Webb a loss to town of Palouse, city council

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Nov 27, 20130

The town of Palouse lost a neighbor, a city council member and a friendly face at the grocery store last week with the death of Alison Webb.

She served on the Palouse City Council since being appointed in April of last year.

Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove was Webb’s next-door neighbor.

“She will be missed. She was part of our council team,” Echanove said. “She was really coming into her own the past six, eight months or so. I got to see her shine, to develop her own rhythm on the council and that’s hard to lose someone like that.”

Many in Palouse knew her face if not her name, since she worked at the register at McLeod’s Palouse Market.

“She was an excellent employee, totally engaging,” said owner Jeff McLeod. “Just the last couple days, there’s been a huge outpouring. A lot of the locals who knew her came in to give their condolences.”

“When you walked in the store she was always chipper, and in a conversation with someone,” said Echanove. “She worked in the morning and got to greet the day with people.”

McLeod kept Webb on the morning shift to be a consistent presence to customers who came in on weekdays on their way to work or otherwise.

“She’s going to be missed,” he said. “It was a tragic accident.”

Palouse City Council member Connie Newman worked with Webb on the Water and Sewer Committee.

“Alison talked about being excited about being on the council. She did a lot of work behind the scenes, above and beyond the council meetings,” Newman said.

During their time together on the council, Newman came to admire Webb’s point of view.

“She was an independent thinker. She wasn’t afraid to ask an unpopular question or take an unpopular stance,” Newman said. “She was a voice of reason.”

Webb would often bring up concerns that people had mentioned to her at the grocery store.

“She was always interested in what the people thought,” said Newman. “She really felt her job was to represent her constituents.”

Webb ran for re-election earlier this month and at the time of her death trailed by six votes to challenger Doreen Hanson.

Born in San Diego in 1959, Webb spent much of her life there before she and her two daughters moved to the Palouse in 2005.

She settled in the Ewan area with her mother, Kay and stepfather Clinton Miller. Her daughters eventually graduated from St. John/Endicott.

Two years later, she moved to Palouse while dating Ralph Webb, who would soon become her husband.

Before becoming a city council member Webb survived a bout with breast cancer, with the disease going into full remission.

She is survived by Ralph Webb, her daughters Danielle and Stephanie, stepson Jeff, mother Kathryn (and her husband Clint Miller), brother Darrel and sister Peggy, along with extended family.