Obituaries for March 16, 2009

‘Bea’ Jacobs

Beatrice Catherine Lorang Jacobs died March 12, 2009, three days before her 94th birthday.

Until the first of the year she was living a very active life at the home she had shared with her daughter, Judy Litchfield, for many years. She died surrounded by three generations of her loving family.

“We were blessed to have her with us for so long,” family members said.

A Mass of Christian Burial for Bea, a lifelong Catholic, was said today at 11 a.m. at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Portland. On July 11, her ashes will be flown by her son and daughter to her father’s family ranch at Genesee, Idaho, to be honored at a family reunion.

She will then be flown to Lewiston, Idaho, by Gale and Judy for a memorial service and then her ashes will be buried next to her husband, Dick, and son, Lanny, at Pioneer Cemetery. Her gravestone next to her husband’s has been waiting for her for for 57 years. Dick was the only man in her life. Bea and Judy loved to fly with Gale and this last memorial flight will be a fitting tribute to their mother, they said.

Beatrice Catherine Lorang Jacobs was born at Spokane, Wash., on March 15, 1915. She lived through two world wars and became very familiar with rationing, red cents and the frugal lifestyle required at the time.

She moved to Portland where she graduated from Grant High School in 1933 before moving with her family to Lewiston, Idaho. There she met Richard Earl Jacobs. They were married in September 1938 and became a full-time mother.

Widowed at the age of 37 in 1952, she kept the family together and raised her five children. She sustained her family by taking in laundry and ironing, baby-sitting, establishing Bea’s Bakery and then cooking at the St. Stanislaus grade school for the hot lunch program. Bea was a renowned vocalist and gifted pianist whose voice and music served the community of Lewiston and her church choir for many decades.

In 1967, Bea moved, with her youngest daughter, Susan, to Portland. She worked as a retail clerk in downtown Portland department stores for many years and retired in May 1984 to enjoy her family and friends.

She and her sister, Kay, traveled to such places as Greece, Rome and Yellowstone Park. She flew with her son, Gale, on many exciting trips in his airplane. Bea was the ever-present grandmother, always ready with a happy smile and a warm embrace, her family said.

She became the matriarch of her extended family and lived life to its fullest. Bea kept a descriptive journal of her and her family’s life events. Her mind was sharp to the end.

Bea was preceded in death by her mother and father, Blanche and Barney Lorang; her husband, Dick; and son, Lanny.

Survivors include her four children, Gale “Jake” Jacobs and his wife, Joan, of Baker City, Judy Litchfield of Portland, Karen Lauby and her husband, Gary, of Renton, Wash., and Susan Montgomery and her husband, Terry, of Anaconda, Mont.; eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren; two sisters, Kathleen Conroy of Portland and Bernice Bartel and her husband, Bill, of Ridgefield, Wash.; and a large extended family.