Caruthers, Verna L
Verna L Caruthers, longtime math teacher at Lewis County High School, passed away on Wednesday, October 1st, in Richland, Washington. She was 83 years old.
Mrs. Caruthers died of complications of Alzheimer’s dementia and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA). She is survived by her son William, grandchildren Stephanie Rush, Jennifer Caruthers, Johnathon Caruthers, Hope Caruthers, Gillian Caruthers, and great grandchildren Anna Rush, Karie Rush, Grace Rush, JJ Caruthers, Oakland Caruthers, Teagan Caruthers, and Bristol Caruthers. In lieu of flowers or other remembrance, the family asks anyone interested in doing something to give a gift to The Alzheimer’s Association to help end this destroyer of our loved ones.
Born Verna Owens, Mrs. Caruthers was so many things in her life. She grew up in the years during and after World War 2 shuffled between caregivers, with her parents settling briefly all over the US building hydroelectric dams in the Post-War boom. She was the first woman in her family to graduate high school, and the first to graduate college. She received a math education degree from Texas Women’s University, but did not teach for long at first. Vietnam was raging, and she answered the call. Mom went with the Red Cross to that country, attached to different units and hospitals, serving as what was called a Donut Dolly. After Vietnam the Red Cross sent her to Bremerton Naval Hospital in Washington, where she met a Navy Corpsman named Bill Caruthers recovering from his battle wounds, and married him in 1970 and moved from Washington to Anchorage, Alaska, where their only child William was born in 1973.
Mrs. Caruthers separated from her husband in 1982, and they were divorced in 1983. Moving from Alaska to Texas, she got her masters in Mathematics at Texas Women’s University, afterwards teaching at a high school in Fort Worth, Texas, for pregnant girls at a time when they were not allowed to attend schools with other kids, and Randolph-Macon Academy, an Air Force ROTC military academy in Front Royal. In 1993 she moved from Virgina to Hohenwald, Tennessee, teaching various math classes at Lewis County High School and eventually retiring. Over the years in Tennessee, she was a foster mom to endangered kids, took in several rescue animals who had nowhere else to go, and continued her lifelong tradition of friendship and service as long as she possibly could.
Near the end of her life, she moved from Hohenwald to Kennewick, Washington, to be near to her son William. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and CAA in November of 2024, the disease progressed quickly taking her life in less than a year.
To those who knew her, know that she loved you each. She adored her students, and did anything for her friends. She helped her community, and left a lasting mark in all our hearts. She will be and is sorely missed.
