Anna Christina Rendish

Anna Christina Rendish, 93, was born to Nick and Alma Hosig on May 28, 1928, at the family ranch on Tahoe Ridge near Kooskia.

She attended the Tahoe Ridge School House and graduated from Kooskia High School. After one year of attending Lewis and Clark Normal School in Lewiston, she received a special teaching certificate and taught first through eighth grades for a year in a one-room schoolhouse at Tolo Lake, near Grangeville. Her duties were many. Not only did she teach, but she packed wood, stoked the schoolhouse stove, mopped, swept the floors and by default, served as the school nurse. Living that year alone in an uninsulated prairie schoolhouse and enduring a chilly winter inspired her to return to college in Lewiston to complete her bachelor’s degree in education and obtain an enhanced teaching certificate.

Following graduation, she taught at Endicott Elementary School in Endicott, Wash. One Saturday at a community dance in Kooskia, she met the dashing new teacher and coach, Mike Rendish. They courted on weekends between their teaching assignments in Endicott and Kooskia and later married on Aug. 27, 1951. They built a home in Colton, Wash., and Anna taught elementary school for two years in Genesee and Colton while completing her Master of Arts in English at Washington State College. Anna stopped teaching when she and Mike began their family in Colton. They built their next home in Pullman and added to their family and lived there for 50 years.

Anna was an incredible homemaker and financial manager. She was a Campfire Girls and Bluebird leader, served on the Pullman Garden Fair Committee, Local Cancer Fund Drive, Heart Association Fund Drive and served as a voting precinct volunteer and poll watcher. She was an early supporter and volunteer for Pullman’s Gladish Community Center. In addition, she worked part time for Goodwill Industries for several years. Besides being her daughters’ chauffeur and supporter of all their activities, she enjoyed gardening, sewing, refinishing, upholstering furniture, reading, attending antique shows and local musical and theatrical performances. Anna loved watching classic movies, shopping garage sales and baking. Her homemade rye bread and cakes were a favorite to many. You never knew when she would stop in and bring you something just out of the oven. She was a resolute letter writer and corresponded faithfully with her in-laws, pen pals, friends and family. She was “mom” to international students whom Mike and Anna welcomed to their home. Anna was extremely close to her two sisters, Della and Norma. Together they loved, nurtured and supported each other and their families for a lifetime. Anna and Mike moved to Spokane in 2008. She died Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, surrounded by family in her private care home.

She was preceded in death by her husband; an infant son; and a grandson. She is survived by her daughters, Deborah (Jeff) Markin, of Spokane, Kimberly Rendish (Gary), of Tacoma, and Rachel Rendish, of Greenville, Texas; grandchildren Cady Markin, Bryan and Anna Rusth; sister Norma Brandt, of Kooskia; international daughters Tina (Willi) Laake-Schmikalla, of Bickenbach, Germany, and Sabine (Dieter) Hauck, of Perchtoldsdorf, Austria; and numerous nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews and great-great nieces and nephews.

The family thanks Terri Saldivar of Terri Care Adult Family Home and her family for the loving care they gave to Anna for almost seven years. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021, at Trenary Funeral Home in Kooskia. Minister Greg Gibler will be presiding. A luncheon will follow. Please RSVP to obtain location and directions. Graves Floral in Kooskia will oversee floral arrangements. Contributions in Anna’s memory can be made to the Michael J. Rendish Memorial Athletic Fund c/o Freedom NW Credit Union, Box 68, Kamiah, Idaho, 83536. This fund supports athletic and educational endeavors at the Kooskia elementary, middle and high school, which it otherwise would not be able to afford. Contributions can also be sent to the Tahoe Mountain Rest (Pioneer) Cemetery Maintenance Fund c/o Carolyn Doughty, Freedom NW Credit Union, Box 68, Kamiah, Idaho, 83536.