Delia Mae Oliver

Delia (Dee) Mae (Lorenzi) Oliver, a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and aunt, passed away December 9, 2015, from ovarian cancer. She was born on March 10, 1932, in Spokane, WA, as the third daughter of Michael and Laura (Knapp) Lorenzi. Dee grew up within a stone’s throw of the historic town site of Delta, Idaho, living on what would become known as, “The Ranch.” Here she would help with farm chores, work in the vegetable gardens, play in Beaver Creek, and travel to many remote mining sites where her father, Mike, and uncle, Pete, conducted mining operations throughout the Coeur d Alene River region of North Idaho. When her parents divorced some years later, Dee moved to attend school in Ellensburg, WA; always, though, she returned to the family ranch to spend summers and holidays with Mike and Pete. During one of these summer stays, Dee met a blue eyed, curly haired, former Navy veteran radioman, with a keen sense of humor: Arthur LeRoy “Roy” Oliver. Roy was present with his entire family, helping with the mining operations at the Highland Aurora Mine. Dee, at the time, assisted with that mining camp’s cooking. Their meeting was the beginning of an epic whirlwind romance; it lead to a Christmas return trip to the ranch, which included an elopement to Superior, Montana, and marriage by its Justice of the Peace there on January 2, 1949, commencing a storied 63 years of marriage. Dee and Roy would live in many wonderful places in the Northwest: Chelan, Cashmere, Wenatchee, Wallace, Coeur d’ Alene, and finally Sandpoint. During the summer of 1959, Sandpoint became the final settling place for the raising of their four children: Art, Marsha, Ginna, and Janna. It was also in the Sandpoint area where Delia provided loving, in-home care for both her aging uncle and father; additionally, Dee’s mother, Laura, and her husband Ray Toole, resided in a nearby mobile home in later years. A brother-in-law, Frank Berloger, was welcomed into Dee and Roy’s home, also; then, as her own four children matured Dee provided care for Sherrie and Richard Metz’s two daughters. While Delia’s lifetime was marked by caregiving, her final decade was the most heavily tasked one: she cared for her husband Roy, at home, even as he declined from vascular dementia. Dee’s sense of caring ran very deep: it extended to her home and the maintenance of her properties, as well. Her home place was pleasingly defined with the creation and building of a house on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille; here gigantic gardens had been created under the watchful eyes of Uncle Pete, preceding construction. Ultimately, there would be about five acres of yard, with fruit and vegetable gardens and flower beds: these would be cared for by all who experienced this magical place, either willingly, or through Dee’s enticement. It became the centerpiece of many family and extended family functions, such as beach picnics for GTE Company gatherings, innumerable birthday parties, and granddaughters’ weddings. Dee encouraged and tutored her own children, and later, her nieces, nephews, and grandchildren, in many practical skills such as sewing and crocheting. She also modeled self-sufficiency through the drying, canning and preserving of garden and wild native food stocks. Dee demonstrated how to create wine products from grapes, huckleberries and elderberries; some of these were shockingly great, while others were interestingly different, but no attempt was ever a failure. Dee also introduced this extended family group to diverse outdoor activities that included fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling. Hunting trips ranged southerly from the Clearwater Wilderness area of Idaho, included a northern Alberta, moose hunt, and always encompassed Ranch-based hunts in the Coeur d’Alene River drainage, for deer, elk, and bear. These adventures with family members also involved trips to the Hood Canal, WA, Waldport, OR, and the Kenai Peninsula, AK, for the harvesting of clams, oysters, Dungeness crab, salmon, and the halibut to be found in these regions. Dee would always carefully preserve seafood for her family’s extended use. Mary Ronan Lake, in western Montana, was a closer-to-home favorite for family fishing excursions. Delia’s varied hobbies consisted of arrowhead searches around the Sandpoint region with family and friends, as well as picking huckleberries (the family namesake fruit), blackcaps, and other wild berries which produced many of her regionally famous pies and cobblers. Cooking was definitely an area which Dee excelled in: she could, in fact, create a meal based upon just about any cuisine. For instance, Dee might watch a cooking show, and then, many months later, remember how to cook the menu item to perfection. This fascination with cooking was historically based upon family ties in Italy. Vitiana, the birthplace of Dee’s father, inspired four trips to the Tuscany region of Northern Italy. During these trips, family and extended members traveled to the Northern City States surrounding the village of Vitiana, and also made visits to Rome: the trips’ memories were relieved by Dee for many years, through the sharing of anecdotes and photos. Recently, Dee returned to Yellowstone National Park, to bask in the memories of past trips to this wonderful region, where she heard once more the bugling of elk and the gysers’ distant roar, as she traveled the park’s byways with relatives. She also made one last trip to “The Ranch”, this October, experiencing the fall colors along the Coeur d’Alene River and mountainsides, and went for a final walk upon the ground of her youth. During this nostalgic day trip Delia visited with her niece, Pam (Chapen), and with Pam’s spouse, John Hull. They sat at Dee’s father’s round oak table, enjoying coffee and chocolate cream pie, as she gazed out the kitchen window and reminisced about those unique childhood days growing up in the Valley. Delia is survived by her sister, Judy Lane; four children: Arthur Oliver, Marsha Davis, Ginna Scholz, and Janna Richardson; 4 nieces and 2 nephews, as well as 12 grandchildren, and soon-to-be 12 great grandchildren. Dee was preceded in death by her husband Arthur (Roy) Oliver, sisters, Elnora Sharp, Nelda Chapin, and JoAnn Wright, and grandson, Jonathan Scholz. Donations may be made to Hospice of North Idaho 9493 N. Government Way Hayden, ID 83835