Mabel Nobbe Klein, 98, died at her home on Sunday, Jan. 2, 2010. The memorial service will be Sunday, Jan. 9 at 2:00 pm in the Walla Walla University Church. Pastor Darold Bigger will officiate. Private interment will be in Mount Hope Cemetery, College Place, Wash. Memorial contributions may be made to Sonbridge Community Center or Gospel Outreach through Mountain View – Colonial Dewitt, 1551 Dalles Military Road, Walla Walla, WA 99362. Mabel Katharina Maria Nobbe was born March 29, 1912, in Staunton, Illinois, the third child of Carl (Charles) and Johanna Priesmeyer Nobbe. Her father's parents and her mother were German immigrants from the area of Minden, then Prussia. Her father worked in the coal mines and farmed in the Staunton and Greenville areas of southwestern Illinois. Mabel graduated from Greenville High School in 1930, and went to work for her brother-in-law, Tom Richards, who had a car dealership. She became a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1936. From 1937 to 1940 she sold religious books to finance her education at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. She graduated from Andrews in 1940 with an associate degree in secretarial science. While working as a secretary and librarian for the Review & Herald Publishing Association, she met James Klein who was a medic in the U.S. Army during World War II. He proposed to her by mail from France, and upon his return they were married March 21, 1946 in Worthington, Ohio where she worked as a secretary during the start-up of Worthington Foods, Inc. Mabel lived in College Place, Wash. (1946-1948), while her husband was a pre-med student at Walla Walla University. Her son, James, Jr., was born during this time, and her daughter, Kathleen, was born while her husband was a medical student at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, Calif. (1948-1952). She briefly lived in Spokane, Wash. (1952-1953) during her husband's internship, and in Moses Lake (1953-1954) where he first set up medical practice. From 1954-1995 Mabel and her husband lived in Clarkston, Wash. They then moved to College Place, Wash. to be near their children during retirement. Mabel excelled in arts and individual sports. In her forties she learned to swim, water ski, and snow ski. She participated in Bloomsday races during the 1980s and 1990s, receiving thirteen, first-place ribbons in her age category. Mabel enjoyed the domestic arts of interior decorating, healthful cooking, and entertaining guests. During her sixties and seventies she took up oil painting and doll making. She loved classical music and instilled a passion for music in her children through music lessons and symphony concerts. Mabel is survived by her husband, Dr. James D. Klein at home; a son, James D. Klein, Jr. of College Place; a daughter, Kathleen Marie Spring of Aurora, Colo.; five grandchildren: Brian, Christopher, and Heidi Spring; Hans Klein and Katrina Klein Wentz; two great grandchildren: Dylan Bunten and Colton Wentz; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents; three brothers: Wilfred, Clarence, and Charles Nobbe; and three sisters: Florence Richards, Frieda Haper, and Claribel Hartwell Ojala.