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Skagit Valley resident Valerie R. Tully died at age 68 at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Saturday, February 22 with her husband Robert and brother Donald Nault at her side.

Valerie was born to Benjamin Howard and Nancy Marilynn MacKenzie Raley on December 2, 1945 in Los Angeles, California. She spent most of her childhood in Great Falls, Montana, where she attended school from 1952 and graduated from Great Falls High School with the class of 1964.

She attended various Montana colleges and received her Bachelor of Science degree at Eastern Montana College for elementary education in 1976.

Valerie moved to Washington state in 1979 with the help of her brother Don Nault, who remembers his sister saying, “I’m going to like it here,” after seeing Mount Rainier for the first time.

She worked as a substitute teacher in Everett. She visited her old friends, Charlotte and Gary Thomas, in Lake Stevens and came to Skagit Valley to see her friends Jack and Bunny Dick of Mount Vernon. While bowling on her friend Bunny’s team, she met her husband Robert, who is a La Conner High School graduate.

Robert and Valerie were married on Valentine’s Day in 1982. They celebrated their 32nd anniversary this year.

Bob worked as a towboat operator on Puget Sound and in Alaska and was away from home on the tug for two weeks or more at a time. Val stayed home with her twin daughters, Tommy and Traci Mans, who both graduated from Mount Vernon High School.

Val and Bob traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest. She loved the outdoors, having an interest in archaeology, volcanoes and fossils. She enjoyed sports, especially the Mariners and Seahawks — she got to see the Seahawks win the Super Bowl.

Avid hunters, fishermen and clam diggers, the Tully’s traveled to Ocean Shores for razor clams and to Winthrop during deer season.

For 15 years, Valerie cared for her disabled mother, Nancy.

Val was an excellent cook and usually had enough to share with her neighbors. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Saint Patrick’s Day were special. She loved all animals, from her pets to the humming birds and squirrels in her yard. She was especially fond of bald eagles and was able to sight them or their nests on every road trip.

She was preceded in death by her grandmother, Frances E. “Niki” MacKenzie, her brother, Robert A. “Skippy” Markee, and her parents.

She leaves behind her husband, Robert J. Tully; her daughters, Tommy N. Mans and Traci N. Mans; her son Ronald Mans, II; her grandchildren, Jared Jenkins, Island Mans and Zackary Stewart; her sister, Denise Bone; and her half brothers, Donald Nault and Theodore Nault.

We will miss her charm, wit and her love greatly. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to the Humane Society of Skagit Valley, 18841 Kelleher Road, Burlington, WA 98233. A celebration of her life will be held at a later date and will be announced by Kern Funeral Home of Mount Vernon.