Lavonne Shirley Umsted

For the first 19 years of her life, LaVonne was raised on the Bayman family farm in North Dakota. During the days she went to school, helped work the farm and loves on her sheep. At night her parents would take her into town, where she would rowdily get into street fights with the city kids while her father drank beer at the local bar and her mother did the weekly grocery shopping.

As is the nature of things, LaVonne met a boy named James Umsted, and on this 19th birthday, they were married. While this marriage was not destined to last, it brought about 3 children and eventually relocated LaVonne to Oregon.

LaVonne worked many jobs over her lifetime, from managing apartments to working at a cannery. She was always an independent woman, but she lived for her family. She was constantly with her grandkids, and loved to spoil them anyway that she could. She captured them frogs from amongst the green beans at the cannery, taught her youngest granddaughter how to steal corn from out from under the cannery fence and always laughed when that same grandchild would practice swiping her necklace right off her neck. She kept them in stitches with her stories, embellished tales of when a bee flew up her shorts and when her tenant saved a toy poodle from a hawk.

While LaVonne loved animals, especially lambs (baa baa's) and puppies (poopsies) she despised cats. So of course, her grandchildren bought her anything and everything they could find with cats on it. LaVonne had a wondrous sense of humor and was always thrilled as long as she was always given TWO presents for every occasion.

For almost 92 years, LaVonne's hobbies included coloring, paper dolls, crosswords, quilting, bubble baths, playing her music too loudly, shopping at Nordstrom, and watching "The Big Bang Theory." She loved eating Eggos, hot sunny weather, and wearing new pajamas.

LaVonne was born on July 29th, 1932 and passed aways peacefully on July 8th, 2024. She is survived by her daughters Kathleen and Nancy, her son James, her younger brother Harlan, her granddaughters Sara and Rachel, her grandsons Derek, Lee, and Dylan, and the love of her life Antonio Banderas.

This story was written with an unmeasurable amount of love and sass by her youngest granddaughter,m Rachel, who LaVonne lovingly called her "Darn Rotten Kid."