Winona Faye Jarmer was born to Frances and John Billings on April 15, 1932. She grew up in the Sellwood area of Portland, in a small neighborhood that included everything a person needs, grocery store, a large park, and a candy store just blocks away. She had fun roller skating at Oaks Park, which was the local teenage hang out. She married Larry Jarmer on Sept. 19th, 1951 and moved to Parkrose area. At that time she also began a life-long friend group, that met every week, on “Ladies Day”; the group knitted, stitched, and had lunches, it was their support group as their families grew. Nona and Larry had 7 lovely children together, and had quite the busy home. Nona was a busy home maker, sewing all the children’s clothes and canning foods as they came into season. Those were the days when Portland suburbs were a farm! In 1964, Larry started Jarmer Electric, and Nona was the vice President and bookkeeper as well as home keeper. We can remember all the checks and bills spread across the dining room table (which was never used for dining). In 1967, they moved to SW Portland and lived just 2 minutes from the shop. Nona learned to ski at the age of 36, along with the rest of the family, and this is what she did every winter, every weekend. With Nona running the family herd, Larry and Nona did a lot of camping in their truck camper, every child was allotted one grocery size paper sack for their personal items and we would all cram in the vehicle and head out for another adventure. Nona loved raising kids and watching them grow, and then her kids had kids and she thoroughly loved being a grandmother, and great grandmother. She attended all events of the kids, baseball to ski races, and band concerts to track meets. She was our #1 fan.
Nona was an accomplished seamstress, quilter, knitter, needle-pointer, cross-stitcher, embroidery worker – she could do it all! And she even knew the fine art of Tatting, with fancy loops and knots. Nona lovingly created all the grandkids Halloween costumes, and even starred on the TV as the famous costume maker. She made dinosaurs, dogs, bunnies, pumpkins, bumble bees, zebras, unicorns, tigers, bears, fairies, wizards, if you could name it, she could create it. Each new baby in the family got a handmade quilt. And when her family was not having babies, she made quilts for charity along with warm hats for the homeless shelters, and neo-natal hats hospitals.
Nona will be dearly missed. She is preceded in death by her husband of 36 years, Lawrence Jarmer, her brother George Billings (Nancy), and her two sisters Gertrude Gibson (Gene) and Neola. She is survived by her 7 children (none are in jail, yet): Greg Jarmer (Deb Hill-Jarmer) of Long Beach, WA, Doug Jarmer (Jenn) of Alameda, Ca, Jeff Jarmer (Sue) of Portland, OR, Matt Jarmer (Linda Rae) of Flagstaff, AZ, Pam Milestone (Kenny) of Milwaukie, OR, Tim Jarmer (Linda) of Portland, OR, and Monica Brelsford (Skip) of Bozeman, MT. She is survived by 13 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren: Josh Jarmer, Stephen Jarmer, Andrew Jarmer, Justin Jarmer, Cori Jarmer, Michael Milestone (Haley), Jessica Krause (Austin), Amanda Starmer (Cooper), Tori Jarmer, Branden Brelsford, Tanner Brelsford, Heidi Brelsford, Mariah Brelsford, Alexis Jordan Jarmer, and Jacob Milestone.
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