Willetta Anne Davidson Obituary (2025)

Willetta Anne Davidson, 90, passed away Oct. 1, 2025, at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. She was born July 12, 1935, in Goldendale, WA, the only child of Anne Irene Watson and Norman Russell Hardin. She attended public schools in Goldendale, graduating high school in 1953. She worked for several years at the courthouse in Goldendale, until she saved enough money for one year of college. She attended Central Washington College of Education in Ellensburg, where she met her husband, J.D. Davidson. They married in 1959. They had one son, David. With her husband, Willetta owned and operated the Polar Bar/Batter Up restaurant in the Valley Mall from the late 1970s to the 1990s. Later, she worked for many years at the espresso stand at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. She cherished her Polar Bar employees, who she called "my girls." She had fellow employees from Memorial Hospital who remained her closest friends through the rest of her life, particularly Dorothy Hill, Kent Roberts and John Braun. Willetta loved the vacation trips she took with Dorothy. She was a loyal friend. She was preceded in death by her husband and her parents, is survived by her son David, and three grandchildren. Willetta loved her family and was a doting grandmother. She loved to cook, and collected hundreds, possibly thousands, of cookbooks. She also collected antiques and looked for glassware at antique shops as a hobby. Willetta loved music, learning piano from her Aunt Blossom, a trained pianist. If a popular song featured a piano, such as Bridge Over Troubled Water, or Hey Jude - two of her favorites of that era - she was likely to buy sheet music for the song, then practice and learn the piano part. If music was playing in a restaurant or public space, she would hear it and start clapping along. She loved animals and had empathy for any suffering person or animal. She often cooked up a steak, cut it up and left it outside for a 3-legged feral cat, who she trained to show up for dinner nightly for years. Willetta was very proud of her family history. Most of her ancestors coming west over the Oregon Trail before the Civil War. Many of her ancestors were pioneer citizens of Goldendale. Her grandmother was a Prine, a descendant of the founders of Prineville, Oregon, where she visited often as a child. Her great-grandfather's father, William Hamilton, was one of the first Pony Express riders out of California. She was also proud of her name, Willetta, which combined the names of her grandparents, William Foster Hardin and Etta Juanita Prine. Funeral services will be held Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at Shaw and Sons Funeral Home, 201 N 2nd Street, Yakima, followed by a graveside service at Terrace Heights Memorial Park. Shaw & Sons Funeral Home is caring for the family. Memories and condolences may be shared at shawandsons.com.