Obituary - Hazel D. Messersmith

Mrs. Messersmith Of Genesee Dies at Age 87

GENESEE -- Hazel Dell Messersmith, a Genesee resident the past 16 years, died Thursday morning while visiting her son in Coeur d'Alene.

She married Lewis Messersmith in Lapwai in 1913. He was a blacksmith there for 33 years, and later was a professor of agricultural engineering at the University of Idaho.

During World War II, she was the foreman of a machine repair shop at Fort Lewis, Wash. Her husband taught blacksmithing, machine repair and welding there.

She was born Hazel Dell Bramlett, Sept. 22, 1889, in Dayton, Wash., where she grew up. She opened a confectionary store there before her marriage.

The family lived in Moscow before and after World War II, until her husband's retirement 16 years ago.

Mrs. Messersmith was an elder in the Presbyterian Church for more than 50 years, first in Lapwai and then in Moscow.

Survivors include her husband, who was with her in Coeur d'Alene; three sons, Harold, Coeur d'Alene; Richard, Sunnyvale, Calif.; and John, Ventura, Calif.

The body is at Short's Funeral Home. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Unknown newspaper, (handwritten date 1976)
Transcribed by Jill Leonard Nock

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