Lee Lena Santoro

Lee was born during the most beautiful time of the year—the month of October—at the home place where she lived most of her life. Her parents moved there in 1910 and had the present house built in 1921.

She walked to and graduated from the Rosedale Grade School and continued to walk to the grade school to catch the school bus to the Hillsboro High School. After graduation, her parents could not afford to send her to college so she spent another year as a post-graduate student at Hillsboro High. During the next four school years she worked her way through Oregon State University, graduating in 1938 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in education.

She taught high school physical education and home economics for five years at Shedd Union High School, and one year at Clatskanie High School, before joining the SPARS during World War II. In 1945, she went to work for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Portland and took an early retirement in 1975 after 30 years of service.

During the Westinghouse years, she made five trips to New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. A couple of highlights of those trips were attending the World Series games at Yankee Stadium and attending the opera at the Metropolitan. One of the greatest thrills was watching Don Larson pitch his perfect game for the Yankees on Oct. 8, 1956.

During the fall of 1976, Lee took a trip with her sister Rosie and family, and long-time friend Glenn Jones for three weeks to Italy and Switzerland. It was beautiful country and people, and she met with her mother’s brother and sister, and their families.

Lee’s hobbies included sewing, knitting, crocheting, gardening, and in the past she did a lot of fishing and hunting, and enjoyed trolling for trout on East Lake, Wickiup Reservoir, and fishing for salmon and steelhead from the bank of the lower Columbia River. Her largest salmon was a 26-pounder; the largest steelhead a 13-pounder.

Lee is survived by her sister Rosie Benham; sister-in-law Eleanor Santoro; 20 nieces and nephews; 34 great-nieces and nephews; and numerous great-great-nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her siblings Rufie Santoro, Mary Jameson, Millie Girard, Sue Barnett, John Santoro, Kate Palumbo, and Joe Santoro; and long-time friend Glenn Jones. Three additional siblings also passed away during childhood.