Nancy Ann Wheeler

Her family moved to Los Angeles CA in 1942 and she and her younger brother John grew up in Southern California. She graduated from Bellflower High School in 1956 and then went to work for Bank of America.

She married Darryl Wheeler in October 1956, and they had 2 daughters. The family moved to Gresham Oregon in 1964. They later divorced but remained on friendly terms and both participated in successfully raising their daughters.

She began working for Montgomery Ward in Portland in 1964 and spent a few years in the catalog department at the Vaughn Street building in NW Portland, now known as Montgomery Park. She continued to work for Wards in accounting/cash office functions until her retirement in 2001. She spent time working in their downtown Portland office as well as at the Beaverton and Jantzen Beach stores and had many fond memories of the people she had worked with.

She also spent a few years working part-time at Fred Meyer in their check cashing Department back in the 70’s. Her facility with numbers made her a whiz at budgeting her own household.

She had both cats and dogs over the years but had a special love for cats and kittens. She was never happier than when she was at home with cats to care for. No stray cat would ever go hungry on her watch.

She enjoyed the small pleasures of life. One of her favorite things was watching jets fly overhead, and her backyard was perfectly situated to enable her to frequently see planes on their way in and out of Portland Airport. Her father had owned a small plane for a time when she was young, and he worked on jets during his career after moving to Southern California during WWII so she had learned to love them when she was growing up. She liked all kinds of plants and trees, always taking care to see that they were watered in the summer. She was a master at jigsaw puzzles and loved to play solitaire. She enjoyed word search puzzles, reading mystery novels, and going for walks around the neighborhood.

She passed on her love of reading and her problem-solving skills to her daughters and grandson. She was always sure to ask if we were still working and saving and was happy to know that we were okay.

She is survived by her daughters and sons-in-law, Debbie & Mark McGonigal and Lori & Jim Klinkhammer, grandson Sean McGonigal, and her brother and sister-in-law John & Tina Ensign.