Grangeville, the eldest child of Charles A. and Almyra H. Wood Pratt. She was raised on a farm 16 miles northeast of Grangeville. She attended several rural schools on the Camas Prairie as well as Stites and Grangeville. She lived with an aunt, Janett Wood Gjuka, in Tacoma for two years, graduating from Lincoln High School. She began college in 1928 at the University of Idaho. Due to the Great Depression, she interrupted her education to teach and save money, graduating in 1933.


After graduation, her first teaching contract at a rural, Camas Prairie school paid $60 a month for eight months. During the Depression, a considerable amount of her teaching salary was paid in warrants, not dollars. She began teaching high school home economics in 1936 at Wendell, Idaho. She continued to teach until 1965 at numerous locations in southern Idaho, including Arco and Burley. She also taught three years in San Diego.


In 1950, she moved to Lewiston and taught at Lewiston High School. There were many highlights in her teaching career and she received many awards including the FHA State Home Economics Award. In 1945-46, she earned a master's degree in home economics at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. She served as president of vocational home economics in 1951-52, as well as treasurer of Idaho Home Economics Association in 1959-60. She was a longtime member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, the Retired Teachers Association, Business and Professional Women, Lewiston Home Economists and Orchards Methodist Church. After retiring from teaching, she worked at the Lewiston office of the Idaho Department of Public Assistance and served as president of Visiting Nurses Association in 1971.


Her interests were her family, friends, all of her former students, attending church, reading -- particularly Shakespeare and poetry -- yard and garden work, home canning, sewing, knitting and many types of intricate needle work. She always kept a detailed daily diary. She completed an extensive genealogy log, which she put into book form for family members. She traveled throughout the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, and also to Mexico, Canada, Europe, British Isles, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and the Middle East.


Survivors include one brother, Albert Pratt and his wife, Cora, of Stites; two nieces, Gwendolyn (Peggy) Pratt Workman and Sandra Pratt Eimers, both of Grangeville; two nephews, Charles Pratt of Stites and Steve Pratt of Grangeville; nine great-nieces and nephews; and 15 great-great-nieces and nephews.


She was preceded in death by a brother, Ralph Pratt.


Visitation is from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until the funeral at 1 p.m. at the Blackmer Funeral Home. The Rev. Jude Reardon of the Grangeville Christian Reformed Church will officiate. Burial will follow at Prairie View Cemetery.





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