Lorraine J Deming

Sadly, Lorraine passed on February 15, 2015 after succumbing to a massive Stroke and Brain Hemorrhage. She was 93.

Lorraine, my mother, lived a life that as my cousin Ken so properly put it, ‘had many chapters in her book.’

It’s hard to impress upon someone the magnitude of her accomplishments, unwavering faith in God, strength of will and unrelenting single mindedness, without conveying the level of hardship she endured. I hope you’ll forgive me for taking a moment to do just that.

She started out her journey in life being born to Myrtle and Raymond Bowerman. She was the oldest of four children, spending her early childhood in Rainer, Washington learning to play the piano and growing up on the family Chicken Ranch.

Needing work and having a college education, Gramps packed everybody up and took a job as a Surveyor for the State of Oregon, ending up in Canby, Oregon where Lorraine graduated from High School in 1939.

In 1941, the family moved to Astoria, Oregon where Lorraine would spend the next 43 years.

It was at this time she was involved in a traffic accident which left her back broken in a couple of spots. Two vertebrae had to be fused and this plagued her for the rest of her life, particularly after Scoliosis set in during her later years.

As she recovered she worked for the Navy and Army at Fort Stevens and Tongue Point Naval Bases by day, and played the Piano and entertained the troops for the USO by night.

During those years she also met, started to date, and eventually fell in love with a strapping and handsome young buck named Buster Henderson. They married on March 13, 1949.

After it was determined she couldn't’t have children, Lorraine and Buster, undeterred decided to adopt in 1957. That’s when I came along.

In the typical fashion that Lorraine became known for, doing things on her terms, instead of picking the healthiest child in the orphanage she picked me, the most sickly.

I was born just short of 8 weeks premature, was the most underdeveloped baby to survive at the U of O Hospital up to that point, and the first to be placed in a new prototype incubator that went on to be the blueprint for Hospital incubators around the world. My skin was so translucent you could hold me up by my ankles with a flashlight to my back and watch my lungs breathe and my heartbeat as well as see the hole in my heart that eventually grew shut. I also only had about 20% of my immune system. It was 3 months after signing the papers before my parents could bring me home as the Doctors weren’t sure if I’d even live.

Most people would have taken one look at me and run the other way. It never occurred to these 2, to take anyone else, because as my Mother put it to me, ”We knew if we didn’t take you probably no one else would and that just didn’t seem right.”

Three years later, they decided it was time for a little girl and they adopted Yvonne Marie Henderson in July of 1960.

In September Buster was diagnosed with terminal cancer and passed away on November 14, 1960. As the state waiting period for adoptions had not been achieved, the State Welfare Department showed up several hours later and took Yvonne away as well, putting her back up for adoption.

The trauma of these events was too much for Lorraine and she started her life long struggle with Bi-Polar depression.

In 1966 she married Richard Bedell and in 1967 away she went to Liberia, West Africa, where she lived for two years. During this time her Mother and Brother passed within eight months of each other and I nearly died from Malaria and it was decided she needed to go back to the US for treatment of her depression.

After she’d recovered her health Richard went back to Liberia to prepare for our return. He got caught up in the Government coup that took place and was executed.

In 1974 Lorraine adopted Gary Allen Henderson into the family.

She then met and married Arthur T. Deming on September 8, 1979. Art passed in 1991.

Between 1991 and 2014 she endured Colon Cancer, severe dehydration, Kidney failure and temporary dialysis, Stage 4 Liver disease, Scoliosis of the spine, 2 TIA Strokes, a sever Accidental drug overdose due to her strokes, full knee replacement, Dementia, Arthritis, Cataracts in both eyes and C Defoliates twice.

Reading all this it should be obvious that Lorraine didn’t have an easy life and if you didn’t know her you would probably surmise that she was mean, hateful recluse that rolled up in a ball, accomplished nothing and was an enigma to her family and friends all her life. Don’t get me wrong, Mom had her issues, how could anyone not, but if you surmised this you’d be wrong. You would have also shown just how little you knew about my Mother.

She was the energizer bunny that never quit ticking. She was tough as nails, and even in dying did it her way and in typical Lorraine fashion. One could even go so far as to say, “God just don’t make ‘em like that anymore.”

Besides her USO work, during the course of her life she helped plant and was the pianist at three Churches in both Astoria and here in Portland. In another Church she organized an impressive library of religious material that would have rivaled some city’s libraries and raised a son as a single mother through the 1960’s.

In Africa she played the piano at out Church, ministered to the Leper’s in Leper colonies, helped spread the word of God to Cannibal tribes with zest and fear that would make many men look like cowards.

She went to college and earned an Associate’s Degree while giving piano and organ lessons for over 25 years.

She traveled Europe twice.

She bought and paid for her own house, helped both her sons buy their own homes and amassed a fortune before the crash that topped $400,000 in cash playing the stock market.

She learned to square dance in her late 60’s- fused discs, Arthritis, Scoliosis and all.

She played in a bluegrass and swing band known as the ‘Hotshots’ that played Church socials, Nursing Homes, County Fairs, Weddings and so forth for almost 20 years.

She also was a part of the Northwest Nursing Home Missionary Ministries and played her piano at various homes until she was 87 (over 35 years).

Lorraine was survived by youngest sister Barbara Teel, her sister-in-law Margaret Bowerman, her 3 sons Keith Vance andGarry Allen Henderson, Ted Deming; 10 Grandchildren, 22 Great Grandchildren, 5 Great-great Grandchildren and several boatloads of nieces and nephews.

She had a very full, long and blessed life and made a lasting and positive impact on many individuals throughout her years, even during the anguish and pain of her own, all over the world and I am happy, proud and blessed to say I was one of those people.

In closing, think not of the pain that she felt, but all that she accomplished in spite of it and realize the strength and caliber of individual it takes to persevere through it all and succeed when many of the rest of us would not have. See the example that she set and where she raised the par of potential accomplishment for the rest of us to achieve if we simply pick ourselves up every day and put one foot in front of the other knowing that God has got our backs and has already found a way through, we just have to allow him to lead us to it and trust he will get us there in the end.

If there’s any single body of word’s that would describe her legacy those would be it.

Services will be held for Lorraine at the Heritage Baptist Church, 5527 Southeast Jenne Road (174th ave) starting with a viewing at 8:00 and a Funeral Service to follow at 11:00. A potluck fellowship will be held after the Funeral Service.