Our beloved wife and mother died peacefully in her sleep on September 12th. LaRae Marlene Koon Bogh was born on the kitchen table in Kearney, Nebraska, during the height of the Great Depression. Her parents, Virgil and Edna Koon, moved to the west coast during World War II and LaRae attended Lynch Elementary, where she was honored with the Eighth Grade Outstanding Student award. ln 1952, she graduated from Gresham High School.
After attending the University of Oregon (where she was a member of the Tri Delta sorority) and Portland State, LaRae was in the first graduating class at PSU in 1956. While at PSU, she was Outstanding Girl, Homecoming Princess and Founder’s Day Queen. She was also on Student Council and the PSU Women’s Honorary Society. LaRae majored in English and Journalism and became a teacher of high school Literature. (She especially loved teaching about William Shakespeare.) Her first teaching job was at Milwaukie High School. She also taught several years in the David Douglas School District, POIC, and Mount Hood Community College. Concurrent with her teaching career, LaRae was the PSU Alumni News Editor. Later, she switched careers and worked as a field counselor for the State of Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation Division.
In 1957, LaRae married her sweetheart, Ron Bogh, whom she met at PSU where he was attending college on the GI Bill. Their daughter Peri was born, followed by their son, Tracy, three and a half years later. LaRae is survived by her ever loving husband and daughter. She was predeceased by her son, Tracy. LaRae is also survived by her sister, Dixie (Bruce) and brothers Randy (Robin) and Wesley (Sandy), and many nieces and nephews.
LaRae and Peri loved to play card games. LaRae and Ron loved to play Pinochle and the board game of Jeopardy with family and friends. A gifted writer and artist, LaRae created many treasured booklets, drawings (especially stick figures), poems and photograph albums for her family. Of course, her captions for each photo were clever, fun and unique!
Ron and LaRae became the gold standard of married couples. They had just celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary a few days before she died. LaRae cherished her family more than anything in the world, and we all loved her equally right back! Words simply cannot describe the loss Ron feels for his true love or the loss Peri feels for her mom. We know, however, that some day we will be reunited with her and Tracy.
Good-bye, Mom, we love you.
(In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the PSU Foundation - College of Education Scholarship)
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