Lorraine
Avis Hanson, 82, a retired
educator, passed away February 22, 2008 at St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton , OR . Memorial services will be held at St
Luke’s Lutheran Church in Shelby
on Friday March 7, at 11:00 am. Inurnment will take
place in Mountain View Cemetery. Following the service,
friends are invited to join the family in the fellowship hall for a reception.
Whitted Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Lorraine was born May 16, 1925 on a farm near Nome , North Dakota to Alfred and Emma Vance. She attended a rural consolidated school through her junior year. Then she went to Lisbon , North Dakota for her senior year. She graduated in 1943.
There was a shortage of teachers in the rural schools because of the war effort. The state administered a battery of tests and you received an emergency two-year certificate if you passed. Lorraine rode horseback 20 miles round trip to sign her teaching contract at the age of 18.
Lorraine did her own janitorial work, and the stove was in such terrible condition that one day when she was shaking the ashes down, the grates fell into the ashes. She did all this work for $90 a month for all 8 grades.
She met her husband, Ove, when he returned home from 2 ˝ years in the South Pacific. As there was a shortage of tires, they had 2 flat tires going to get their marriage license. They had only one son, Dave, who got his Masters Degree in counseling, and eventually retired from counseling in the Pendleton School District.
After 6 years of teaching in North Dakota, they moved to Chester , Montana. Dave had asthma, and his doctor advised a higher, drier climate. It worked, as Dave’s health improved after the move. Lorraine taught in Chester for two years, from 1956 to 1958, and then went to Shelby , Montana in 1958 where she taught for 27 years until she retired in 1985. In all, she taught 35 years. In 1993, Lorraine left Shelby and moved to Pendleton to be closer to her son.
Lorraine graduated with honors from high school and college. She started the first grade school science fair in Toole County . She directed plays and coached declamations. She taught tap dancing and was a Member of NEA, Classroom Teachers, and Delta Kappa Gamma. She held many offices. One year she was voted Educator of the Year. She started teaching Sunday School at age fifteen. She was Sunday School Superintendent in two parishes and was Bible School Superintendent and Chairman of a ladies’ circle.
Lorraine is preceded in death by her husband, Ove Hanson in 1974, her parents, two brothers and one sister. Lorraine is survived by her son David Hanson of Pendleton, Oregon.
Memorial contributions can be made to Peace Lutheran Church in care of Gray’s West & Co., 1500 Dewey Ave., Baker City , OR 97814.