Louise DeWald, loving giver, big-hearted bright light of cheerfulness, lively and talkative people-person, known and loved by hundreds she has touched, was born in Montoursville, Pennsylvania. Her father, Max, was an avid fisherman and a carpenter and built homes for his wife, Blanche, and their family, and also helped build the house of Louise’s younger brother, Don. Mother Blanche was a schoolteacher. At Montoursville High Louise was a smart and popular student and became editor of the school newspaper. The person who was the previous editor was an upperclassman who made quite an impression on Louise: His name was Howard “Bud” DeWald, and he was the love of her life. They had an old-fashioned romance and were married just before Bud shipped off to the Pacific to fight in World War II. After the war, they made a home in Williamsport, near Montoursville, where Bud worked for the newspaper and their first son, Terry, was born. Bud had seen the West from a troop train and decided to move to Phoenix when the newspapers there were hiring in the late 1940s. Louise resumed her career as a writer, on what was then called the “Women’s Page” of the Arizona Republic and later as a columnist in the Sunday Republic magazine, Arizona Days and Ways, where she wrote about home cooking, each week featuring a different person and her or his favorite recipes and what home cooking meant in their family. Writing that column was a good fit for Louise, who could quickly and easily befriend total strangers and warm up to their intimate family routines through a common love of food and the care that comes with preparing food for family. Bud’s journalistic duties as both a writer and a photographer took him to all corners of Arizona, which allowed Louise to interview a wide variety of “cooks”—rancher’s wives, immigrants, and even the rich and famous. Louise was never at a loss in any social setting, making all around her feel comfortable and bathed in her own special kind of caring charisma. She continued writing the column even after Bud passed away, and used the columns as a basis for three successful cookbooks, two of them published by Arizona Highways magazine and still available on Amazon.com. Her devotion to healthy eating led to a brief period in which she was manager and part owner of Scottsdale Foods Naturally, a retail health food store near the intersection of Indian School and Scottsdale Roads.
Louise was an active school PTA mom, homeroom mother, Cub Scout den mother, and Little League mom during the years her two sons were in school. She was busy as a volunteer at the Heard Museum and one of the founding members of its Guild, and likewise was one of the founding members of the Valley Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, as well as active in the early Guild of the Phoenix Little Theatre. Later she became active in Arizona Pen Women, the Westerners, Cowbelles, teaching creative writing classes at Beatitudes for seniors, and as a judge at numerous cooking contests, chili cookoffs, and county and state fairs. She was one of the earlier inductees into the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame.
But family always came first. Not just as a fan who went to all the sports games in which the boys played and Bud often coached. Louise felt a very deep tie to family back in Pennsylvania and traveled at least yearly to stay in touch with her parents, brother, extended family, Bud’s family, and friends. Bud and the boys joined her for summer visits to “Gran and Gramp” in the woods near Loyalsock Creek, and Louise made a home for her parents and Bud’s mother during their winter visits to Phoenix.
Louise had no greater love than that for her childhood sweetheart and husband, Bud. They had only a few years as empty-nesters after their sons moved out before Bud needed Louise to nurse him through health problems, which eventually led to his passing when Louise was 59. In the next several years Louise would also take care of her mother, who lived with her for a time in Louise’s new house in Scottsdale. Louise’s career as writer expanded to freelance work for Arizona Highways, travel and food for Trends magazine, and work for travel agencies. She became an active grandmother for four grandchildren, making frequent trips to Tucson for her first two and spending one day every week with her granddaughters in Phoenix. Her more recent years have been spent on the Beatitudes Campus and at the Stratford, care facilities where she has become a favorite of the helpful staff because of her positive attitude and engaging smile.
Louise’s long-time friends and neighbors have always been very important to her. Between Louise’s wide circle of Phoenix friends and acquaintances and her vast network of Pennsylvania relatives, it was remarkable how she could recall so many personal preferences and idiosyncrasies about them all. That she did remember some little thing that you cared about, and how she would bring it up in conversation with you, sometimes after a long interval since your last meeting, gave one the impression of witnessing an amazing feat of memory and receiving a hand-crafted gift of kindness. Her way of doing so was sparkling and effervescent, and yet intimate.
Even after her memory was affected by Alzheimer’s disease, she still had a way of making everyone around her feel appreciated. She was a favorite of all her caregivers, pointing out the earrings of the dialysis tech who was taking her blood pressure, winking at one of the other patients, saying “thank you” to those in her nursing home. Most recently, after being hospitalized for what we thought might be a stroke, the hospital nurse whom she had met only the day before, told me she loved taking care of Louise because she was so sweet and had a smile for everyone. Louise lived her life trying to give a smile to everyone, and I cannot think of anyone with whom she did not succeed. If we all keep using the smiles she gave us, and keep giving them to others, I believe we will be doing the most important thing she would ask us to do.
- Scott DeWald, son
