Alice Lorraine Martin

1923 - 2024

Alice Lorraine (Metzler) Martin

August 16, 1923 - April 16, 2024

CORVALLIS - Although born in Bandon, Lorraine always considered Corvallis her home. The first child of Glenn Arthur Metzler and Vera Margaret Bell Metzler, Lorraine was followed and predeceased by siblings Colleen Fay and Lewis Leonidous. A member of the Corvallis High class of 1941, she worked at Camp Adair during the war where she met her future husband, Jack Martin of Johnson City, Tennessee. She and Jack were married October 12, 1944 at First Presbyterian Church in Corvallis. Then her college years were on hold during the war as she and Jack lived in Cincinnati, Ohio where he was stationed for two years, then mustered out. Returning to Corvallis, Lorraine graduated from Oregon State College in 1947. An avid Beaver fan from her early years, she attended opening day of Gill Coliseum as the Beavers played (and beat) the Utes. Her daughter was born three weeks later.

Lorraine and Jack had two children, James Walter Martin and Marilyn (Lynne) Martin Ervin of Corvallis who survives her. Also surviving is her son-in-law Edward (Bud) Ervin, first cousins Linda McTigue of Ventura, California and Carolyn Coleman of Lake Oswego, nieces and nephews living in Oregon, California, Arizona and Georgia and her precious Golden Retriever Stargazer Lily who has one more reason to look skyward.

Lorraine had an active travel history with Jack and following his death, with family and friends traveling the US, the Maritimes of Canada, western Canada, French Polynesia, throughout Europe and to the USSR with the Presbyterian choir in 1991. A three-week tour of Europe by car and rail with Lynne and Bud was a highlight of the late '90s including stops off-the-eastern-Europe beaten path; as was a self-catered long boat with Lynne, Bud and four friends on the Canal du Midi, round trip from the Mediterranean to Carcassonne in September 2001. Adventures in the states included hiking to the top of Mt. Sherman, a Colorado 14'er at 14,043 feet and snowshoeing to the family cabin above Pitkin, Colorado, elevation 10,300 feet.

Lorraine loved celebrations and birthdays were perfect opportunities; she made the most of them. She and her daughter commemorated Lorraine's 80th birthday sailing westbound on the QEII into New York, flying to Denver that afternoon, attending a Bruce Springsteen concert at Mile High that evening and cheering the Denver Broncos the next day, also at Mile High. Her 100th birthday was a celebration of a century of Lorraine and music, a three-hour open house of joyful merriment and festivity.

Lorraine was an avid volunteer after retirement from Production Tech (once called Industrial Arts) in the School of Engineering in the 1980s. She was an 87-year member of the congregation at First Presbyterian where she was on various committees as well as being Clerk of Session for seven years and she sang with the choir for seventeen years with which she traveled to several music festivals including Carnegie Hall. The church was very dear to her; Lorraine loved to say her Bell grandfather "built" the sanctuary in 1910 and she never forgot where her Granddad Metzler sat during Sunday worship those many years ago.

Along with Jack, Lorraine was on the founding committee that led to the development of Stoneybrook Lodge and she also volunteered with Friends of the Library, Corvallis-OSU Symphony Society, Old Mill School, American Cancer Society and the Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis and she was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her only regret was not learning to play the piano. The family has endless gratitude to Evergreen Hospice and to Shanti in particular for steadfast patience and respect for Lorraine's well-lived life and for helping Lynne "let her mother go," sustaining her through the end of her mother's life and adjusting to life without her.

Lorraine asked that memorial gifts be directed to any of the above agencies or to the donor's favored cause. All are invited to a remembrance and reception on Thursday May 23, 2024 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm, First Presbyterian Church, 114 SW 8th Street, Corvallis, 97333.