Saturday, February 12, 2011

Remembering a Person

Jim Person was the son of my grandma Esther's older brother, August.

Esther was my father Jack Urner's mother (Carl was his father). Margie was my grandmother on my mother Carol's side of the family, Tom Reilley her father.

Bill Lightfoot, Howard, Bo, Eddy and Eve, were grandma Esther's sister Elsie's kids. August was one of Esther, Elsie and Alice's brothers, along with Robert, Dick, Dud and Ernie (all Persons), and all Swedish settlers on Mercer Island.

Augie was an impressive human being by many accounts, a top Rotarian in his early 30s before he succumbed to pneumonia, and a radio man (repairs and operations) much in demand from Astoria to Portland. His widowed wife married Walt Tornblad and her young son Jim thereby gained his younger half brother Paul. They moved to Cherry Grove.

This was a memorial for the young son Jim, by now an old guy. His wife Martha Jane Person had died in May of 2009.

I was learning a lot of these details for the first time. I took some pictures of the literature available to the public. I wish I'd taken one of the preacher, a friendly giant and community servant.

Jim died peacefully in a way some of my relatives envy and seek to emulate.

Bill Hancock's dad was from nearby Glencoe (we were in Cornelius for the service). His wife Barbara is Harold's daughter, Harold (Dud). Harold Persons sisters were my grandma Esther, Elsie and Alice.

Elsie had many children, among them Bill Lightfoot, who picked me up at the house in his Aztec and drove me there and back. We adjourned to Back Stage for a beer afterwards.

In Cherry Grove