Kathryn Maxine Bell

Kathryn Maxine Bell, Born in Spokane, WA, sadly passed away on September 25, 2025 from heart failure at Spokane Health and Rehab after five months of care. 

She worked as a PBX phone operator for Milwaukee Railroad at Union Station in downtown Spokane for 28 years until she was forced to retire when the station was torn down in preparation for the World Fair in 1974.  Kathryn also worked for several years as an operator for the Davenport Hotel and in a similar position for St. Lukes Hospital where she eventually committed to volunteer work.  She received several awards of appreciation and had the children’s outdoor exercise and play area dedicated to and named after her. 

Well known for her baking, when she was a young mother, she baked and sold wedding cakes to earn extra money.  Her small apartment was often strewn with frosting decorations.  She especially enjoyed the Christmas holiday season and decorated several Christmas trees at St. Lukes every year until it became physically too difficult for her.  During the holidays, her home would be filled with all different sorts of decorations so that no two trees were ever alike.  Everyone who knew her best, knew that she loved shopping for those decorations.

Kathryn was a loving and caring mother, and that is how she lived every aspect of her life,  concerned about everyone.  She loved her pets and often took in strays that happened by.

After she became a mother, her husband and son moved into the apartment upstairs of her childhood home that her parents, Ben and Ethyl Krause, moved into when she was just eight years old.  And after their passing, she moved back down into the main house for the rest of her days, over 90 years.  She was married to her first husband, Robert Hanson, the father to her only son, Jack Hanson, for three years.  And was married to her second husband, Melvin Bell, until he passed away in 2010. 

She is survived by her son, Jack; three granddaughters Shelley, Quincy, and Anne; and five great-grandchildren Michael, Andrew, Luke, Ben, and Claire.