Teri Marie Zipf

Teri Marie Zipf, 68, died at her Walla Walla home on August 1, 2023, after a life filled with music and poetry and – during more than 20 years living with cancer – courage, unfailing humor, and optimism. She enriched the path of everyone lucky enough to be part of her life.

Born December 15, 1954, in Mound, Minnesota, to Tom and Kari Zipf, Teri was the oldest of five children. She graduated from Henry High School in Minneapolis in 1973 and went to Augsburg College on a full scholarship. She then relocated to Walla Walla in 1974 after the rest of her family nagged her into joining them here.

Teri went to work for Inland Printing, where she met Fred Palumbo. They married in 1977 and had two children, Mara and Tom. Teri and Fred were married for 15 years. When the children were still in school, Teri returned to the classroom, graduating cum laude from Walla Walla College in 1993 with a degree in English. She worked as an adjunct instructor there and at WWCC, teaching creative writing.

Over the years, Teri also worked for Evergreen Legal Services, Whitman Mission National Historical Site, Walla Walla School District, Coffey Communications, and as a self-employed website designer.

While gifted in many areas, Teri perhaps shone brightest as a poet. After her first collections of poetry, I Thought I Would Live in Paris (1991) and Skyrocket Road (1992), she was awarded a fellowship at the Fishtrap Writers Workshop and earned the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ William Stafford Memorial Award with the publication of Outside the School of Theology (Tsunami Press, 1997). The award committee described the book as “a rare and precious gift from a fine, uncompromising intelligence.

The poem “90 Days Same As Cash” from that collection reveals her wit during a difficult time of single parenting: “Lying on credit applications works / and so does my new dishwasher.”

Poetry and the arts flow from a person’s inner life, but Teri was also fully engaged with her community and the world. Concerned by the threat of a US invasion of Iraq, she rallied fellow Walla Walla artists to join The Lysistrata Project, a global reading of Aristophanes’ comedy in which the women of Greece enact a sex strike in hopes of ending the Peloponnesian War. In March 2003, more than 1,000 readings were staged across 59 different countries – and in Walla Walla. While the protest failed to change US foreign policy, it gave Teri and other peace-loving Walla Wallans a humorous yet pointed way to express their disapproval.

After enduring three decades of overcast Walla Walla winters and with Tom and Mara moved out, she downsized, sold the house, packed everything in a minivan, and drove to Mexico to retire. While there, she was hospitalized for emergency surgery, an experience she described as the “learn Spanish or die” language program. She otherwise enjoyed her time in Chapala and returned only because of how much she missed her family and friends. Other international adventures included visits to Paris and Kyoto.

She followed up her 1997 poetry collection with The Vertigo of All Those Stars (Hand to Mouth Press, 2022) at the urging of her friend Charles Potts, for whose initiative we can all be grateful. She read selections downstairs at Grandma’s Kitchen that year and signed copies at Book & Game Co, where it is still available.

While she was most recognized for poetry, Teri was much admired by friends and family for skills that included knitting, spinning, basket weaving, drawing, watercolors, zendoodling, crafting, and, most recently, ukelele. She had eight ukes on display or being used in her home. She bought, sold, and traded instruments, took classes from Roy Anderson, joined groups in person and online, and gave them as gifts. A long-time friend shared with her family a letter Teri sent with a comfort ukulele (“A service ukulele, if you will”) on the death of the friend’s husband.

She was a whiz at all kinds of word puzzles. When the Wordle wasn’t sufficiently challenging, she tried Quardle and Octordle. Of course, she never minded when her kids beat her time at the NY Times mini crossword because she loved having raised smart humans.

Other loves included baseball (particularly during her first run-in with cancer when she turned to the Mariners because “there’s always something to look forward to when you’re a baseball fan”). The team won a record-tying 116 games that season, and we all knew it was in Teri’s honor.

She volunteered at the Senior Center, delivering Meals on Wheels with her siblings. She was always a “cool aunt” and especially loved being the cool grandma to Annika Martinez Palumbo and Eli Tourtellotte-Palumbo.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister, Becky Zipf Dantje; her nephew, Ian Andrew Loiacono; and her ex-husband Fred. She is survived by her daughter, Frieda Mara Palumbo; her son, Thomas William Palumbo (Jess); grandchildren, Annika and Eli; her sisters; Bev Loiacono (Rob) and Sarah Frieda Zipf; and her brother, Dale Zipf; along with nieces and nephews, Vernita Stone, Suzette Zipf, Emily Stone, Chase Loiacono, Kate Stone, and Samuel Dantje. She was also preceded by her dog, Homer (a name that pays homage to baseball, the Greek poet, and a doughnut-loving animated character). She is survived by her dog, Nellie, who was a special comfort during her painful last months.

Teri could find humor in even the darkest situations. Her poem “One Good Thing About Cancer” ends, “When you leave / they’ll say how brave / you are, how strong.” She delivers these lines with tongue in cheek, but no one can deny Teri’s tremendous bravery or strength.

A celebration of life will take place at Fort Walla Walla Park on Saturday, September 9, 2023, at 11:00 AM, there will be a potluck gathering following the celebration. Those wishing to make memorial contributions in Teri’s honor are encouraged to give to the Walla Walla Senior Center or another charity that holds meaning for you through the Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder St., Walla Walla, WA 99362. In addition, friends and family are invited to sign the online guestbook at www.herringgroseclose.com.