Former Centralia Mayor, longtime local volunteer and dedicated community advocate Lee Coumbs died on Monday, Dec. 9, following a nearly seven-month battle with cancer.
He received the cancer diagnosis last May, said Bonnie Canaday, his wife.
On Tuesday, some members of the Centralia City Council offered their condolences to Coumbs’ family and friends during the council’s regular meeting.
Coumbs celebrated his 82nd birthday on Dec. 6, Canaday said. Like Coumbs, Canaday, 86, also served on the Centralia City Council, including a long stint as mayor.
Their ties on the council go back to nearly three decades before they were married in 2016, back when Centralia changed its form of government from a city commission to a council form in 1986.
“Lee actually became the first mayor for the City of Centralia,” Canaday said.
Having been born and raised in Centralia, Canaday married and left the area. But after a divorce, she found herself owning and running a laundry and dry cleaning business in Arizona before finally moving back to Centralia in the late 1980s.
“I got involved with a lot of his projects that he did, and so I’ve known him since 1987,” Canaday said.
Eventually, she was elected to the Centralia City Council and became mayor in 1996, and though Coumbs had left the council by then, he was still involved with various city commissions and at city hall frequently.
The pair served together as fire commissioners during the merger period between Lewis County Fire District 12 and the Centralia Fire Department into the Riverside Fire Authority.
Coumbs once again found himself on the council and eventually mayor pro tem along with Canaday, who was still serving as mayor.
Then, in 2015, Coumbs first wife of 52 years, Marty Coumbs, passed away.
Following her death, Canaday and Coumbs got married in 2016. Given the pair had both served as mayor for Centralia, they decided to have an open-to-the-public wedding at Centralia’s George Washington Park, and had been together ever since.
“We had over 1,000 people at our wedding, and when the minister — actually a judge — pronounced us as husband and wife, he introduced us as Mr. and Mrs. Centralia,” Canaday added.
Eventually, both left local politics to enjoy their retirement, as Canaday recalled that before they were together, Coumbs had only ever traveled to a handful of different states.
“At the time we had gotten married, because he was busy working at raising a family, he’d only been in about five states,” Canaday said. “... I have been in all 50 states, and I got him to 34 states.”
The couple has also taken several international trips, including to Vatican City in Italy, Nova Scotia, Canada, Istanbul, Turkey and the Virgin Islands.
“Istanbul was his favorite,” Canaday added. “... It’s just been a great eight years.”
Coumbs was born in Opportunity, located between Spokane and the Idaho state line. He moved to Centralia to teach agriculture at Centralia High School in 1970 and had lived in the city ever since.
Aside from his service on the city council, various city commissions and the fire districts, Coumbs was the founder of the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds Spring Youth Fair.
He also taught classes at Centralia College and, together with students from one of his classes there, set up the first Fort Borst Park drive-thru Christmas light display, a tradition still carried on by the city’s parks department to this day.
During Tuesday’s Centralia City Council meeting, Councilor Max Vogt — who served alongside Coumbs on the council at one point — shared his condolences along with a message he said Coumbs’ family asked him to pass along.
“He passed away on Monday at about 4:55 p.m. He was surrounded by his family. I saw him on Friday, which was his 82nd birthday,” Vogt said. “He had no pain. It was very peaceful and he was enjoying the company around him. And over the weekend, he just quietly went away. Very peaceful … The family wanted to say that and let everybody know, he died very peacefully at home, surrounded by friends and family. God bless you, Lee Coumbs.”
Councilor Norm Chapman — who just recently found himself on the city council earlier this year after former Centralia Deputy Mayor Cameron McGee moved out of District 1 and resigned — shared how he got involved with both the council and the Centralia Planning Commission after Coumbs asked him to.
“Seven years ago, where I was living was being annexed into the city. He was in my face about getting on the planning commission, so I did. When my four-year term was up, Lee was right there again. And when there was an opening in District 1, the first person who contacted me was Lee Coumbs,” Chapman said. “(I said) ’I know Lee, I’m ready to sail off into the sunset.’ (Coumbs said) ’Well it's your city. You owe it to the city.’ The old guilt trip and stuff, and that was Lee.”
Chapman added if he could accomplish just a fraction of what Coumbs accomplished during his own time on the city council, he would be a better person.
Coumbs’ family has yet to announce a date and time for his funeral service, or if it will be open to the public.
