Winifred Ann Boyko passed away peacefully, with family by her side, on Sunday, September 30, 2018 at the age of 87. Win was born December 12, 1930 in Bedford, Iowa to John and Martha Crum. The family soon moved to California and Win spent most of her youth in San Francisco.
She attended California State University at San Francisco, majoring in education. In 1948 she met George Boyko in the youth group at Lakeside Presbyterian Church. They married in August of 1952 and remained married until George’s passing in 2012 just shy of their 60th wedding anniversary.
In 1957 they had their daughter, Keren. In addition to her family, Winifred devoted her life to her career as a teacher. She often joked that after 45 years of teaching she never got farther than kindergarten and first grade.
Win loved working with young children. She began her teaching career in Fresno, California and later taught in Novato, Stockton, and Santa Clara before relocating to the northwest and continuing her career in the South Kitsap and finally the Tacoma school districts. Her greatest interest was teaching reading, with her classes often scoring among the highest in the district.
She was herself an avid reader and she worked hard to instill a love of books in her students. In retirement Win and George enjoyed extensive travel throughout Europe and Asia. They also enjoyed cruising through Alaska, Mexico and the Pacific.
They had a particular love of Japanese culture after spending a year teaching overseas in Japan in the 1960’s and returning on several occasions later in life. That experience lead to interests in Asian art, cuisine, floral arranging, and forged many long term international friendships. Win’s other interests included old movies and movie trivia, classical music, crossword puzzles, and gardening.
She loved red wine, dark chocolate and needed coffee before being spoken to in the mornings. Win and George were among the first loyal customers of Starbucks, traveling from their Tacoma home to purchase coffee beans at the original Starbucks store in Pike Street Market when it opened in 1971. She was an adventuresome eater and enjoyed many types of food.
For many years they participated in a gourmet club where they cooked elaborate meals and enjoyed fine wines. Winifred was preceded in death by her husband, George, her parents, John and Martha, a brother, James Crum, and a sister, Joan Stebbins. She is survived by her only child, Keren Thomson (Scott), her two beloved granddaughters, Erin Lantz (Ryan), and Paige Thomson (Max Brown), and her first great grandchild, Beau Lantz.
In recent years her family was Win’s primary focus and of pride. She will be dearly missed by her family and her many friends, especially those at her Spiritwood residence. A graveside service will be held at noon on Friday, October 5th at New Tacoma Cemetery in University Place.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made to the Page Ahead Literacy Program at pageahead.org.
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