Lorna Fay Pollack

Lorna Fay Petersen was born on October 17, 1927, in rural Homestead Township, near New York Mills, Minnesota. Her parents were Harry and Leona (Welter) Petersen. Lorna grew up on the family farm in Homestead Township that had a well, ice house, and outhouse plumbing. A woodstove was the sole source of cooking, heat, and hot water for the home.

Growing up on a farm and being the 5th of seven children, Lorna’s chores included loading hay, picking rocks in the fields, driving a wagon pulled by her father’s draft horse, and later driving a tractor.

Schooled in a one-room schoolhouse, Lorna developed a lifelong love of reading and writing. She constantly doodled and practiced her handwriting on any scrap of paper she could find. She enjoyed creating clever short stories and rhyming poems to commemorate special events.

Lorna graduated from New York Mills High School in 1945 and she lived to be the last surviving member of her class. She had started her training to be a school teacher when she contracted tuberculosis and spent her late teens and early twenties in a sanitarium. Her loving parents made weekly, multi-hour trips to visit her. While there she learned many new knitting and crochet patterns and stitches (and also how to curse and swear in Swedish and Norwegian).

In 1952, Lorna moved to Renton, Washington, where her sister Veryl Kehus and family were located and started working at Pacific Car and Foundry. Lorna met their neighbors and also the neighbors’ handsome younger brother, Elmer. Lorna’s employment at PacCar was short, but her relationship with Elmer lasted much longer.

On August 7, 1954, Lorna was united in marriage to Elmer Pollack in Renton, Washington. They were blessed with three children; Jo Ellen, Mary, and Richard. They lived on Jefferson Avenue in the Renton Highlands for most of the time while the kids were growing up. Elmer worked primarily at Pacific Car as a welder while Lorna mostly managed the house and the family, except for a stint working at Boeing.

Most of her life, Lorna enjoyed her handcrafts: knitting, crocheting, sewing, embroidery, and cake decorating until arthritis got in the way a few years ago. Her favorite color was purple! Lorna was an avid sports fan and loved to watch the Seahawks, Mariners, Huskies and yes, even the Cougars. Baseball was her favorite sport, having grown up watching her father and brothers play.

When Elmer retired in 1977, they moved to an undeveloped property in Maple Valley, Washington, which Elmer turned into his outdoor work “playground”. In 1997 they moved back to Renton, where in 2010, Elmer passed away at the age of 95, minus three days. In 2019, Lorna moved to an independent living apartment in Newcastle, Washington, where she enjoyed meeting new people, surprisingly many who also originated from Minnesota.

On Wednesday, November 20, 2024, while most of Puget Sound sat in the dark in the middle of a rare bomb cyclone, Lorna passed away late in the night at 97 years old. Preceding Lorna in death were her husband, Elmer; her parents, Harry and Leona; siblings: Veryl (Eino) Kehus, Glen “Pete” (Delores) Petersen, Orin (Dorothy) Petersen, Loretta (Argyle) Paulson, Norman (brother-in-law) Koehler, and Dick (brother-in-law) Anderson, and with her long life, alas many other relatives and friends.

Lorna is survived by all three of her children: Jo Ellen (Brian) Vallee of Covington, Mary (Dave) Taylor of Bellevue, and Richard “Rick” Pollack of Renton; three Taylor grandsons: Matthew, Brett (Hannah Montgomery), and Ross (Staci McMahon); two great granddaughters: Juniper and Maisie (daughters of Brett and Hannah); Lorna’s two sisters Jean Koehler of New York Mills and Mary Anderson, of Daphne, Alabama; along with many other nieces, nephews and friends.

Lorna loved her children and sons-in-law, grandsons, and great-granddaughters very much. And they loved her too and will miss her greatly.

May she rest in peace.