Friday, April 19, 2024
Anita Kuntz McDonald passed away at her home with her family by her side on June 2, 2022. If you’ve ever played golf with Anita McDonald then you know she ALWAYS found the positive in life’s most difficult situations including slicing the ball into the rough. She would say “But now we get to go look for it,” in her soft and cheerful voice.
That positive, infectious and warm love was Anita.
Born in Wenatchee, Washington to Ray and Ruth Lenore (Gothke) Kuntz on December 20, 1939, Anita was the middle of her siblings Norm, Louise and John where they all lived a full and adventurous life in Wenatchee and Lake Chelan waterskiing, boating, golfing, climbing hills, working and creating a life for their families to grow up lovingly with each other. Anita graduated from Wenatchee High School in 1958 and married Gary McDonald in 1959 calling Entiat home base where they built a life for their children Gar, Tim and Jeff. She taught for 25 years at Entiat School retiring in 1998. To this day, so many recall the memorable way Mrs. McDonald taught them, ways that remain ingrained in their memories. Her soft spoken way made for the children to learn and feel loved. She could lead a group of Kindergarteners from chaos to quiet in seconds without raising her voice.
Anita’s grit to handle any situation came handy, like the time her son’s ski binding broke so, she removed one of her skis so he could ski down the mountain on two skis. She proceeded to ski down the mountain on one ski while carrying the broken ski. This started a trend among the family kids. She quickly created a following of skiers on one ski, while she carried their skis as well!
Anita never had a bad day, or so it seemed. She found the beauty in everything and made the hard times positive. She made sure you knew you were the focus and that she was your biggest fan. She always knew exactly what you were up too lately and important times in everyone’s life. If it was important to you, it was more important to her and she made sure you knew she was thinking about you. She would check in to see how you were doing and she always had helpful and positive things to say to help you through those times.
Anita and Gary were lucky to have their first grandchild Ryan at a young age and soon to follow were Michael, Stacey Jake and Tyler.
They were the light of her life. She loved her grandbabies so very much and made sure they knew how much they were loved.
Anita is survived by her loving husband of 62 years, Gary, her sons Gar (Sandy) of Entiat, Washington; Tim (Jenny) of Entiat, Washington; Jeff (Irina) of Bellevue, Washington; grandchildren Tyler McDonald of Entiat, Washington; Ryan and family of Entiat, Washington; Michael and family of East Wenatchee, Washington; Stacey and family of Spokane, Washington and her brother John, (Sherry) Kuntz of Chelan, Washington.
She was preceded in death by her beloved and cherished grandson Jacob McDonald in 2019, her brother Norm Kuntz in 2021, her sister Louise Kuntz Mertes in 2021.
Services will be held Saturday, June 18, 2022, 10 a.m. St. Joseph Catholic Church, 625 S. Elliott Ave., in Wenatchee.
