Suzanne Lee Armentrout

Tuesday, December 22, 1942, Suzanne Lee Walker joined us on this earth. She had a full head of dark hair, and proud 22-year-old parents. Her Father, Ward Edward Walker had recently graduated from Willamette University. Her Mother, Rosemary (Riggs) Walker was teaching piano for extra cash. General Eisenhower had just won major victories in north Africa. Times were frightening. Her Father would receive “greetings” from his local draft board. Suzie did not recognize her father when he returned from the Pacific Theater with action on Okinawa, and occupation duties in the Philippines and Korea.

Life gained new energy and optimism when hundreds of thousands of GIs returned triumphantly from the war. Soon the family grew. Also, common for the time, Suzie and family lived across the street from an uncle and grandparents Walker and Riggs lived close by in North Portland. Suzie was a welcome and frequent guest joining Grandpa JJ Walker for “ice cream thirty” in the evenings.

Alameda elementary school accommodated the baby boom. Mom, Rosie, was active in the PTA and room mother cadre. Grade school was good times punctuated with rides down Dead Man’s Hill on the handlebars of big brother, Wayne’s bicycle handlebars. The walk home was a casual stroll up the hill with a tight group of girlfriends. She finished her public education career with the Grant High School Generals.

The whole Walker extended family were active members Fremont Methodist Church. On a dare from her uncle, Suzie became a Southern Methodist University Mustang in Dallas, Texas. Dallas was an eye-opening experience for a 4 ‘– 11” white girl when Jim Crow was at its apex. Her major was in elementary education with an ample component in theology typical of a church supported institution.

Suzie began her teaching career at Colonel Wright elementary as a first-grade teacher in 1968. The Dalles was the alternative to an offer in Fossil. Her professional career would blossom earning a master’s degree in special education from Portland State and career opportunities in the Clark County ESD and positions in Springfield. In Eugene/Springfield magic happened melding Suzie, daughter Michele, and son Robert with Terry Armentrout and his daughter Lauren. The five of us built a loving, supportive, and resolute family as we built a home in Pleasant Hill.

We built our family by building our house! We did the whole thing from concept to the door locks! We built it on the “Land,” 12 acres in the Lost Creek Valley. Suzie’s brother, Karl, designed it using the ideas of all five of us. The orientation was to catch the winter sun in the green house, to view Castle Mountain from the front windows, and to be in the shadow of Mt. Zion. One can easily see Mt. Zion from I – 5 at the Goshen exit. Karl did the design, the five of us built the little red pump house at our rental and assembled it on the “land” We dug ditches, we poured cement, we did the plumbing, we did the wiring, and we roofed it. Suzie and Grandma Armentrout hung the wallpaper in the dining room. On a cold November Sunday we insulated it. We did everything but lay the carpet. In that process we also built one family of the “five of us” from two broken homes. We participated. We had ownership, that house was ours and it was us.

The girls had horses, Cinder and Fudge. The horses needed hay. Suzie drove the pickup; Lauren and Robert stacked the truck; Michele and I bucked the bails. Then we stacked it in the hay in the barn, but the truck bed was full of hay seed. I said to Suzie, “Sweezy, get the broom and swoop out the hay seed.”   From that point on, Suzie became “Sweezy the swooper!”

Soon, the red pickup had gone over 100,000 miles and needed attention. The “Five of Us” plus Grandma and Grandpa Armentrout rebuilt it from the rubber to the rooftop. We replaced every bearing a truck can have, rebuilt the engine, rebuilt the transmission, and reupholstered the seat with deep blue velvet. Michele, Robert, and Lauren disassembled the cab. We repainted it a bright fire engine red. After, all, seven of us pushed it to the garage where we reassembled it. The kids installed a really classy AM/FM tape playing radio. They read the instructions, worked together, and had it in the dashboard. The next day, Grandpa put on the face plate using a gooey red epoxy. They were devastated! All the discovery and work, the finished product was so crude! We discussed Grandpa was more important than the truck. When Grandma and Grandpa continued their gypsy journey, we removed his red gooey epoxy and “put the Sunday Dressing on the radio. The red pickup served us well, the kids learned to drive in it, and Sweezy and I used it. Sweezy sat in the center because the floor over the transmission was higher, it fit her better. We looked like teenagers.

Career opportunities brought the family back to The Dalles via Enumclaw Washington. Sweezy again joined The Dalles School District 12 and Colonel Wright. She retired in 1999 where she began in 1968.

Sweezy loved music learning to play piano early. She had lessons in downtown Portland once a week. She loved the lessons, would wander and dream through Meier and Frank Department store before she caught the bus home. The Walkers bought a used Chickering Brothers Acoustigrande piano to facilitate Rosemary’s teaching. Sweezy refurbished the piano in 2007 finding the cracked black lacquer was hiding beautiful, stripped mahogany. The piano will remain in our family. Sweezy was a skilled sight reader and smoothly played pieces like Mozart’s Rondo, Straus waltzes, and contemporary pieces for relaxation.

Sweezy was our queen seeing daughter Michele, son Robert, and daughter Lauren blossom into six grandsons and an extended family of fifteen. Sweezy was the matriarch of our family celebrating the successes of each member and consoling in the storms. She departed from us on Saturday Morning, November 20 as congestive heart failure took its toll. We will celebrate her life on her 79th birthday, December 22nd at The Dalles Civic Auditorium, 323 East 4th Street. Join us in an open house gathering 1-4 PM.

Mark Powell