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Lorrie tells us she was born in Salinas, CA in November of 1956 and was raised in there.

She is the oldest of four children.  Two brothers and one sister follow her in the family tree.

Lorrie worked in the medical field all her career.  Cancer Therapy for six years, a fertility clinic for a year and in mammograms for five years.

She’s been married, and now divorced.  She has a son in Paso Robles with four children and a daughter living in Yreka that just got engaged.

She is extremely proud of both her children.

Disabilities have slowed her down a bit, but she keeps a smile on her face.

Asked what her biggest accomplishment was, she stated she went to college and graduated in 2016 with an AA in Liberal Art and Social Science.  Shortly after she graduated she moved to southern Oregon and settled in White City.

“Don’t Ever Give Up” is the motto she lives by.

She looks forward to visits from her oldest grandson, Keagon, who spends the night.

Bingo is a favorite of hers – says “it makes me feel good” – the people are so friendly and helpful.

The Camp Fire that ravaged northern California brought us one of our newest members.  She lost everything in that fire – only the ground where her house remained.  She fled with the clothes on her back and her dog, Reggie.  She now lives with her family here in Eagle Point.

Kathryn was born in San Francisco in May 1946.  She was raised in Sausalito, CA.

She has one older brother who lives in central California and a cousin in Pennsylvania.

Married twice, and widowed twice, she has two daughters and two grandsons.

In 1970 she graduated from Sonoma State University with a BA in Art and Liberal Studies.  She went back to school after her daughters were grown to get her teaching credentials.  Juggling a work schedule and going to school was a challenge that she accomplished.

Being a teacher for 10 years at a high school in Salinas, CA with “at risk” students proved to be another challenge.  Currently, she volunteers at Eagle Rock Elementary through the Foster Grandparents program.

Kathryn’s words of wisdom go something like this – “Take time to stop and smell the roses and feel the rain on your face.  The best recipe for a happy life is to do an act of kindness every day.”

An animal lover she has cats and a dog along with a goat and a miniature donkey to mow the lawn (just kidding about the goat and donkey)  Rain or shine, she loves spending time “puttering” outside in the yard and discovering the beauty of the Oregon coast.

Alan was born in Elmira, New York in 1946.  Barbara was born on the other side of the US in Salinas, California in 1950.  They met, fell in love and have been married 51 years this coming June.

Alan has 1 sister and one brother (he’s passed away).  Barbara had 3 brothers and one sister.  Two brothers and her sister have passed away.

Together they have four kids – 3 girls and 1 boy – they are all good kids.

Barbara had a fascinating job – helping score SAT tests.  Alan worked for McCormick Spices for 29 years and 11 months.  They gave him a retirement for 30 years.  He then went on to work for Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority as Recycling Coordinator.  He retired from there in 2012 and they moved to Oregon.

Alan’s Navy experience was 1964 to 1968 as Aviation Ordinanceman in VP47.  He did spend some of his military time in Viet Nam.

Both Alan and Barbara chimed in saying that the most interesting thing that has happened to them was meeting Bill and Hillary Clinton.  Alan was the Mayor of Salinas and the Clinton’s came to San Francisco for a fundraiser.  While he was the Mayor, he’s proud to say that the City rebuilt the rodeo grounds and the Steinbeck Center.  They opened a Community Center for kids called the “Bread Box”.  The community was very involved and wanted to make sure the kids had a place to call their own.

Alan stated that he had a fear of public speaking and Barbara worries about her health.  She’s recently had a knee replacement and faces a hip replacement on March 5^th.

Alan is proud of being elected Mayor of Salina, CA and served for eight years.  Barbara is proud of raising their own kids and foster kids, 8 of them including a family of 3.  She beams when she says – “they all graduated from high school”

Words of wisdom – Alan says “Always look forward” and Barbara says “try to push yourself out of your comfort zone”.

Barbara is looking forward to getting back in her garden after her hip surgery and Alan is looking for better days – after Barbara’s surgery to seeing more of our beautiful Oregon.

Let’s get acquainted with Marilyn Arnold – Marilyn was a weekly Bingo player and decided to join the Senior Center.

She was born in The Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, CA on November 26, 1950.  She is the oldest of four children, with 1 brother and two sisters.

Marilyn and her husband Cris will be married 35 years in June.  They have a son, Seth, 32 and a daughter Sarah, 31.  Seth has a BA in computer forensics and works for Disney Studios, and thinking about working for Princess Cruises; Sarah is a medical assistant and is married to a medical assistant.  Sarah has blessed the family with a Granddaughter, Abagayle (Abby) and that is the reason for the move from O’Brien to Eagle Point in May so they could be close to Abby.

Marilyn started working for “Ma Bell” when she was 17 and worked for them for 18 years.  She’s also had several home-based businesses.

When asked what her most interesting thing that has happened – she recounted that her husband, who worked for several major studios as a Teamster driver, made it possible for her to go to Browning, Montana for four days over the 4^th of July.  There she met Robin Williams.  He’s a lot smaller than I thought, she said but was so very gracious and nice.  He made everyone feel welcome.  They had a huge 4^th of July BBQ with fireworks everywhere.

She says her biggest accomplishment was raising their two children mostly on her own.  Cris’s job as a driver meant that he had to be first on a job site and the last to leave.  They were both very happy when he was able to retire and reunite their family in 2009.

In February 2018 Marilyn fell, hurt her back, broke her left shin, right arm and had quite a few facial bruises.  She’s working on getting back to how she felt before the fall.

Words of Wisdom – “the grass is not always greener” in many situations in life.

I’m looking forward to getting my health back.  My daughter has challenged me to walk around the golf course without my cane.  My goal!

Let’s get acquainted with Doug Wills – Doug joined our Center in December.

He was born in Oklahoma City, OK in November of 1941.  He was raised in Dallas, TX.  He liked it then, but later when he returned, it was so congested and grown to the point where you couldn’t tell one city from another.  Not for him.

Doug has been married three times.  He had two children with his first wife.  His third wife, Nancy brought two boys (1 & 8) to their marriage.  Together they had 2 girls and much later a “surprise” son.  Nancy was 3 days from being wed to Doug for 52 years when she passed.

A finish carpenter was his trade.  Worked in Michigan for a time.  He never lacked work – as soon as he finished a barn, another farmer would hire him.  He helped build the Medford Mall here in Oregon – working there for about 2 ½ years.  Taking great pride in his work always brought work to him.

Doug was in the recon unit of the 101^st Airborne.  He just missed being shipped out to Viet Nam.  Only two of his unit returned, and he wondered if he had gone, if more would have come back or maybe he wouldn’t have returned.

Doug belongs to the “Buckskiners”.  The group dresses in buckskins and they do reenactment of pre 1840 fur trade era.

His biggest obstacle is – head on learning to live without his beloved wife.

Biggest accomplishment for Doug has been his work ethic.  He’s always had more work than he could handle.  I’m proud of what I’ve done.

Words of Wisdom from Doug – “Treat people like you want to be treated”

He looks forward to his kids being “OK” when he’s gone.