Wilma (Hughes) Higgins, 89

Wilma (Hughes) Higgins passed away peacefully Feb. 1, 2026, at her apartment at Garden Plaza in Post Falls, Idaho. She was 89 years young.

Wilma was born April 7, 1936, in Salmon, Idaho, to Raymond and Edna Hoy. The family moved to Dillon, Mont., where Wilma attended school. It was while she was waitressing at a diner in Dillon that she met Ed, and later married, having four boys: Mike, Pat, Bret, and Kelly. Wilma was not only a mom to her four boys, but to many, many other kids in Post Falls. 

Wilma acquired a certain toughness and no-nonsense personality, raising her four boys and Ed. The neighborhood moms would congregate frequently around Wilma’s dining room table, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and engaging in animated conversation about the lack of fairness, being a wife and mom and doing all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork, and more, with absolutely no help from the husband or kids. It was around this time that the miners at Bunker Hill, in Kellogg, settled a strike. This gave Wilma the idea, and she organized all the moms in the area and went on strike. No more cooking, cleaning, laundry, yardwork and more. They blocked a main intersection in the area, marching, carrying picket signs, with a loudspeaker, making all kinds of trouble. Both TV stations in Spokane, the Spokesman-Review, CDA Press, and the Post Falls Tribune, converged on the site to cover their first Moms on Strike story. The strike was settled on the second day, and all the husbands and kids gave in to the mom’s demands, including a Mom’s day off. That was Wilma. 

After her boys were grown, Wilma and Ed divorced. It was later that she met and married Kenny Higgins, the love of her life. Along with that, marriage brought a new sister to the boys, Donna, Kenny’s daughter. Kenny and Wilma traveled the country in their motorhome, settling down on the river in Good Grief, Idaho. 

Wilma had many things in her life that made her glow with pride, but one of her favorite things was attending and watching her son, Kelly, perform his music at concerts and shows — one very proud mom. 

Wilma is preceded in death by her father, Raymond; mother Edna Hoy; sisters Margaret and Betty; brother Ray; Ed Hughes; and Kenny Higgins. 

She is survived by her four sons, Mike (Susan), Pat (Patti), Bret (Becky), and Kelly (Cathy); and her daughter-in-law, Donna (Buddy); her sisters, Dean Campbell, Janet (David) Oakley, along with eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, many nieces and nephews. 

Right up to a few weeks before her passing, you could count on her and her sister Jan, at The Bunker Bar, partaking in their daily whiskey & water. Here’s to you, Mom. We love you.

A Celebration of Wilma’s Life will be held June 3, 2026, at Nashville North in Stateline, Idaho, from 3 to 6 p.m.

Any gift donations, please bless the North Idaho Veterans Assistance League, 590 S. Pleasant View Road, Post Falls, Idaho 83854.

Visit Wilma’s memorial and sign her online guestbook at www.englishfuneralchapel.com.