Audrey Bradford

Audrey was married to her beloved Husband, Norman, for 64 years before his death in 2010. She is survived by her 3 children, Dolores (married to Don Clinton), Glen (married to Mary Lea Fries), and Greg (married to Cindy Crowley). She is also survived by 9 grandchildren (Leann Clinton, Lorie Hawks, Donnie Clinton, Jennifer Bradford, Cathy Cole, Diane Giardine, Alison Quisenberry, Rachel Roupe, and Rebekah Obendorf). She has also been blessed with 18 great grandchildren, and 3 great-great grandchildren so far.

In her childhood years, Audrey lived on a farm between Gravesville and Quitman, Arkansas. As their family endured the Great Depression, she grew up doing many chores. The family grew most of their own food, so Audrey was often called on to help with many of the farm duties, such as milking the cows and planting, hoeing, and harvesting the vegetables and peanuts. Their family usually traveled to Missouri each year to chop cotton for extra income.

The Holland family was always religious, as they attended Old Salem Church in Gravesville, which was Primitive Baptist in denomination. Her dad, Harf, was a deacon and her brother, Virgil, became a preacher later in life.

As a young child Audrey walked 3 miles each day to grade school at Sand Springs. During her teen years she attended Quitman High School. In 1940, when she was 13, she met Norman at church. He was 16 then and they dated that

winter and summer, but Norman then left for California to do seasonal work on a ranch owned by F.W. Anderson. Audrey continued her education, but they wrote letters to stay in contact. Norman spent those 3 years working in California, but would return each year to Arkansas to see Audrey and help his own family.

There might have been a marriage on the way soon, but something happened . . . December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed. By mid 1943 Norman was old enough to be drafted into the Navy. He left home on July 2, 1943, spending 30 months on the USS Prometheus in the south Pacific during WW II. Soon after the war ended, Norman returned home and then went back to California to work at the Anderson ranch again.

Audrey and Norman were still very interested in each other at that time. On September 14, 1945, Norman proposed to Audrey with the intention of getting married that December. However, Audrey's father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was very sick until his death in May, 1946. Norman had returned to California to work. Following Harf's passing, Audrey sold her cow for $60, paid off her books and school ring, and bought a train ticket to Merced, CA. Norman picked her up, they drove to the littlest big town in the world, Reno, NV, and were married that day, June 15th, 1946. They came back to live in a very small, two room cabin in Hadley's Camp near Le Grand.

Norman continued to work for F.W. Anderson, and was soon provided with a house to live in because his hard work was very appreciated by Fred. On May 19, 1947, Audrey and Norman were blessed with their first child, Dolores Jean. A couple of years later, along came Lowell Glen on September 20, 1949. Lastly, they were blessed with Gregory Dalton on November 8, 1957.

Life during these first 12 years of marriage was filled with a lot of hard work, very little money, but plenty of happiness. They enjoyed a lot of family card games, playing ball, lots of fishing, and swimming in the MID canal. As an employee, Norman worked his way up to ranch foreman, and Audrey continually did seasonal work at packing fruit, chopping and picking cotton, and working part time in the plant breeding business. In 1957 Audrey and Norman bought their first land, the 15 acres on Santa Fe with Thompson Seedless grapes. Audrey spent a lot of days getting the children off to school and then driving over to work in the vineyard.

In 1959, Mr. Anderson decided to start selling some of his land since he had no children to take over his ranches. He really appreciated all the hard work that they had done for him, so he sold Audrey and Norman the Bemis Place on Savana Road. That became home for the Bradford’s for many years . . . until 2005.

One thing that all of their children learned from their parents was to work hard, both on the ranch and at school. All three were honor students and spent each summer working on the ranch. In 1967 Audrey and Norman bought the Barkley Place, and soon afterward Mr. Anderson sold them the adjoining 47 Acres.

During the '60's and '70's Audrey and Norman were really blessed with the marriages of Dolores and Don, Glen and Mary Lea, and finally Greg and Cindy. Along with that came the 9 grandchildren that have always been dear to them. Also, they were blessed to be able to spend a lot of time watching Greg play baseball, which they really enjoyed. They also got to travel back east to watch him play professional baseball.

Finally, in 1981, Fred Anderson sold his last 120 acres to Norman and Glen, including the plant breeding business. That was the start of Bradford Farms, which eventually led to Audrey and Norman traveling overseas to New Zealand and Australia. On this trip they got to visit Sydney Harbor, where Norman had been once during WW II, and then stop by Pearl Harbor on the way home. Later Audrey and Norman visited growers in Spain and Chile a couple of times. Of course the added bonuses were stop-overs in the Bahamas and Tahiti. Also during the '90s, Audrey and Norman spent a lot of time watching the granddaughters play softball.

In 1988 Audrey and Norman were baptized together in Lake Yosemite by Greg and Don and made Le Grand Bible Christian Church their church home.

In her golden years Norman built Audrey her first new house in 2005 . . . just a half mile from where they first lived together as newlyweds. They were blessed to spend their last 5 years together in happiness with all of the family visiting quite often. Audrey remained partners in the almond business with Glen for the last 10 years. Audrey considered herself to have had a very blessed life.

In lieu of flowers the family would appreciate contributions to Le Grand Bible Christian Church, P.O. Box 259, Le Grand, CA 95333.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.stratfordevansfunerals.com for the Bradford family.