Noumanh Pradaxay

Mrs. Noumanh Pradaxay, age 91, of Sherwood, Oregon, passed away Monday, July 3, 2023 at her home. She was born November 4, 1931 in Paksane, in the Kingdom of Laos. Her parents were Mr. Bouathape and Mrs. Khampang Phosarath.

As a child Noumanh survived the military occupation of her town by Japanese Imperial forces.

She married then-Caporal Bounlith Pradaxay in February, 1949. Over the next sixteen years, Noumanh had thirteen children, all but one surviving to adulthood. In 1970, then-Colonel Bounlith Pradaxay died and Noumanh managed the family household in the face of deteriorating conditions in the Kingdom.

During the 1970s, all but three of Noumanh’s children emigrated to either France or the United States. Starting in 1975, after the fall of the Kingdom and establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Noumanh lost her family home and associated farm lands to the communist government. In March, 1979, with the help of her oldest child who had returned for her, she escaped with her three youngest children to Thailand, where she was forced to stay in a refugee camp for ten months. In February, 1980, Noumanh and her children were sponsored by the Catholic Church and brought to Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1997 Noumanh moved with her youngest child to Sherwood, Oregon.

In Little Rock, Noumanh was a parishioner of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church. In Oregon she attended Our Lady of LaVang Catholic Church.

Mrs. Pradaxay is survived by her children Nousith aka James and Noumanh Pradaxay, Kitsana Phanavanh, Denpe and Sylvy Pradaxay, The Reverend Pinkeo Pradaxay, Soumantha Houllemare, Viravong Wilson, Sompasong aka Jake and Mindy Pradaxay, Bounthom aka Tom and Neenee Pradaxay, Bounthem aka Tim and Aisavanh Pradaxay, Khamla Pradaxay, Teauneta Pradaxay, and Khanida and Martin Mote. At the time of her passing she had nineteen grandchildren, nineteen great grandchildren, and one great great grandchild.

A visitation will be held at Griffin Leggett Healy Roth Funeral Home at 5800 W. 12th Street in Little Rock, on Friday, July 14, 2023 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. with a rosary at 7:00 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday, July 15, 2023 at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, located at 6219 Baseline Road in Little Rock. Burial will follow at Rest Hills Memorial Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas, with a Committal Service commencing at 12:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in her name.