Elizabeth E. Lent

Elizabeth Eleanor (Nora) Lent, 88, was laid to rest at Miller-Woodlawn Memorial Park, Bremerton, in a private family ceremony on May 24. After a brief hospitalization for pneumonia, Nora suffered a stroke and passed away on May 17. A longtime resident of Seabeck, she previously lived for many years in Port Orchard.

Nora is survived by her husband, Capt. Willis A. Lent, now of Bremerton, a retired Navy submariner who is a past president of Navy League and the Puget Sound Naval Bases Association. Together, they were also active in recent years supporting Bremerton VFW Post 239 and its Auxiliary.

She is also survived by her daughter Christine Schultheis Holmgren (Mark) of St. Petersburg, Fla., and grandchildren Moses Holmgren (Erica), Port Orchard; Noah Holmgren, St. Petersburg; and Rachel Holmgren, Blaine. In addition, she is survived by Mike Morris-Lent (Val) and Karin Lent Moehring (Mark), both of Seattle, and Steve Lent (Sherry) of Phoenix, Ariz.

Nora was predeceased by her brother Tom Collins, a Korean War veteran; former husbands Richard Schultheis, Ephrata, and Odell Hyde, Port Orchard; and son Steven Schultheis, Port Angeles.

Nora was born on Oct. 7, 1930, in New York City to Elizabeth Kurtz and Edward Collins, a metallurgist who helped develop important ship plating techniques for the Navy. After a childhood spent in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with summers weathered on a family farm in the Shenandoah Valley, Ed moved the family to the Harper area during World War II while he set up the metal plating shop at P.S.N.S.

The Collins family moved back to the east coast after the war, but Nora returned to the Pacific Northwest after graduating from Annapolis High School in Maryland. She married Bremerton native Richard Schultheis in 1952. After he graduated from the U.W. law school, they moved to Silverdale and Dick began his law practice there. Daughter Christine was born in 1953.

Shortly after that, they moved to Port Orchard where Dick began a long-time partnership with former schoolmate James Maddock and retired local judge H. G. Sutton. The family, which now included son Steven, born in 1954, lived in Port Orchard for many years.

Nora opened a small gift shop in downtown Port Orchard that was popular during the early Sixties. The shop sponsored a bowling team, and Nora became an accomplished regular in league play. She also began playing with a local bridge club, an association that notably stretched over several decades.

Nora became increasingly interested in politics, joining the League of Women Voters and participating, at the invitation of Gov. Dan Evans, in “Alternatives for Washington,” a comprehensive study of the state’s future. Very active in the local Republican Party, she was a president of the South Kitsap Republican Women’s Club. She actively campaigned for numerous local and state candidates, and also served on the Kitsap County Planning Commission.

In 1976, she ran for office, mounting a strong campaign to represent Port Orchard’s district in the state legislature. Unfortunately, that was also the year of Jimmy Carter’s post-Watergate landslide victory. Despite this disappointment, she continued to remain active in politics, working on various state and national Republican campaigns. She also worked for a while in Olympia, as secretary of the legislature’s G.O.P. Caucus and later as an administrative assistant to long-time state Sen. Ellen Craswell.

She was briefly married to South Kitsap High School counselor Odell Hyde, prior to his untimely death in 1984. She also traveled to Ireland, making a “pilgrimage” to investigate her Collins family heritage in County Cork.

During the early Eighties, Nora helped establish National Bank of Bremerton – the city’s first national bank. She rapidly rose from administrative assistant to executive secretary of the board, and then became president of the bank’s Charter Club. During this time she also served as president of the Bremerton Soroptimists.

While working at the bank, Nora met retired submarine captain Willis Lent. They married in 1989 and built a home in the Nellita Rd. area of Seabeck where they lived until last summer, participating in Navy League and VFW activities when not travelling across the West or with friends in their motorhome.

Nora spent her last months under care at The Arbor in Bremerton. Donations may be made to one of the many organizations researching cures for Alzheimer’s Disease.

A later memorial is planned.