Elvena M. Isert, age 93, passed away on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019.
Her husband Lyle remembers lovingly that Elvena’s fingers were always busy. She loved to do needlecraft, knit and even taught knitting classes at Bellingham Vo-Tec for a time. Elvena was a talented and creative seamstress sewing her children’s clothes and designing custom drapes out of her home. She was hardworking, spending the fall canning produce from her large vegetable garden.
Elvena was born in Bellingham on May 6, 1926, to parents Christian and Ella (Widmer) Fuscher. She grew up in the Acme area, attended Mount Baker High School and went on to work in the shipyards as a Rosie the Riveter and then for Whitney Fidalgo Fish Cannery.
Lyle had his eye on Elvena and saw she and a friend needed a ride. That ride was all Lyle needed to know and they were married on Nov. 19, 1947. They had nearly 72 years of marriage together. They had three daughters, Janet Peterson (John) of Casper, Wyoming, Candis O’Neil (Darby) of Ferndale, and Patti Jo Mower (Dave) of Sequim; four grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Elvena will also be greatly missed by two sisters, Nancy Jackson and Dorothy Handy.
Elvena was preceded in death by her brothers James Fuscher and Fred Fuscher.
You are invited to join family and friends for a memorial service that will be held in the same church they were married in, Laurel Community Baptist, at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9. Burial preceded in Ten Mile Cemetery.
Funeral arrangements are by Gillies Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
