Lea Nanette White

Lea Nanette White was born on July 31,1957 in Heppner, Oregon to Thomas and Janet White of Ione, Oregon. She passed away quite suddenly and peacefully December 9, 2025, at St. Charles Hospital in Bend, Oregon at the age of 68. The cause of death was lung cancer. From the beginning Lea was tough minded and unusually strong physically. She danced to "Willie and the Hand Jive" at age 13 months.
Lea attended Ione schools until her senior year in high school when circumstances beyond control required her mother Janet and siblings to relocate to Bend, Oregon where she graduated high school in 1975.
Lea married Kenneth Bring in 1990 but later divorced. They had one daughter Elizabeth Ann who survives.
Lea began her work history at age 15 driving wheat truck in the Ione area. After high school graduation she worked in a lumber mill in Bend and a boat building business in Culver. Lea moved to the Pendleton/Ukiah area where she drove log trucks in the Blue Mountains. Next, she worked on the building of the coal-fired plant in Boardman, Oregon. In 1977 on a lazy Sunday while the building was still just scaffolding and wooden ladders used by the building crew, Lea and her mother climbed the ladders to the top of the building and enjoyed a spectacular view of the Eastern Oregon landscape that they both loved.
Lea moved to Sandy, Oregon and worked for Stacy Witbeck Construction hauling heavy equipment and machinery on flatbeds to where they were needed on the narrow-crowded streets of downtown Portland. When construction was delayed because of weather Lea worked as a server at the Top of the Cosmo at the Hilton Hotel in northeast Portland. Her next job was working on the Yellow Max Rail Line from northeast Portland past the Delta Park area.
When those jobs were finished, she and Elizabeth moved to Ogden, Utah where Lea worked on the light rail system. After Elizabeth was grown Lea worked on pipelines across the U.S. mostly in the east and south. She put thousands of miles on her Toyota Rav4 with the Led Zeppelin logo on the rear window.
Lea was highly respected by bosses and coworkers in a male-dominated profession and known to go above and beyond the call of duty and would willingly help anyone.
One job ended in 2011 in time to allow Lea to take the lead caring for her maternal grandmother for 3 weeks on Hospice in Redmond, Oregon with the assistance of her mother and sister Yvonne.
Lea retired in 2020 and resided in Redmond, Oregon. Her survivors are daughter Elizabeth Bring, her mother Janet Moe White, siblings Yvonne Deans, Leland White, and Greg White and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her father Thomas Hosfelt White, paternal grandparents Gordon and Maravene (Scarborough) White of Ione, Oregon, maternal grandparents Leland and Leona (Creson) Moe of Portland, Oregon.
Lea will be interred at Skyline Memorial Gardens in Portland, Oregon with her maternal grandparents. A service will be held there in the spring.
Arrangements were handled by Autumn Mortuary in Redmond, Oregon.
The family and all who knew Lea will remember her good natured, warm, funny, witty, loving disposition, generous to a fault, and devotion to her family and friends.