Cleora Colin's Obituary
Cleora Colin, a centenarian-plus at 101 years old, died peacefully in her Edgewood home of 71 years on Friday, December 13, 2024. She is survived by her son, Dale, by me, her daughter, Carol, by her son-in-law, my husband Ted; by her sisters-in-law Lavon and Lorraine; and by four generations of nieces and nephews. She outlived her parents, Mac and Alice Wakefield; her two brothers, Don and Ted; 36 aunts and uncles; and all but one of her 40 first cousins. Cleora was recently predeceased by her nephew, David, of Lake Tapps.
Cleora was born on the same North Dakota homestead as her mother. When she started to talk, one of the first things her dad taught her to say was “medulla oblongata”. She was born with no hip sockets, a condition they couldn't fix out on the prairie at that time, so, she said, “one day I just got up and walked”, and somehow, as she grew, her muscles adapted to minimize her disability. It slowed her down but it never held her back.
In the years after WWI, debt and drought depressed American farming, so in 1927 Mac moved his family from North Dakota to Washington. They landed with Alice’s relatives in Puyallup but soon moved to Edgewood, where they rode out the Depression. Mac worked on WPA projects and did odd jobs for eight years, Alice baked cakes for the neighbors, sewed, gardened and canned. For fun they visited family, or they might walk down to Puyallup to see a movie. Cleora remembered seeing “Treasure Island” at the Liberty Theater. Cleora, Don and Ted all went to Edgemont elementary schools through the 1930s. Mac drilled them on their math and spelling. Cleora and Don could sing and entertained at PTA meetings. They all finished high school in Sumner in the early ‘40s, and both of her brothers married Sumner girls.
In high school, Cleora made two friends for life, Marge, who became her sister-in-law when they married brothers, and Ducky, whose 100th birthday party Cleora attended last summer, and who came to visit days before Cleora passed. Cleora was a member of the class of 1942. Writing in her yearbook, lots of students called her “a swell kid”. After graduation, her dad wanted her to go to college, and she wanted to be a librarian, but by then it was wartime. Dreams were being put on hold. Many boys enlisted and some of her girlfriends went to work in the shipyards. It was one time her hip problem stopped her; they said she was too short for that work. Instead, she attended Knapp College of Business in Tacoma,
gaining office skills. In May 1943, Cleora and Marge went by train to Long Beach, California for six weeks to visit Marge’s brother who was stationed there in the Navy. That was the first of many travel experiences, and she chronicled it in a touching, funny little diary that survives. During the war she and her friends went to dances at the Tacoma USO, the Crescent Ballroom, the Century Ballroom and the Spanish Castle. They learned to dance with the soldiers and sailors stationed nearby, and Cleora enjoyed dancing the rest of her life.
She worked through the war in different offices until she was hired at Tacoma’s Griffin Fuel Company. She worked there through the first few years of her marriage. She married a returned soldier named Romain Colin after a whirlwind six-week romance in 1946. He proposed early, and in less than a month she sewed her wedding dress and dresses for Marge and two of Ro’s sisters. They bought a little house on McKinley Hill where Ro taught her to drive, and where they brought Carol home in 1952. The next year they built a home in Edgewood four doors down from her folks, where she has lived ever since. Dale was born in 1955. She sang to her kids, bought them Little Golden Books which cost a quarter, read to them, and told them stories. Her two brothers and their wives were living in adjacent homes, bringing up their kids, so between them eight first cousins grew up together next door to each other and to their grandparents. It was a memorable time. Cleora was active in the PTA, the Firettes, (wives of volunteer firemen), and she was a Bluebirds and Campfire Girls leader.
Cleora always said her marriage to Ro was the happiest time of her life. But after 20 years it ended in divorce and as a single mother she went back to work, this time for Sears. She learned to balance her checkbook to the penny. At work, she said, “I did everything you could do at Sears except floor sales”, because she couldn’t stand on her feet that long. She started in credit, did a lot of customer service, and worked the switchboard.
She encouraged Carol to leave home after high school and go to art school. Dale attended various schools and job programs. In about 1978 he moved home from Seattle to recuperate from an illness and they agreed he would stay. Cleora helped when he opened a bike repair shop in the basement. Then Dale began volunteering in the self-advocacy movement for people with developmental disabilities and for 36 years Cleora was his supportive partner in that work, often
providing transportation to their activities for him and his friends. She always loved to drive.
About 1966, she met a former ice-hockey player named Harold Smith, who didn’t get to play too much because, he said, “I spent too much time in the penalty box”. He said he liked Cleora because she was “tough”. Dale says, “Harold was happy”. He was the best dance partner she ever had, and he was her friend and companion for 30 years.
She worked for Sears for 30 years; in Sumner, then in downtown Tacoma, and finally at the Tacoma Mall. She enjoyed her work and her work friends. A group of women who liked to explore and shop - they called themselves “the Bag Ladies”- spent many weekends traveling here in the northwest. They visited the daffodil and tulip fields, Leavenworth, the San Juan Islands and Victoria, B.C. She and one special friend, Marion, traveled down the west coast as far as San Francisco. They saw the Grand Canyon together on an Elderhostel trip, and they went to Hong Kong with an excursion into mainland China. The friendship endured until Marion’s death just four years ago.
In 1987 Cleora retired and her Sears crew saw her off with a party. But she missed her job, her friends, and when her old boss invited her back, she worked for another 8 years! When she was ready to quit, they gave her another retirement party.
Cleora had helped Alice with her home ceramics studio for years, and after retirement, she did a lot of crochet work, producing colorful afghans and elegant tablecloths. She got interested in making beaded jewelry and discovered she had a great eye for design. Besides helping Dale with his volunteer work, the two of them got into a Saturday thrift store habit. While Dale bought records, Cleora put together a collection of art pottery vases and other antiques that she displayed at home. She read the paper every day, did the crossword puzzle, and kept up with the news. She always voted! She and Dale got the ball rolling on a reunion of all the early families on their street and it was a big success. The two of them often visited Ted and Carol, who had moved to Los Angeles. She and Don worked on the 50th anniversary celebration of the 2nd Edgemont School in 1988, and she helped Ducky organize many of their Sumner High School class of ’42 reunions. She had always loved history, and cousins who were doing genealogical research were
amazed that she could remember all the relationships and names of all those aunts, uncles and cousins mentioned earlier. She bought a computer and learned how to use it. She made a mean apple pie into her late 90s, and was famous for her chocolate chip cookies. She loved pets all her life and about 12 years ago she and Dale adopted two older sister cats, Willow and Muffin, that brought her much happiness.
Cleora was an optimist. She didn’t like unnecessary drama. She was capable, pragmatic, and she planned ahead. If she needed something done, she would research and weigh her options, and ask for help when she needed it. If she was frustrated enough, she could get angry. But she never held a grudge and if she made a bad decision, she did her best to fix it. She was proud that she and Don and Ted never had a serious disagreement in their lives. She took care of other people all her life, including Alice, after Mac’s death. She took care of Harold through his final illness, cleaning out his house and moving him to Puyallup so she could be there if he needed her, in eight minutes door-to-door. She became Dale’s paid caregiver when she was in her late 70s, which eased her financial situation, and that lasted until 2021, when she had stopped driving, her vision and hearing were poor, and then at age 98 she got the Alzheimer’s diagnosis. That year her hair started to go noticeably gray.
These last two or three years were difficult because there was almost nothing left that she could physically do. But despite feeling useless, even with her growing confusion, Cleora broke through in moments of lucidity to express her love and gratitude for all the people coming to help her. Anne, Terri and Nely, professional in-home caregivers, always made her smile. The staff of Multicare Home Health and Hospice guided us through Mom’s last 12 days, especially: Anita, Kathy, Kayla, Jenny and Alyssa. These are some of the friends who were always available: Donna and her late husband Dick; Linda and Leon; Mila and Les; Kelly and Vance and their girls; always, Ducky; Maryann; the whole Gordon family; her cousin LaDonna, and the rest of her amazing extended family, especially Sandy. Cleora was always there for us, and many of us had the opportunity to give back to her. She would want to say, once more, thank you all.
A memorial donation to Multicare Hospice may be made here: https://give.multicare.org/impact-areas/palliative-care/
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