Patricia "Pat" Humphrey

Patricia (Pat) Lynn Humphrey of Spangle, Washington died in Spokane on June 22, 2025 from heart failure and severe lung disease.

Pat was born in Tokyo, Japan to Kay Ihara and Emily Elizabeth Ihara nee Ginnell on May 1, 1954. The family was stationed in Tokyo with Kay Ihara who served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Japan doing research and photography on the victims of the atomic blasts.

Pat spent most of her childhood in the Pacific Northwest where she developed her love for cats, dogs and horses. She graduated from Elma High School in 1972 and then attended the Olympia Vocational Technical Institute. While married to Michael Riley, they lived in Biloxi, MI and in England at the Mildenhall Air Force Base. When the marriage ended, Pat returned to Olympia where she began her career working for the State of Washington. She later moved to Spokane where she worked for Washington State, the City of Spokane, WSU, and finally the Department of Ecology where she retired on disability. While living in Spokane she was briefly married to Sam Humphrey.

Throughout her life, Pat stayed close to her family and made life-long friends with her fun-loving and caring personality. She loved skiing, camping, riding her horses, and cooking and baking for her friends. She engaged with the children in her neighborhood, teaching them to ride horses, play games, cook and garden. She loved being part of the Cheney Gardners Group and toward the end of her life she volunteered at the Spangle Food Bank and made many desserts for Meals On Wheels. Through the years that Pat lived on her beloved farm near Spangle she found too many abandoned cats and kittens and either adopted them or found them homes. For most of her life she had a dog and at least one horse.

Those of us lucky enough to share our lives with Pat will miss her sense of humor and talent for fun as well as her seemingly endless source of love and compassion.

Pat is survived by her sister Susan K. Loomis and husband Gary and their children Jodi Brentin and Brad Loomis, her sister Candice Ann Ware and her children Carey Ward and Carma Hinkle, and the children of her sister Tirsa Bartley-Ott DeJong, Dale Bartley and Scott Bartley. Pat was predeceased by her mother Emily Elizabeth Eveleth, father Kay Ihara, brother Kay Ihara, sister Tirsa Bartley-Ott Dejong, and Tirsa’s daughter Christy Powell.