Vada Stewart

Vada Ilene Stewart, 79, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at Ellensburg Senior Living. Her family will host a celebration of her life starting at 12:00 Noon on Tuesday, July 8, 2025 at the Cashmere Riverside Center located at 201 Riverside Dr. in Cashmere. She will be laid to rest in a private family ceremony at the Cashmere Cemetery.

Vada was born on January 5, 1946 in Ritzville, Washington to Lavine Walter & Martha Naomi (Weber) Koch. Vada attended school in Ritzville with her life-long friend Linda Luiten. She married James Paul Meyer after high school and began raising their two children, Dia Meyer and Mike Meyer. Some years after she and Jim divorced, Vada married James Stewart in 1992 and they remained married at the time of her death.

Vada completed her bachelors degree in accounting at Central Washington University, where through sheer determination and stubbornness, she was the first female to get into the accounting program there in 1972. She began her accounting career working with Olin Sopp in Cashmere, where she purchased the practice along with John McQuaig a few years later. Vada sold that practice around 1989 and went to work at Homchick, Smith and Associates where she retired around 2016.

Vada enjoyed playing tennis, tending to her garden, quilting at the church and going on trips to foreign countries. Her favorite trip was going to China with Linda Luiten. Vada enjoyed cooking family dinners and kept an immaculate house. She had always been gifted with math and a deep understanding of financial matters. A favorite memory of her was her desire to prove that she could excel in what once was a male-dominated world.

She is survived by her husband Jamie Stewart of Cashmere; sister Marla Koch of Spokane; daughter Dia Fischer of Kennewick and son Mike Meyer of Benton City. She is also survived by her stepchildren Trudy Grentz, Wendy O’Keefe, Liz Avey, Carla Stewart, Martin Stewart, Melissa Payne, and Justin Stewart; 21 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her mother, Martha Koch and father, Lavine (LW) Koch.

Memorial contributions in Vada’s honor are suggested to the Alzheimer’s Association at act.alz.org

Arrangements have been entrusted to Johnston & Williams of Ellensburg. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.johnston-williams.com