‘Teaching until the end.’ Longtime downtown Kennewick business owner dies at 89
Ken Silliman was a man of commitment.
Even in retirement, the 89-year-old maintained a desk at his family business — Farmers Exchange — up until last week.
He switched to black coffee after meeting his future bride in an ice cream parlor, making it easy for her to remember over their 67 years of marriage.
He held season tickets to Washington Huskies Football for at least four decades, and didn’t let inclement weather stop him from attending a home game.
And he remained passionate about downtown Kennewick until the end, asking people who want to memorialize him to donate to the East Benton County Historical Society.
Silliman died peacefully at 9 a.m. Wednesday of natural causes, said his son Keith Silliman.
“He was cognizant and lucid up until the very end,” Keith Silliman told the Tri-City Herald. He visited with his father until 6 p.m. Tuesday. “He could talk and think. He even scolded me to take care of my mother.”
A native of Kennewick, Ken Silliman attended Central Washington State College in Ellensburg before joining the Air Force during the Korean War. He was stationed in Rapid City, S.D., when he met Arleen Abelseth while she was working at Barbara Ann’s Ice Cream Parlor.
“She couldn’t remember from one night to the next if he took cream in his coffee so he gave up and drank it black for the rest of his life,” the family wrote in his obituary.
The couple moved to Kennewick after their 1953 wedding, and Silliman joined his father and brother as the second generation in the family business that opened in 1923.
Eventually he became sole owner. While he enjoyed seeing the familiar faces of his customers every day, his routine also included a break from 1-2 p.m. at home for pie, ice cream and a nap.
Silliman’s love for the downtown core extended beyond the business at the corner of West Canal Drive and North Benton Street.
He served as president of the Downtown Kennewick and Columbia Drive Association (now the Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership) and the East Benton County Historical Society at Keewaydin Park, received the first “Downtowner of the Year” award in 1989, and was humbled to join the select group of others before him when named “Kennewick Man of the Year” in 1991.
“Dad did a lot for the community. He was instrumental in beating the drum of downtown Kennewick,” said Keith Silliman.
Ken Silliman helped mentor other business owners and was proud to have Farmers Exchange “lead as a bright spot in downtown Kennewick.”
He sold the business to his son in 1997 so he could enjoy the last decades of his life and have the freedom to travel. However, he continued to work every day when he was home.
“I don’t know if he wanted to come in or he didn’t trust me and had to continue to look over my shoulder,” said Keith Silliman. “He had his desk up until last week. He sat down, crunched numbers, and made sure I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and taking care of people.”
He described his father as a man of commitment, honor, integrity and respect, and said he was fortunate to have been influenced by him his entire life.
“He died with his dignity intact. He died with the respect of his peers and his family intact. And he was teaching up until the very end,” said Keith Silliman. That teaching includes a message that the lifelong smoker realized in his later years that smoking should be discouraged and is not socially acceptable as it was in the 1950s and 60s.
Ken Silliman is survived by Arleen, daughters Suzan and Vickie, son Keith, 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Their daughter Kathy died in 2016.
Silliman believed that people can only move forward if they know the history they have come from, and that’s why it was vital for him to continue supporting downtown Kennewick, his son said.
The East Benton County Historical Society was “near and dear to his heart,” and he hoped to keep those memories and that history alive through donations in lieu of flowers, to P.O. Box 6964, Kennewick, Wash., 99336.