Rosalie E. Williamson, 88

Rosalie E. Williamson passed peacefully into the next world on Sunday, October 26th, a few minutes after sundown under a sliver of the moon.

Rosalie was the third daughter of Sven and Dorothy Belle Larson. She was born in Seattle, raised in Potlatch on Hood Canal, and graduated from Shelton High School in 1955. She met Gary Williamson at the University of Washington which she attended in 1957, and they were married in Shelton in 1958. Over the years since 1959, Gary and Rosalie lived in Arletta, then North Rosedale, and then Gig Harbor.

Rosalie and Gary worked in the Peninsula School District over four decades. As Office Manager at Purdy Elementary, Rosalie made sure things ran smoothly for the hundreds of children and families she served. About the children to whom she offered so much of herself, Rosalie said “I registered them for kindergarten, and I registered them to vote.”

Rosalie and her husband Gary have been involved in a range of neighborhood, community, civic, and social activities over their 67 year marriage. Many, many times, they have been stopped on a walk or in a store for conversations with former elementary students from Purdy or Artondale where Rosalie worked, or from Harbor Heights or Discovery where Gary was the principal. These conversations always made Rosalie smile.

Rosalie is survived by her husband Gary, son Greg Williamson (Kathleen), daughter-in-law Willow Williamson, sister Nadine Larsson and a large Larsson family, niece Ellen Williamson-Jones and a large Williamson family, and a beautiful group of step-grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and grand-nieces and nephews. Rosalie was preceded in death by her sons Todd (1961-62) and Chris (1965-2020, who graduated from PHS and started a continuing scholarship offered by the class of 1984).