Selma Evalyn Madesh

Selma was born in Clearwater Nebraska. She and her family moved to Kimberly Idaho when Selma was eight years old. Selma was in the 4H and in the 9th grade, she entered a dress she had made for herself in the county fair and she won a district award. Selma graduated from high school in 1950 at age 17. She went to work for the telephone company the week after graduation as an operator.

She met her husband Charlie in 1951 when he came home from the Army after Basic Training. He went to Korea during the conflict and stayed for 18 months. He was discharged from the Army and they dated for over a year and were married in 1954.

In 1955 the company Charlie was working for moved to Oklahoma so they moved there. They lived there for about 5 or 6 months until the first Tornado Warning came to town. They both decided to move back to Idaho. There were very few jobs in Idaho so in 1956 Charlie and Selma moved to California.

Selma got a job with the Telephone Company in Downey and Charlie soon got a job in Construction through the union (Local 12).  Selma worked until they had their first child Rodney. Charlie didn’t want Selma to work after they had Children so Selma quit the Telephone Company.

They bought their home In La Mirada in 1958. Selma and Charlie had two more children Brent and Julie.  

Their oldest son, Rod wanted to be a cub scout so Selma became a den mother. When the children were in elementary school Selma became involved in PTA, she had held several offices and later became President of the local PTA.

In the late 60’s Charlie injured his back and was going to be off work for several months, so Selma went back to work as a substitute secretary for Norwalk La Mirada School District. She worked for the district for 27 years, 11 years as a substitute and then took a permanent job as a secretary at the District Office.

Selma started a line dance class twice a week a couple years after her husband passed in 2014.

Selma was preceded in death by her son Rodney, her husband Charlie her sister Simone and brother Howard.

She is survived by her son, Brent Madesh, daughter, Julie Fairbrother (Curt) and grandchildren Sienna Schmidt and Branson Schmidt.