Lydia Lida Bennett

Lydia Lida Bennett passed away on December 4, in Brookings after a short illness at the age of 105. Lydia was born March 10, 1920, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Her family left Oklahoma for Californa in the 1930's, and they settled in rural Merced County. Lydia was the only remaining sibling of that family of eleven children.
She met her future husband, Tom Tarwater, in Merced, and was married to him in 1938, for a short 24 years. After living in Planada, they moved to Manteca in 1942, with their children Jerry and Vernon. Their family was active in the Nile Garden School District and in the local First Baptist Church. They were in the hay baling business in rural Manteca. Tom passed unexpectedly from illness in 1962.
Lydia worked in the Manteca School District as a cook for the lunch program. Always anxious to learn, Lydia took numerous classes at Modesto Junior College.
Lydia married John Bennett in 1967, living in Sacramento, until they moved to Harbor in 1973. John "Jack" Bennett commercial fished in Trinidad, California, and Brookings after retirement. John passed away in 1982.
In 1982 Lydia was given a special award for outstanding volunteer service to the Brookings-Harbor hospice organization. It was in her home, while John Bennett was suffering from cancer, that the idea of a Brookings-Harbor hospice organization was formed. In her older years Lydia line danced with a local group, and also RVed, traveling to see family and friends in various states.
Tom and Lydia's son, Jerry Tarwater, and his wife, Nelwyn, owned a second home in Harbor until they returned to Stockton, California, where Jerry passed away in 2020. Their son, Thomas Tarwater, passed in 2010.
Vernon Tarwater, their younger son, and his wife, Linda, live in Gold Beach. Lydia's granddaughter, Anne Leigh Herbert, and her husband, Christopher Herbert, live in Bandon. Anne and Chris' children and grandchildren live in California.
A graveside service will be held at a later date in French Camp, California. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that Lydia be honored with a remembrance to Coastal Home Health & Hospice, or a charity of your choice