Shirley Jeanne (Swank) Lines-Lindahl
April 2, 1929 – December 22, 2024
Shirley Jeanne (Swank) Lines-Lindahl, age 95, died at Grace Adult Family Home in Ferndale, WA. She was born April 2, 1929, in Coulee City, WA to Percy L. and Addie Jo (Emes) Swank.
Shirley was raised on a wheat farm west of Coulee City. She helped cook, drove the diesel CAT tractor, and wheat trucks on her parents’ wheat farm during the summers while growing up, and through the 1950s.
She attended grade school in one-room school houses in the Baird community. She attended Coulee City High School two years, and transferred to Waterville High School for her third and last year, graduating in 1946. After attending Whitworth College in Spokane, WA for two years, she graduated from Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) in 1949 with a BA in education and, by attending summers, from Oregon State University in 1966 with a Master’s degree in business education. She also studied for her doctorate at Washington State University, Pullman, WA.
Shirley was an educator with a distinguished career in business education. She taught junior high to college level classes from 1949 to 1982 in multiple schools across Washington.
She married Jack Milton Lines in June 1958 in Yakima, WA and divorced in 1963. She married Robert Gerald Lindahl in June, 1981 in Othello, WA.
Beginning in 1984, she and her husband Bob traveled full time throughout the United States, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Alaska. They spent three summers in Alaska: 1987, 1989, and 1993. They were avid fishermen and sightseers.
Shirley was an active past member of education associations and local clubs, including Yakima Valley Philharmonic Choral Society, Othello Eagles, VFW Post, and member of FMCA, Beaver Ambassador Club, and numerous traveling groups, as well as the Othello Presbyterian Church.
She worked as a winter volunteer with her husband Bob for several winters at Desert Pools, Desert Hot Springs, CA; and at various NACO Resorts. She also co-hosted with Bob one month at Swift Water Campground, Soldotna, AK, in 1993.
She was preceded in death by her sister, Beverly June (Swank) Taylor in 1963; her father, Percy L. Swank in 1982; and her mother, Addie Jo (Emes) Swank in 1985. Shirley is survived by two sons, Marshal Swank Lines and Lewis Kent Lines of Carnation, WA; and her husband of 43 years, Robert G. Lindahl of Blaine, WA.
A memorial service is planned for January 18 at 2 p.m. at Blaine Christian Fellowship church.
Shirley’s cremains are to be interred in the family plot in Soap Lake, WA.
