Sandra Lee Osborne, 72, of Potlatch, passed away peacefully Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, with family by her side at home after a long debilitating journey with Alzheimer’s disease.
Sandy was born May 28, 1948, to Stanley and Naoma (Kreid) Keiser in Moscow. She was raised at the loving family’s home in Onaway, Idaho, with her caring older sisters, Dianne Nagle and Caroline Figgins. Sandy attended Potlatch School and graduated as a 12-year student in 1966.
Following graduation, she left the area to begin her journey as a young woman with bright ideas and a beautiful perspective on life. She spread the love and caring of her beautiful heart to many areas in the Pacific Northwest, touching various souls and changing the lives of many who came to know her in the places she lived. She called several places home in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, but never really lost sight of her heart’s desire to be back home with family and loved ones. In 1968, she decided to continue her lineage of love and caring and became a mother to her son, Shawn Kroll, and later a daughter, Shiela (Kroll) Owens, in 1969. In 1984, she moved the three of them back home to the golden hills and timbered mountains of the Potlatch/Onaway area following a divorce, and rekindled a love for an old town she had left behind.
Later in 1984, she met a dashing young man, a forester by the name of Harold Osborne, and the two of them began their journey filled with love, caring and guidance. By December 1985, the two married in Moscow and started their home together in the old Gambetty place on the hill in Onaway. In this loving home is where their children finished high school and the couple transformed the section of wheat field into a tree farm, which currently sits as a beautiful forest with gardens, homes and a stunning scenery only a true wilderness lover can appreciate.
When Sandy moved back to Onaway, she took a job in road construction on the Deary-Harvard cutoff road before she went into Washington State University Food Services for several years. She moved on from WSU to work at the University of Idaho College of Forestry Extension Forestry as a secretary part time. This allowed her to assist Harold with his demanding job in teaching research and service at the U of I Forestry and Fire programs. Sandy and Harold spent their free time selling Christmas trees and landscape trees out of their growing forest surrounding their loving home.
When they weren’t working at their jobs, or spending time working their tree farm, they loved to travel — especially Sandy. Any chance she got, she would go anywhere in the world as long as Harold was with her. Her favorite places to travel were the Oregon coast, where she would visit many times of year; all of the national parks in the Pacific Northwest; Hawaii; Alaska; and Europe. She also loved to spend time at the cabin they built on their land on Crane Creek or go camping on her family’s land near Clarkia.
Sandy and Harold spent more time since the summer of 2012 in their new home in the middle of the tree farm. In her new home, she let traveling slow, and spent more time doing hobbies she loved such as tole painting, knitting, square dancing, baking and tending to her roses. With every project, piece or batch she created, she instilled the love and heartfeltness only her kind soul can produce.
She loved to spend time with her children, grandchildren and great-granddaughters, making memories with them whenever she could. From baking cookies to painting pictures, she always put a smile on everyone’s face and left them with the glow of her soul deep in their hearts that will forever be cherished. She was a selfless woman and would go out of her way to help anyone in need. She will be deeply missed by everyone who knows her, and held in the hearts of those who loved her.
She is survived by her husband of 34 years, Harold Osborne; sisters Dianne Nagle, of Onaway, and Caroline (Willy) Figgins, of Potlatch; son Shawn (Darlene) Kroll, of Lewiston; daughter Shiela (Casey) Owens, of Moscow; granddaughter Brittany (Jacob) Stoor, of Potlatch; grandson Joseph Meckel, of Potlatch; two great-granddaughters; and a lot of extended family on both sides. She was preceded in death by her parents, Stanley and Naoma Keiser, and her brother-in-law, Dean Nagle.
A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the log cabin in Potlatch. The family’s wishes are to have a covered-dish dinner at the time of the celebration of life.
Kramer Funeral Home of Palouse is caring for the family. Online condolences may be left at www.kramercares.com.
