Rene’ (Washburn) Loudenback, 80

Rene' Loudenback of Hayden, Idaho, passed away at Kootenai Hospital due to Alzheimer’s Disease on Dec. 3. She was born with her twin sister, Robin, in Kirkland, Wash., on July 22, 1945, to Robert and Bernice Washburn, who, with their older son, Ronald, soon after moved back to North Idaho.

Graduating from CDA High School in 1963, Rene' played various instruments in band, pep band and orchestra. She then attended North Idaho Junior College, where she mastered stenography. So well, that two years after she married her husband Richard (Rich) Loudenback in 1964, they moved to California, where she became secretary to the director of accounting services, a division of Bell & Howell in Pasadena for three years in the late '60s, where she wrote shorthand as fast as you can talk, did error-free typing, writing and established meeting formats whenever necessary.

Rene’s many other skills included knitting, crocheting, quilting, making purses, sewing and creating functional uses with galvanized steel pipe, such as hanging pot holder racks and curtain rods, for which she also sewed curtains. She was quite the seamstress, having made two sport coats and a suit for Rich without taking a tailoring course.

Rene’ and Rich had gratifying lives in their 61 years of blessed marriage, due to job transfers and opportunities, having lived in Boise, Idaho, Pasadena, Calif., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Atlanta, Ga., San Antonio, Texas, and finally departing Lexington, S.C., to return home to Hayden, Idaho, the day before Sept. 11, 2001.

One Friday night in Atlanta, upon returning from an Alabama business trip, Rich was surprised to find a stack of quarter-inch plywood 2 feet high on their driveway waiting to be cut into pieces to assemble lap desks for the many people Rene’ pre-sold them to, starting at a bowling alley and evolving into members of a Catholic church after one sister bought one. Rene’ sold over 40 of them, all personalized with their first name and some artwork, such as flowers, varnished over the top. It was one of her most enjoyable projects.

Rene’s dedicated full-time attention to their only child, Rhett, without working until he was out on his own, except for two years while he was in school in San Antonio, where she wallpapered for a lot of picky people who specifically wanted foil wallpaper, which was very difficult to work with.

Although for most of her life, Rene tended to be quite shy around most people, she did much for many she knew. Because people who knew her knew of her many skills and great can-do attitude, for instance, she was asked by friends in South Carolina to remodel their living room, and another asked her to plaster their ceiling. She was always looking for a new project she could take on and learn from.

Rene’ was very creative and diligent about anything she did, which included being a co-owner with her husband of a trade newspaper named Carolina Retailing News that went to 12K retailers in the consumer durable goods industry. She worked in all aspects of running the paper, including learning darkroom photography, handling chemically sensitive paper for a typesetter and headliner and creatively building new ad layouts and editing Rich’s writing. Rich was not looking forward to having to build a wall and hang a door in it to create the dark room they needed when he got home from a trip and was delighted to see Rene’ had already built it all and added electrical outlets.

"Can-do" Rene’ always held down the fort and attended to whatever needed to be done when Rich was away, such as the time she got a backhoe to dig a trench behind the house for a French drain to be installed after heavy rains inundated the lower floor with 6 inches of water in their daylight basement office, where the newspaper equipment was.

She was also the inside sales/order taker and the overseer of a bonded warehouse for a distribution business they named Unique Products, Inc., which sold Gaggenau built-in kitchen appliances from Germany, covering the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee.

For the last eight years in South Carolina, Rene’ served as the clerk to the Lexington County Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission, made up of nine cities and the county, all buying and selling water and sewer systems to each other. She was commended in her last review by the Commission’s Chairman: “Rene’ continues to do an outstanding job for the commission. She has taken on many new tasks, including backflow tracking and notifications. She makes suggestions, helps organize and schedules many of the commission's tasks. Rene’ is a real asset to the commission’s operations. She is also a pleasure to work with.”

When Rene’s sister’s husband, Carl Crawford, was dying of cancer and their mother was suffering from Dementia in 2001, she just had to come home to be here for them. So, they sold their South Carolina lake home, which they loved, and returned to Coeur d’Alene 36 years after leaving in 1965 and bought a home in Hayden.

Rene’ herself was diagnosed almost nine years ago with Dementia and remained at home with Rich, who was her sole loving caretaker. Local hospice people actually diagnosed her disease as Alzheimer’s during her passing.

She is survived by her husband, her son and his wife, Tracy, and their children, Zach and Allie (Austin) Shannon, in Lexington, S.C., and Rene’s sister, Robin Crawford, who lives in Hayden, and her daughter, Keeler White. Rene’ was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Ronald, who also passed from Alzheimer’s, and her nephew, Chandler Crawford.

Rene’ was a wonderful wife, mother, sister and friend who will be missed greatly, especially by her loving husband, Rich. 

A celebration of life will be announced at a later date.

    Loudenback