Jack Leslie Bradford

Jack Leslie Bradford, born Feb 19, 1923, in Yoncalla, Oregon, grew up on a farm in Shoestring Valley, east of Yoncalla. Yoncalla, a small forgotten town south of Cottage Grove, was established by the pioneer Applegate family some three quarters of a century before Dad was born. Dad loved to tell stories of growing up on the farm – and what stories they were! His father Frank, in addition to the farm, had a logging business he operated together with his brother Bob. Dad, as well as his brothers, eventually worked in the business, setting chokers, driving log trucks and the like. While his father was running the logging company, their mom, Evelene Carter Bradford, pretty much ran the farm and raised him and his three younger siblings, Betty, Ross, and Frank (Fritz).

The kids attended grade school in a one room school in Yoncalla. We’ve all seen movies and read stories where boys in one room schoolhouses played pranks and generally caused the poor teachers’ grief – yes, well, that was Dad. He told some great stories – all the classics – the snake in the teacher’s desk drawer, the hornet nest he brought in one cold morning and hung from the stove pipe until they warmed up…

He attended and graduated from high school in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

After surviving childhood (I think he had a very busy guardian angel – check out his “Yarns”) - Dad drove log truck for a few years during and after high school and again after returning from the war, where he served in the Navy in WWII as a Fire Controlman S (submarine) Third Class, SV-6, on two sub-tenders - the USS Gilmore and the USS Orion - off the coast of New Guinea. He was commissioned into the Navy on December 27, 1943, and was honorably discharged April 6, 1946. Not long after returning home, he was recruited by his aunt to assist a young woman named Gloria Gebers to help chaperone a dance held by the city of Cottage Grove. As he said, “One thing led to another”, and eventually they were married May 30, 1948, in Mom’s hometown of Grants Pass. They had three children, Louise, John and Julie. He was baptized April 11, 1954, at Springfield Lutheran Church in Springfield, OR where we attended church regularly.

Sometime around when Louise was born, Dad gave up the logging business and took up carpentry. I think it was with a “little bit of encouragement” from Mom after she learned of some of his adventures – such as (when he was 16) bailing out of his dad’s new logging truck, watching it go over the cliff with a load of logs that he was trying to bring down a road with a 25% grade when the trailer brakes failed - as well as a few other exciting moments. He went to work for Bob Straub – future Oregon Governor – building houses in Springfield.

After a period learning the building trade, Dad decided to start a cabinet shop, named “Brad’s Woodworking”, on the corner of 69th St. and McKenzie Highway in the Thurston area of Springfield. His cabinets were in considerable demand from the region’s builders. He operated the shop for many years until the dust caused asthma got too much for him, which prompted him to sell the business to his friend. He later built two houses in Springfield, one of which we moved into. He then worked a few carpentry jobs before being hired by Malcolm Eslinger to do finish work. Dad’s exceptional finish work helped propel Eslinger to become one of Oregon’s premiere builders. In fact, Louise, Mike and Kelly live in a house built by Malcolm’s son, Chad Eslinger.

Dad was always building or doing something creative. Remodeling the house, building a shop in the back, he built a cabin at the beach for the family, built an A-frame “cabin” up on the “hill” in Creswell, built a cool fort for me in the back yard (after I had built my own atrocity in the front yard out of scrap pieces of wood). Needless to say, I grew up with a hammer in my hand. Being very creative, Dad always came up with unique projects: chain saw carved “wooden shoes”, hand carved “turtle” footstools, black powder cannons, a covered wagon, designed and built compressed air “steam” engines, a beer can crusher, and other fun projects. As a master craftsman, he also created serious projects including a trestle table that Louise still uses, built a unique stair railing, an entertainment center and storage cabinets in my house, and many built-in and standalone cabinets for his and Mom’s homes (as well as whole additions). He also built a dark room and developed his own black and white photos. He was even known to pen a poem or two. His “out of the box”, “can do” approach to things has always inspired me in my life, for which I am eternally grateful.

He loved to make things for the grandkids – doll houses, rocking horses, go-carts, sleds, beetle boxes – ask the twins about those – and other fun things.

He always had a garden, and he loved to cook. He had an old-fashioned wood cook stove that he fired up every morning. Dad did most of the cooking (Mom hated cooking) of which he did most of on the wood stove, including baking pies, and he always had a pot of beans simmering – he loved his beans! It makes me hungry just thinking about it!

He was not a musician, so to speak, but he enjoyed playing both the piano and the accordion, which he played by ear, including fun songs like “Rubin, Rubin, I’ve been thinking, what a wonderful world it would be, if all the women were transported, far across the wild blue sea…” and another one, something about Johnny McBeck…

He loved games – he and I learned chess together, we played a game called Pente every time we got together, and he loved to play poker. He and Mom played cards – Skip-Bo and others – every evening. He and Mom also loved their motorcycles (motor bikes really).

He and Mom loved to travel. They owned more motor homes and travel trailers than anyone I ever knew (including a couple that he built himself). They drove to Alaska, all over the US and across Canada. When Louise and I were young, we would regularly go on camping trips to the mountains and Eastern Oregon. He and Mom were “insulator” and old bottle collectors, so we would travel along railroads where he would pull out his climbing spurs and climb up a telegraph pole to collect a colored insulator. We would visit “ghost towns” in Oregon and Nevada and scavenge the old trash piles for antique bottles. When I was in junior high, he and I went on several “hunting trips” during deer season. We never shot a deer – the only ones we ever saw were in state parks - but we traveled across Oregon seeing places like Newberry Crater, including the obsidian flow before it became a major tourist attraction, Cove Palisades before the dam was put in to create Lake Billy Chinook, the Sumpter Dredge, which we climbed around on before that was made into a park. We eventually broke down and stowed the rifles and went on to Nevada, where we explored the country on a lot of unpaved roads, visited the Lemans caves, and other interesting places. There were a lot of cross-country trips after I left home. Julie got to go with them on several of the trips. It turns out that he’d never been on a plane until I took him on a fishing trip to Campbell River in Canada. I fly all the time, so it didn’t dawn on me that it was his first time on an airplane until I looked over and saw him more nervous than I had ever seen him. But he loved the trip – and out-fished me of course.

In retirement he bought a metal lathe and a mill and took up machining - being coached by his good friend at Crooked River Ranch outside Redmond where they spent their summers for several years – living next door to Julie, Rick and his beloved granddaughter Sarah Casey. In Arizona, at Thousand Trails Resort, where they spent their summers very happily for about 20 years, he had a shop built for his woodworking and machining equipment, built steam engines, built and test fired his golf ball cannons (in the shop – we found many dents and a few golf balls in the ceiling), tried hydroponic gardening to grow his tomatoes, and other adventures. He played pool with the guys most every day, he and Mom bowled weekly in a league, they attended the community church where Mom was very active, fed the birds and generally very much enjoyed life (along with his beloved cats Fluffit and Stubby).

When health problems forced them to leave Arizona, we moved them up to Newberg, OR, where they lived at the Astor House. Dad occupied himself by setting up a “shop” in their spare bathroom – the tub drain was never the same – where he made pens, keychains and other small things on his mini lathe.

After Mom passed away in 2013, Dad stayed there for several more years, where he played poker with a group of guys on a daily basis. This lasted until he had a bad fall in 2019, and we had to move him to the Woodland Heights assisted living home in Tigard, OR. After that he was pretty much restricted to his motorized wheelchair and recliner where his life became much more sedentary, although he did try cooking beans once on a hot plate – that didn’t go to well…and then there was the pellet gun – but I guess that was back at the Astor House. Never a dull moment with Dad.

Dad was always cheerful and loved by everyone wherever he lived. He had a great sense of humor – a bit off sometimes, but funny none the less. Though he was mostly deaf and struggled to carry on a conversation in his last few years, he enjoyed his visitors and was loved by the staff at his home. Dad was truly a great man and a great dad - we loved him dearly and miss him terribly.

Jack is survived by:

- His three children and their spouses: Louise (Mike) Muldoon, John (Doneta) Bradford and Julie (Rick) Hopkins.

- His eight grandchildren: Wendy (Albert) Vagnozzi, Kate Foreman, Kelly Muldoon; Josh (Jill) Bradford, Kayla (Joe) McAfee, Larissa Bradford, Megan Bradford; and Sarah (Scott) Suit.

- His ten greatgrandchildren: Michael Vagnozzi, Lucas Vagnozzi, Brenna Foreman; Elizabeth Bradford, Samantha Bradford; Megan McAfee, Lillian McAfee, Allison McAfee, Hannah McAfee and William McAfee.

- One Great Grandchild: Miriel Scherling