Family, friends remember Lacey retiree killed by alleged drunken driver
Elke Howard loved a prank, her son Greyson Koch said. As a practical joke, Koch said he printed out tiny pictures of himself and hid them throughout her apartment.
“It took her about two weeks to find them,” Koch, 32, said. “She would send me pictures of them, and then she got me back by putting them on my things… She was a big goofball.”
Howard had a vibrant personality that endeared her to her neighbors at The Reserve at Lacey, a 55-and-older apartment complex, Koch and residents told The Olympian.
Her presence is now sorely missed, they said.
Howard, a 63-year-old retiree, died on May 27 after a driver allegedly struck her and crashed into the complex while under the influence of alcohol, The Olympian previously reported. The incident occurred at the busy intersection of Pacific Avenue and Carpenter Road Southeast and involved multiple vehicles.
Koch and his brother Kai Howard, 38, rushed to the scene as soon as they heard of an accident at the complex. Kai Howard said he felt disgusted and angry when he learned how the tragedy unfolded.
“It was easily preventable,” Kai Howard said. “This person made a bad decision, and it affected my life and my kids’ lives. I felt robbed and angry. I still do. I don’t know if that’ll ever go away.”
On June 3, the driver pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide, driving under the influence, two counts of hit-and-run injury, two counts of reckless endangerment, hit-and-run attended vehicle and reckless driving.
He remains in custody at the county jail in lieu of $1 million bail. A jury trial has been tentatively scheduled to start on July 27 in Thurston County Superior Court.
“I want him to be held accountable for his actions as much as we can,” Kai Howard said.
Law enforcement initially described Elke Howard as a pedestrian; however, she wasn’t just passing through. Howard was outside her home, smoking a cigarette with a friend, according to her neighbors and court records.
Howard grew up in West Berlin when the Iron Curtain still divided the city, Koch said. She married Donald Howard, Jr., a U.S. soldier, in 1982, he said.
They both moved to Portland, Oregon, for about a year before settling down in University Place and later Yelm, her sons said.
The army honorably, medically discharged her husband in 1984 after he suffered kidney failure, Koch said. Howard took care of her husband until he died in 2014, he added.
Koch described her as an enterprising woman who ran her own daycare for over a decade called Elke’s Kindergarten. She even started a home cleaning company, he added.
She hosted an Easter egg hunt at the daycare every year, Kai Howard recalled.
“She boiled eggs for Easter and left them on the counter, and I’d swap some for raw eggs, so they would blow up when she was trying to make deviled eggs,” Kai Howard said. “Then, she would chase me down and throw eggs at me.”
She could always take a good joke, and I always played jokes on her growing up.”
Giesla Lusa, a resident of The Reserve, said Elke Howard was a true Berliner with a “big mouth.”
“I came from the east side, the communist side,” Lusa said. “We talked in German. This is what I miss the most. We had some fun times and some arguments…
“She was a good person. She will be missed.”
Carla Adams, another resident, called Elke Howard a “solid friend” she could depend on.
“I lost my dad a couple of years ago, and she was there for me specifically for that,” Adams said. “I really went through it, and she had my back. I could go to her anytime. Five minutes, an hour, it didn’t matter. She had time.”
Elke Howard was a big supporter of local police as well as veterans and Gold Star families, her sons said. She eagerly helped connect veterans at The Reserve with resources and their benefits, Adams and fellow resident Nancy Hingsbergen said.
She also cheered for the Seattle Mariners and Seahawks, her sons and neighbors said.
“When I was a kid, she would take me to Mariners games,” Koch said. “She always had us sit behind the third baseline because Edgar Martinez was her favorite player.”
“When football season starts, she will be missed for sure,” Hingsbergen added.
Elke Howard is survived by her two sons, a daughter-in-law and five grandchildren. Her family has started a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral expenses, legal matters and many unexpected costs associated with her sudden death, according to the fundraiser description.
As of Thursday afternoon, the family has raised just over $2,400 out of a $13,000 goal.
Elke Howard still has many siblings and extended family members in Germany, her sons said. She had hoped to visit them again, Kai Howard said.
“She wanted to take all her grandkids to Germany to meet the family,” Kai Howard said. “That was her big wish… She never had the money to do that, and she’s gone now. That’s something I’d love to do for my kids.”
