Lois Mears

Lois Darline Mears

1925 - 2016

Lois Darline Mears died Friday, November 4th of ovarian cancer at the age of 91. She passed peacefully at home with her daughter, with hospice care provided by Cascade Hospice.

Born July 17, 1925 to Roy and Sylvia Mendenhall in Walla Walla, Washington, Lois was the youngest of four siblings; Helen, Robert, and Dorothy predeceased her. As a child, Lois, with her sister "Dot" spent a year on the farm with family in Santa Rosa, CA, while her mother recovered from illness; Lois also endured scarlet fever quarantine at age 11. She said she gained her abiding love of books in this period. For the last 45 years of her life, Lois was a loyal patron of Springfield Public Library.

Lois took pleasure in her work as a full charge bookkeeper. After graduation from Franklin High School in 1943, she obtained an internship with Iron Fireman Manufacturing in Portland, Ore. Lois and "Dot"moved to San Francisco to support the war effort as clerical staff for a shipbuilding company, where Lois was promoted to bookkeeping duties. She and her sister earned enough to return to SE Portland to purchase a home for their parents.

Her career included bookkeeping and office management for Portland Road & Driveway; P&J Machine Shop; Farra & Pidcock, CPAs; E. Lee Robinson Construction; and Ellison & Platz Home Builders, where she retired in 1997.

Lois married Thomas Adams in 1949 and divorced in early 1952. She married Donald Harvey Mears in 1953. She assisted Donald in his housebuilding projects through managing finances; over the years, they developed properties in Boring, Oregon City, Portland, Beaverton, and Springfield. In retirement, she enjoyed the daily yoga of vigorous gardening.

She provided caring safe harbor to her son, daughter, and grandchildren during various medical, marital, and other challenges; she cared daily for her three grandchildren after school, and assisted in creating a special needs trust for her grandson. Lois also provided her widowed mother Sylvia nearly 10 years of care, estate management, and coordination of medical treatment for Alzheimer's between 1979 and 1986.

Lois is predeceased by her husband Donald (1999) and son Ralph (1988); she is survived by daughter Linda Mears and grandchildren Kathryn (Peter) Zoumboukos, Robert Saltmarsh, and Kellyn Saltmarsh; and loving niece, nephews and their families. A private family remembrance will follow interment at Willamette National Cemetery.

Her delicate beauty belied an inner fortitude: We'll be missing you, Lois.