Celia Marie Butcher

Cecilia “Celia” Marie Butcher passed away peacefully on July 16, 2020, smiling and laughing until the very end. She was 99. Celia was born June 1, 1921, in Spokane, WA., to parents Ferdinand W. and Marie K. Gough. She attended Peninsula Grade School in Portland for one year before the Goughs moved to Vernonia, OR. There, Celia attended Washington Grade School, where her academic achievement led her to skip second grade. She was then an honors student at Shumway Junior High School in Vancouver, WA., for one year before entering Taft High School (THS) in what is now Lincoln City, OR, as a sophomore in fall, 1935. Her father, Ferdinand, would establish and run the Tourist Supply general store along Highway 101 in Taft for nearly 25 years; young Celia could often be found running the store’s cash register, selling candy to her schoolmates.

At THS, she was known as one of the most active and talented students. An expert pianist, she accompanied nearly every school musical production (when she didn’t have a singing part) and social function. Her lightning-fast typing skills were put to good use on the high school newspaper, The Hi-Life, where she contributed as a typist for two years. She served as president of her senior class, assistant editor and editor of the school yearbook, and was an officeholder in the Girls’ League for two years. She even played basketball and softball (long before Title IX!).

Consistently at the top of her class, she graduated as valedictorian in 1938 at age 17, the youngest member of her class. In her valedictory speech, she urged her classmates to set their sights high and pursue their dreams. “If you don’t know where you are going, you are lost before you start,” she said.

After graduation, Celia attended the Northwestern School of Commerce in Portland for one year, where she met the love of her life, David Conrad Butcher. They were married in 1941 and moved to Forest Grove, where Celia raised their first child, son Daniel, while Dave served in World War II. When his tour of duty ended, the couple built a modest home in southwest Portland, where they raised two more children, daughters Susan and Elizabeth. Dave, who worked as a plumbing shop foreman, and Celia, who chose to remain a homemaker, filled their quarter-acre lot with fruit and nut trees, blueberry and raspberry bushes and grapevines, and planted a prolific vegetable garden each year. But it was Celia’s fastidiously tended flower beds that gave her true joy. She was also an accomplished seamstress and cross-stitcher, avid mystery novel fan, and crossword puzzle fanatic. After the kids were grown, the couple led an active lifestyle, often bicycling locally and taking hikes, with Neahkahnie Mountain being one of their favorite venues.

When Dave passed away in 1983, Celia remained in the home they built, managing to tend house and yard by herself for many decades, and continued her active lifestyle. She was a constant figure on the nearby Jesuit High School track, where she regularly ran (and later walked), and was a member of the Elsie Stuhr Senior Center choir. She was a member of the St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church parish since 1946.

Following cremation, Celia was inurned at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Portland, sharing a headstone with Dave. She is survived by her three children, Dan Butcher (Sylvia) of Salem, Sue Carver (Bill) of Tigard, and Liz Malliris of Newberg; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. The family requests remembrances be sent to Meals on Wheels.