Walter Brightwater

Walter Brightwater grew up on a small dairy farm outside Everett, Washington, the middle of five children. He was the one who fixed the tractor when nobody else could, and the one who walked his younger sisters to school in the rain. When he enlisted in the Army in the fall of 1942, he was twenty one years old and had never been farther from home than Spokane.

He trained as a paratrooper and joined the 101st Airborne Division. Walter jumped into Normandy in the early hours of June 6, 1944, and later served through the Netherlands and the winter fighting in Belgium. He rarely spoke about those months. When his grandchildren asked, he would say only that he had been cold, that he had been lucky, and that the friends he lost were the bravest people he ever knew.

After the war Walter came home, married Ruth Anders, and spent thirty four years as a machinist at the shipyard. He coached Little League for two decades, kept a garden that fed half the block, and never missed a Memorial Day service at the cemetery on the hill. He was known for his easy laugh and for the way he remembered everyone's name.

Walter passed peacefully in June 2008, surrounded by family. He is remembered by his three children, seven grandchildren, and a neighborhood full of people who still tell stories about him. This page is a place to keep those stories.