Farmer And Mother Doris Kiefer `Was Just A Great, Caring Woman'

Doris Kiefer rarely ventured beyond farm and family, ensconced for three decades on Kent's East Hill.

She took seriously her role as caregiver and farm steward, experiencing the world through National Geographics that she read cover to cover as soon as they hit the mailbox.

Oh, she did go to Reno now and then to play the slots. Or to the ocean to sit for hours watching waves.

But mainly she had enough excitement in her own back yard and could turn even a simple mishap into the stuff of a hilarious tale.

"Mother was a storyteller," said her son Dan Kiefer of Kent. "Nobody could tell one like her. Many had to do with the legacy of how all this Kiefer thing got started - there are six of us kids and lots of extended family. When she passed, the fabric of the quilt started to unravel."

Mrs. Kiefer died Monday (Nov. 9) of lung cancer. She was 68.

The family held services yesterday at St. John the Baptist Church in Covington with a reception in the Kiefer barn. That barn, restored and furnished with old farm implements, was a family gathering place and bespoke Doris Kiefer's beginnings.

She grew up on a farm in Mooreton, N.D. She was happy to leave the farm and hard winters when she married and moved to Seattle.

One day in 1964 she looked up some distant, aging relatives on a farm in then-rural Kent. The couple told her she would be living on that farm one day.

The Kiefers moved next door in 1969. Mrs. Kiefer became a caregiver and farmer again, hauling orphaned goats in the back seat of her car as she ran errands because the goats needed frequent feeding.

In her spare time she bowled in local leagues, winning a trunkload of trophies to stick in a window to silence a neighbor who always boasted about his bowling prowess.

She also took up crafts with a vengeance, making ceramic figures in her kiln at home.

She sewed. She canned. And how she cooked! Her sons and daughters recall chicken-and-dumplings, beef brisket and strawberry-rhubarb pie worth fighting over.

"When Lucille Ball died, I felt my mom had died," said her son Tom Kiefer of Los Angeles. "She was so funny the way she told a story, giving every detail to get you involved."

Once she waited so long to relieve herself during a car trip that she was using the occupied men's bathroom before she realized where she was. Other times baby farm animals romped through the house in cold weather.

"She kept us entertained," said her daughter Joan Bunker of Wenatchee. "She had a big smile, good sense of humor and was just a great, caring woman."

Other survivors include her husband of 52 years, John Kiefer, and sons Jack Kiefer and Charles Kiefer, all of Kent; her daughter Susan Accutero of Monroe; her brother Donnie Dunn, Mooreton, N.D.; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Remembrances may go to the American Lung Association of Washington, 2625 Third Ave., Seattle, WA 98121; or the Marsha Rivkin Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, c/o Swedish Medical Center, 747 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122.