Norma L. Benedict

In Her Own Words

I was born February 28, 1919 at 9:30 p.m. near Musselshell Montana at my parents’ homestead. I was their second child. The first, Gerald Tucker, was born January 20th, 1917 and died 3 days later. My sister, Dorothy, was born in Deering, North Dakota on August 3, 1921 and died May 25. 2011. My brother, Glen, was born October 30, 1926 in Pe Ell, Washington. He died July 18, 2004.

Our parents were Dora Ann (Jackson) Tucker and Glenn M Tucker. Both had eight siblings. Each family had one set of twins:

Dora Ann and Cora May Jackson;

Rollie Ray “Jack” Tucker and Ollie May Tucker.

In 2001 I was blessed with twin great-granddaughters, Alison and Morgan Benedict.

I married Lambert L. Benedict August 13, 1938 in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Lambert died April 18, 2002 and was laid to rest at Lincoln Memorial Mausoleum in Portland Oregon.

I lived the first seven months in Montana, a winter in Illinois (at Grandma Alta’s,.) Then I spent a few months in South Dakota and three years in North Dakota. I lived in Pe Ell, Washington for six years and Cottage Grove for nine years. Lambert and I lived briefly in Albany, three years in Canby, and twenty years in Oregon City. In 1962 we moved to SE Portland.

I graduated from Cottage Grove High School June, 1937. I was a National Honor Society member, on the “Newsette” staff, and was in the Home Ec .club. I typed for the minister of the Cottage Grove Assembly of God Church. I made dresses for his wife, Mrs. Foster. I learned to sew making my mother’s clothes fit her. She was small and very short. She couldn’t buy anything to wear except sweaters without “big time” alterations.

As a teenager, I worked at a grocery store, as a mother’s helper, and a babysitter.. I did washing and ironing, cleaning, sewing, and baking—pies mostly. I baked my first pie at eight years of age. It was not unusual for me to bake twelve pies a day for church bazaars and rummage sales.

I was the bookkeeper for Lambert’s business, Benedict Plumbing Company from 1954 until about 1961. I was a purchasing buyer and accounts payable for Precision CastParts from 1961 through 1968. I was a bookkeeper for Campbell Norquist from 1969 until 1979. I was the secretary-treasurer for Atkinson Memorial Church for 24 years.

Lambert and I were members of Atkinson Church for fifty-five years. After Lambert died, I joined the Waverly Heights Congregational Church in Portland.

I loved to cook and sew and I loved to garden. I sewed for relatives and friends for many years. I made costumes for a grade school in Cottage Grove. I made a Santa Claus suit and donated it to Barclay Grade School, I sewed costumes for the Oregon City High Dancing Majorettes. I especially enjoyed sewing for my children and grandchildren. A crowning event was the creation of four bridesmaids’ dresses and a “mother of the groom” dress for my grandson’s wedding fourteen years ago.

When my son, Roger, married and joined the Latter Day Saints church, I got involved in researching family history. I spent the rest of my life researching genealogy.. I even learned the computer in the process. I compiled more than 60,000 names and histories, all connected to Lambert and myself in some way. My most fantastic find was that my husband’s family and mine were joined in Massachusetts three hundred years before Lambert and I met.

Ironically, my widowed father married my husband’s widowed mother in 1963. Both our families were acquainted dating back to 1923.

This is where Norma ended her story. There is not much to add. At almost 93 years of age, her poor vision prevented her from sewing and reading, but she enjoyed listening to books on tape and watching old movies and Lawrence Welk on TV. The sound was turned up high to compensate for her diminished hearing. Every morning she worked the daily crossword, which was enlarged so she could see it. It gave her great pleasure that she still had her wits about her! And she did! It was on Wednesday, the 16th, that Norma began her gentle departure from this life. Coincidentally, the 16th of November was also the date of the death of her beloved father 39 years ago.