Lorriane Carole Dunevant

Lorraine Dunevant, a lifelong Portland resident, died Monday, March 9, 2026 at the home of her daughter in Canyon Lake, California, after a five-year battle with dementia.

Born Lorraine Carole Engbrecht on August 1, 1930, to Carl Engbrecht and Frances Smith, she attended St. Patrick’s Grade School and Immaculata Academy, graduating in 1948. She also attended business classes at Vanport and Portland State after high school. As an only child growing up during the Great Depression, she was quickly taught the value of hard work and the necessity of saving money for a rainy day.

As a teenager, she worked for local grocery stores in the Guild’s Lake area of Northwest Portland before joining the New York Merchandise Company wholesalers as a bookkeeper. It was during that time that, in 1954, she met Donald Dunevant at a dance, impressed by his height and beautiful Pendleton shirt. She later discovered that the shirt belonged to his cousin. After a long courtship, she married Don on September 15, 1956, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, where he also took classes to convert to Roman Catholicism.

During the 1960s, Lorraine and Don settled into their first and only home in the University Park neighborhood of North Portland and she gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl.

In 1968, she left the workforce as her oldest child entered grade school. From that time forward, she focused on her husband, kids, parents, and an aunt and uncle. She spent her time taking her mother, who did not drive, on errands and to the grocery store; serving at biweekly Hot Dog Days at Holy Cross Grade School; attending Little League baseball games; and setting up orthodontist appointments for her kids. While her husband attended yearly “summer camps” for the Oregon National Guard, she organized vacations to California and Nevada to visit Reno, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, Disneyland and other favorite spots, taking her children, mother and her uncle, Joe Smith. She was active at Holy Cross Church during the time her children attended the grade school. Later, as her children entered high school and college, she returned to St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Her husband, Don, died on July 1, 1996, just shy of their 40th anniversary. In the years that followed, she filled her days with the things she loved most, tending to her yardwork, seeing her children and visiting her friends, many of whom she had known since childhood.

She traveled extensively with her children, eventually visiting all fifty states (the last one was Michigan!) and eight Canadian provinces. Through it all, she appreciated the things she had, her family, her house, her neighbors and her friends.

As she approached her 90s, forgetfulness turned into dementia and her activities were curtailed by the 2020 pandemic. Her world began to shrink, and she lived in the moment, forgetting her past and unable to look to the future. Fortunately for her children, nothing was left unsaid, and they have boxes of postcards, thank-you notes, pictures and memories of the time they spent with her. She lived her life with gratitude, and she passed that same sense of thankfulness and obligation to her children who feel truly blessed to have had these years with her, and an opportunity to pay back her many kindnesses.

Lorraine is survived by her son, Ron Dunevant and his wife Lorrie Callopy of Tualatin, Oregon; her daughter Sharon Fleenor and her partner Martin Megnin of Canyon Lake California; one granddaughter, Megan Fleenor, of Fullerton, California; and two grandsons, Mark Fleenor and Matt Fleenor of La Mirada, California.

Viewing of the body will be at Hustad Funeral Home in St. Johns on Friday, March 27, where, at 12:30pm, a simple ceremony with family and friends will be held. Interment will be in the family plot next to her husband, mother, father and uncle at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Portland.

The family wishes to thank all the family and friends who, over the years, visited Lorraine, called her on the phone, sent her cards or letters, invited her out, or just spoke to her when you saw her. She enjoyed all of it and you helped make her feel special. In lieu of flowers, you may donate to one of the two parishes where she attended mass: St. Mary’s Cathedral in downtown Portland or Holy Cross Catholic Church in North Portland or just spend time with someone you care about.