Biography
Leona Evaline Sampson Austin
June 9, 1921 to May 8, 2008
Leona Austin passed on May 8, 2008, at 86 years of age. Leona is survived by her two sons
Early Years
She was born Leona Evaline Sampson in Aberdeen, Washington on June 9, 1921 to Frank 1875-1955 and Nellie Paulina Mae Elder Sampson 1899-1974. She was 'Leona' to her family; 'Sammy' to her nurses training and Army Air Corps pals and Illinois in-laws; and as 'Lee' to friends and co-workers since the 1960's.
Frank Sampson came from a logging family that moved from New Hampshire to Michigan in the mid 1800's. He was born in Evart, Michigan. At age 18 in 1903, he had a violent argument with his father, George, and left home for Grays Harbor Washington where the vast woods and the size of the trees had become world renoun. Frank was a big man and worked in logging camps. For a short time he worked as a bouncer for the infamous Billy Gohl in one of the Aberdeen bars. Leona later recounted that Frank did not much care for the work. He also worked for the Simpson Lumber Company in the woods running a steam donkey. He excelled at bar brawling, a weekend pastime in the rough logging town of Aberdeen. Gaitha Campbell, who had married Frank's niece, recounted how he and Delbert Wilson, who had married his other niece, would go into bars with Frank who would hold out his arms for them to swing on to show off his strength.
At age 31 Frank met a 17-year-old woman from Trinity, North Carolina through a 'lonely hearts' magazine. Nellie May was bored with farm life. They corresponded until Frank proposed by mail and Nellie May accepted. Frank took the train to North Carolina to meet her in 1916 and they were soon married.
Frank and Nellie Sampson returned to Aberdeen where he continued work as a boiler engineer at the Eureka sawmill in Hoquiam and Nellie May worked in a logging camp kitchen. Frank worked at the Hoquiam sawmill for 25 years until it burned down in the 1930s.
Frank and Nellie had seven children: Lewis 1918-1919, Floyd 1919, Leona 1921, Ethel 1922-1924, Howard 1925-1990, Donald 1928 and Dale 1933-1998. Lewis died an infant and Ethel died shortly before age three. Frank and Nellie divorced in 1933. Nellie remarried Ernest E. Warren 1894-1974, and they provided Leona with an additional brother, Kenneth E. Warren 1934.
In 1924 or 1925, Leona and her mother Nellie May, took the train back to North Carolina to live with Nellie May's family for nearly a year. Nellie May was distraught over the death of Ethel to scarlet fever. Bessie Sampson, Leona's aunt and Henry's wife, took care of her infant brother Howard back in Aberdeen. The North Carolina Elder family welcomed Leona in a way she would always cherish and never forget. She recalled cold mornings sitting in front of a wood stove with her grandfather Elder, talking quietly with him while the house warmed up.
School Days in Aberdeen and Bremerton
Back in Grays Harbor when things were difficult Leona would think about her name: 'Leona,' as in 'Leo the Lion,' and 'Sampson,' like the strongman Samson from the Bible. She took strength from the meaning of her name. Once when she was in second grade she found her older brother Floyd tangled in a fight in an alley near their house. Floyd was getting the worst of it. She jumped into the fray tackling the other boy to the ground while telling Floyd to run home to get their mother. The fight continued for a long time and the boy asked eagerly if Leona's mother would be coming soon. They called a truce and went to look for Floyd. They found him enjoying a game of baseball with some other neighborhood boys. Her younger brothers would sometimes threaten would-be bullies with 'I'll have my sister come beat you up' which she was not pleased to hear about later.
Leona lived in Hoquiam and Aberdeen until her junior year of high school in 1935. She did not live a conventional girl's childhood, staying home from school for chores and babysitting brothers. Taking after her mother, baseball became one of her favorite pastimes. She was not always allowed to play because she was a girl. She solved that problem once at age nine by hitting her friend, Junior Cross, on the fingers with a bat sending him home crying. Because they were one player short her brothers and the other boys now let Leona join the game. Years later as a pretty young high school sophomore with an interest in boys she was mortified when Junior told this story to her friends.
She loved the family outings at their cabin on Lake Quinault where her father would fish for salmon with the permission of the Quinault Indian tribe. She often reminisced of one evening when her father was telling stories to a visitor about cougars in the woods of Washington. He then turned to the nine year old and said, 'Leona, go down to the Lake and fetch some water.' The fearful little girl completed this task while there was much laughter back at the cabin. A few days later there was a report of an actual cougar attack nearby and Leona was never again allowed to fetch water.
Leona's remembrance of her parents' divorce was of sitting on a bench outside the courtroom in Montesano, her feet not quite able to touch the floor. She was called into the courtroom and placed on the witness stand. The judge asked with whom she wished to live and she chose her mother.
When her grandmother Ida Sampson died in 1932 it was 10-year old Leona who was sent into the room by her fearful mother. She was told to check Ida's breathing to see if she was dead. Leona thought later that this experience turned her toward nursing. Ida was her favorite person in the world. Leona spent many happy days with her at Bay City on the south side of Grays Harbor where Ida and George Sampson had their bungalow. Leona fondly remembered running up the back of a dead whale that had beached there when she as about 8. In all her childhood, the person who was most kind to her, the person she loved the most, was her grandmother Ida.
Nurses Training and WW II
After graduating from Bremerton High School in 1939, Leona and a best friend took their first trip to Seattle by ferry. It was a true adventure. Leona remembered shopping at Nordstroms that day. A year later she enrolled in nursing school at Everett Hospital, which was part of the University of Washington Nursing Program. One fond memory of nursing school was coming back to the dorm after curfew and climbing to her second story room. Being caught meant expulsion. Not being caught was delicious adventure, especially with her terrible fear of heights. She earned her degree in three years, going to school during the summer and after graduation enlisted in the Army Air Corp as a nurse. Lt. Austin was stationed at Las Vegas, then a hot, dusty, small desert town. While there, she nursed airmen burned in training accidents at the local air bases and badly wounded soldiers returning from combat in the Pacific. What she remembered from Army hospitals turned her against the war in Vietnam as early as 1964, before it became popular to be against the war.
Normandy Park—Family, Nursing, Singing and Acting
In March 1945, she married Army Air Corps Capt. Donald F. Austin Sr. When Don came back from Tinian where he had been a B-29 Captain, they attended his family reunion in Illinois. Young, good looking and in uniform, 'they were like movie stars' as one of their nephews at the reunion later reported. After being discharged form military service, Don and Leona moved to Portland where Don was stationed as a co-pilot for United Air Lines. In 1947 they transferred to Seattle where a new airport called Sea-Tac was going to open in two years. Leona had two sons, Donald Franklin Austin II 1947 and Paul Douglas Austin 1948. In 1951 they moved to the Normandy Park home where she lived until 2004. The house had a spacious view of Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound. The neighborhood provided woods in the back where children could play.
Divorced in 1957, Leona worked hard as a nurse balancing a modest income with a firm commitment to keep the house and raise her two sons. She succeeded and was able to provide modest vacations for the family at Twin Harbors or Lake Wilderness. Leona had a second marriage to Walter Swenson of Raymond, Washington. Walter was a close friend of the boys until his death in 1989.
Don went on to teach high school in Portland for 16 years before becoming an attorney and practicing law in Hawaii, California, and Washington. He currently lives in the house Leona struggled to keep. Paul went north to Alaska to work construction and still lives in Fairbanks. He continues to work as a material coordinator in the oil industry. After her sons were raised, Leona spent much of her leisure time with Walt at a beach cabin near North Shore above Willapa Harbor, a mobile home on Anderson Island south Puget Sound, and on Puget Sound in her boat.
Leona had a serious interest in singing. She had taken voice lesson since her 20's and later sang with the Seattle Opera Chorus off and on for six seasons beginning in 1966. During that time she was fortunate to sing on stage with such legends as Joan Southerland, Anna Moffo, Eileen Farrell, Sherrill Milnes, Beverly Sills, and Franco Corelli. Leona also became a founding member of Seattle Light Opera where she played principal roles in five productions and worked on publicity, sets, and costumes in numerous other productions. After leaving Seattle Light Opera in the early 1980s, she acted with the Pecadillo Players and the Valley Community Players.
During this time she continued in nursing. In 1987, Leona retired from Group Health's Burien office. She reasoned that there were far fewer good-looking women at her age than when she was twenty giving her an advantage in modeling. She sought a new career in modeling and acting, appearing in both video and print commercials for such companies as U.S. Bank, Pay N Save, J.C. Penny, Safeway, SeaFirst, Country Health Bread, Princess Cruise Lines, and the Washington State Lottery.
Leona was past 80 years old in her last acting classes with teacher Richard Brestoff. She was by far the oldest student and could not always remember her lines. Although polite, the teacher and other students may not have recognized any talent with Leona. At the end of one class, the teacher asked if any student had a monologue or something to perform for the class. Leona raised her hand and said, 'I can sing.' One by one the other students were selected to give their performances as Leona persisted, 'I can sing.' Finally, the teacher had to give her a turn. She sang 'Sunrise, Sunset' from 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Having performed the female lead role in a local production several years before she knew the song and performed it well. Her strong soprano voice needed no microphone in the large hall. Classmates and teacher were surprised and applauded enthusiastically, an applause, which she always remembered. She continued taking acting classes until her last audition in the fall of 2003 at the age of 82.
Leona's strength helped her to deal with health issues in later years. In 1998 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was cured through chemotherapy. Parkinson's was diagnosed in 2000 followed by macular eye degeneration in 2002. In 2005 it was discovered that she had been having Multiple mini-strokes. She rarely complained or whined, but bravely dealt with the ravages of time. She voluntarily stopped driving. By 2004, her health had made it difficult for her to continue living in her home in Normandy Park where she had been for 53 years so she chose to move from the house into an assisted living facility.
Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings
She bravely endured the steady physical decline from Parkinson's and strokes with dignity. She gradually lost her ability to walk, to feed herself, and eventually even to talk, in the end only being able to communicate with her eyes and a few vowel sounds, or on a good day with two or three difficult-to-understand words. When she occasionally was able to say a few words, she saved those words for things that were important to say like 'I love you' or 'God bless you.' From 2004 until 2006 she resided at Normandy Park Assisted Living. In early 2006 she moved to an adult family home, Angel Wings on 190th and 4th Ave. South. There she received the best of care, even telling one of her sons shortly after arriving, 'I'm so lucky to be here!'
Don and Paul chose Angel Wings for their mother after inspecting more than three dozen facilities. The best part about Angel Wings was the people who took care of Leona, primarily Maria Lazea and her daughter Amelia Herzog. Maria and Amelia met Leona's daily needs patiently and kindly. Amelia and her husband Cornelius own Angel Wings. Their 24-hour a day loving care was deeply appreciated by Leona and her sons.
Leona enjoyed the company of her sons and friends during the last years of her life at Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings. In 2005, Don moved back to Seattle to be nearer to her. Paul visited from Alaska about five times a year for two to three weeks at a time. Leona knew that she was not alone but surrounded by loved ones.
Leona loved to hear a story about her former strength in the last months of her life, a time when any speech or movement was nearly impossible. Her eyes showed such delight as her son would recount the story to any new visitor. Leona had been home from the hospital for two days after major surgery. Her son Paul, a high school sophomore, was arm wrestling a teammate from the wrestling team in the kitchen. Leona cut in and after a small head start, beat the lad, much to his red faced surprise and to her son's delight. Her strength later showed itself in her fight with Parkinson's.
In early May of 2008, Leona caught a cold which may have turned to pneumonia, something which she herself had called 'death's blessed angel' in reference to Walt's passing years before. Her son Paul had just spent three weeks in Seattle making daily visits. He left Monday night. Wednesday evening, Don visited Leona for an hour, listening to music with her. She had eaten well that evening. The next morning she declined rapidly. Don, who had been there earlier in the day, was summoned by Angle Wings and rushed to be there. Leona died in his arms, listening to loving assurances, with background music of a soprano singing a beautiful Puccini aria.
Memberships
Leona was proud of the organizations to which she belonged. She was a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild SAG, the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors AFTRA, the American Legion, the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association. The combination of organizations illustrates her versatility.
source: Bonney-Watson, 1732 Broadway in Seattle, Washington.
Leona Evaline Sampson Austin
June 9, 1921 to May 8, 2008
Leona Austin passed on May 8, 2008, at 86 years of age. Leona is survived by her two sons
Early Years
She was born Leona Evaline Sampson in Aberdeen, Washington on June 9, 1921 to Frank 1875-1955 and Nellie Paulina Mae Elder Sampson 1899-1974. She was 'Leona' to her family; 'Sammy' to her nurses training and Army Air Corps pals and Illinois in-laws; and as 'Lee' to friends and co-workers since the 1960's.
Frank Sampson came from a logging family that moved from New Hampshire to Michigan in the mid 1800's. He was born in Evart, Michigan. At age 18 in 1903, he had a violent argument with his father, George, and left home for Grays Harbor Washington where the vast woods and the size of the trees had become world renoun. Frank was a big man and worked in logging camps. For a short time he worked as a bouncer for the infamous Billy Gohl in one of the Aberdeen bars. Leona later recounted that Frank did not much care for the work. He also worked for the Simpson Lumber Company in the woods running a steam donkey. He excelled at bar brawling, a weekend pastime in the rough logging town of Aberdeen. Gaitha Campbell, who had married Frank's niece, recounted how he and Delbert Wilson, who had married his other niece, would go into bars with Frank who would hold out his arms for them to swing on to show off his strength.
At age 31 Frank met a 17-year-old woman from Trinity, North Carolina through a 'lonely hearts' magazine. Nellie May was bored with farm life. They corresponded until Frank proposed by mail and Nellie May accepted. Frank took the train to North Carolina to meet her in 1916 and they were soon married.
Frank and Nellie Sampson returned to Aberdeen where he continued work as a boiler engineer at the Eureka sawmill in Hoquiam and Nellie May worked in a logging camp kitchen. Frank worked at the Hoquiam sawmill for 25 years until it burned down in the 1930s.
Frank and Nellie had seven children: Lewis 1918-1919, Floyd 1919, Leona 1921, Ethel 1922-1924, Howard 1925-1990, Donald 1928 and Dale 1933-1998. Lewis died an infant and Ethel died shortly before age three. Frank and Nellie divorced in 1933. Nellie remarried Ernest E. Warren 1894-1974, and they provided Leona with an additional brother, Kenneth E. Warren 1934.
In 1924 or 1925, Leona and her mother Nellie May, took the train back to North Carolina to live with Nellie May's family for nearly a year. Nellie May was distraught over the death of Ethel to scarlet fever. Bessie Sampson, Leona's aunt and Henry's wife, took care of her infant brother Howard back in Aberdeen. The North Carolina Elder family welcomed Leona in a way she would always cherish and never forget. She recalled cold mornings sitting in front of a wood stove with her grandfather Elder, talking quietly with him while the house warmed up.
School Days in Aberdeen and Bremerton
Back in Grays Harbor when things were difficult Leona would think about her name: 'Leona,' as in 'Leo the Lion,' and 'Sampson,' like the strongman Samson from the Bible. She took strength from the meaning of her name. Once when she was in second grade she found her older brother Floyd tangled in a fight in an alley near their house. Floyd was getting the worst of it. She jumped into the fray tackling the other boy to the ground while telling Floyd to run home to get their mother. The fight continued for a long time and the boy asked eagerly if Leona's mother would be coming soon. They called a truce and went to look for Floyd. They found him enjoying a game of baseball with some other neighborhood boys. Her younger brothers would sometimes threaten would-be bullies with 'I'll have my sister come beat you up' which she was not pleased to hear about later.
Leona lived in Hoquiam and Aberdeen until her junior year of high school in 1935. She did not live a conventional girl's childhood, staying home from school for chores and babysitting brothers. Taking after her mother, baseball became one of her favorite pastimes. She was not always allowed to play because she was a girl. She solved that problem once at age nine by hitting her friend, Junior Cross, on the fingers with a bat sending him home crying. Because they were one player short her brothers and the other boys now let Leona join the game. Years later as a pretty young high school sophomore with an interest in boys she was mortified when Junior told this story to her friends.
She loved the family outings at their cabin on Lake Quinault where her father would fish for salmon with the permission of the Quinault Indian tribe. She often reminisced of one evening when her father was telling stories to a visitor about cougars in the woods of Washington. He then turned to the nine year old and said, 'Leona, go down to the Lake and fetch some water.' The fearful little girl completed this task while there was much laughter back at the cabin. A few days later there was a report of an actual cougar attack nearby and Leona was never again allowed to fetch water.
Leona's remembrance of her parents' divorce was of sitting on a bench outside the courtroom in Montesano, her feet not quite able to touch the floor. She was called into the courtroom and placed on the witness stand. The judge asked with whom she wished to live and she chose her mother.
When her grandmother Ida Sampson died in 1932 it was 10-year old Leona who was sent into the room by her fearful mother. She was told to check Ida's breathing to see if she was dead. Leona thought later that this experience turned her toward nursing. Ida was her favorite person in the world. Leona spent many happy days with her at Bay City on the south side of Grays Harbor where Ida and George Sampson had their bungalow. Leona fondly remembered running up the back of a dead whale that had beached there when she as about 8. In all her childhood, the person who was most kind to her, the person she loved the most, was her grandmother Ida.
Nurses Training and WW II
After graduating from Bremerton High School in 1939, Leona and a best friend took their first trip to Seattle by ferry. It was a true adventure. Leona remembered shopping at Nordstroms that day. A year later she enrolled in nursing school at Everett Hospital, which was part of the University of Washington Nursing Program. One fond memory of nursing school was coming back to the dorm after curfew and climbing to her second story room. Being caught meant expulsion. Not being caught was delicious adventure, especially with her terrible fear of heights. She earned her degree in three years, going to school during the summer and after graduation enlisted in the Army Air Corp as a nurse. Lt. Austin was stationed at Las Vegas, then a hot, dusty, small desert town. While there, she nursed airmen burned in training accidents at the local air bases and badly wounded soldiers returning from combat in the Pacific. What she remembered from Army hospitals turned her against the war in Vietnam as early as 1964, before it became popular to be against the war.
Normandy Park—Family, Nursing, Singing and Acting
In March 1945, she married Army Air Corps Capt. Donald F. Austin Sr. When Don came back from Tinian where he had been a B-29 Captain, they attended his family reunion in Illinois. Young, good looking and in uniform, 'they were like movie stars' as one of their nephews at the reunion later reported. After being discharged form military service, Don and Leona moved to Portland where Don was stationed as a co-pilot for United Air Lines. In 1947 they transferred to Seattle where a new airport called Sea-Tac was going to open in two years. Leona had two sons, Donald Franklin Austin II 1947 and Paul Douglas Austin 1948. In 1951 they moved to the Normandy Park home where she lived until 2004. The house had a spacious view of Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound. The neighborhood provided woods in the back where children could play.
Divorced in 1957, Leona worked hard as a nurse balancing a modest income with a firm commitment to keep the house and raise her two sons. She succeeded and was able to provide modest vacations for the family at Twin Harbors or Lake Wilderness. Leona had a second marriage to Walter Swenson of Raymond, Washington. Walter was a close friend of the boys until his death in 1989.
Don went on to teach high school in Portland for 16 years before becoming an attorney and practicing law in Hawaii, California, and Washington. He currently lives in the house Leona struggled to keep. Paul went north to Alaska to work construction and still lives in Fairbanks. He continues to work as a material coordinator in the oil industry. After her sons were raised, Leona spent much of her leisure time with Walt at a beach cabin near North Shore above Willapa Harbor, a mobile home on Anderson Island south Puget Sound, and on Puget Sound in her boat.
Leona had a serious interest in singing. She had taken voice lesson since her 20's and later sang with the Seattle Opera Chorus off and on for six seasons beginning in 1966. During that time she was fortunate to sing on stage with such legends as Joan Southerland, Anna Moffo, Eileen Farrell, Sherrill Milnes, Beverly Sills, and Franco Corelli. Leona also became a founding member of Seattle Light Opera where she played principal roles in five productions and worked on publicity, sets, and costumes in numerous other productions. After leaving Seattle Light Opera in the early 1980s, she acted with the Pecadillo Players and the Valley Community Players.
During this time she continued in nursing. In 1987, Leona retired from Group Health's Burien office. She reasoned that there were far fewer good-looking women at her age than when she was twenty giving her an advantage in modeling. She sought a new career in modeling and acting, appearing in both video and print commercials for such companies as U.S. Bank, Pay N Save, J.C. Penny, Safeway, SeaFirst, Country Health Bread, Princess Cruise Lines, and the Washington State Lottery.
Leona was past 80 years old in her last acting classes with teacher Richard Brestoff. She was by far the oldest student and could not always remember her lines. Although polite, the teacher and other students may not have recognized any talent with Leona. At the end of one class, the teacher asked if any student had a monologue or something to perform for the class. Leona raised her hand and said, 'I can sing.' One by one the other students were selected to give their performances as Leona persisted, 'I can sing.' Finally, the teacher had to give her a turn. She sang 'Sunrise, Sunset' from 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Having performed the female lead role in a local production several years before she knew the song and performed it well. Her strong soprano voice needed no microphone in the large hall. Classmates and teacher were surprised and applauded enthusiastically, an applause, which she always remembered. She continued taking acting classes until her last audition in the fall of 2003 at the age of 82.
Leona's strength helped her to deal with health issues in later years. In 1998 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was cured through chemotherapy. Parkinson's was diagnosed in 2000 followed by macular eye degeneration in 2002. In 2005 it was discovered that she had been having Multiple mini-strokes. She rarely complained or whined, but bravely dealt with the ravages of time. She voluntarily stopped driving. By 2004, her health had made it difficult for her to continue living in her home in Normandy Park where she had been for 53 years so she chose to move from the house into an assisted living facility.
Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings
She bravely endured the steady physical decline from Parkinson's and strokes with dignity. She gradually lost her ability to walk, to feed herself, and eventually even to talk, in the end only being able to communicate with her eyes and a few vowel sounds, or on a good day with two or three difficult-to-understand words. When she occasionally was able to say a few words, she saved those words for things that were important to say like 'I love you' or 'God bless you.' From 2004 until 2006 she resided at Normandy Park Assisted Living. In early 2006 she moved to an adult family home, Angel Wings on 190th and 4th Ave. South. There she received the best of care, even telling one of her sons shortly after arriving, 'I'm so lucky to be here!'
Don and Paul chose Angel Wings for their mother after inspecting more than three dozen facilities. The best part about Angel Wings was the people who took care of Leona, primarily Maria Lazea and her daughter Amelia Herzog. Maria and Amelia met Leona's daily needs patiently and kindly. Amelia and her husband Cornelius own Angel Wings. Their 24-hour a day loving care was deeply appreciated by Leona and her sons.
Leona enjoyed the company of her sons and friends during the last years of her life at Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings. In 2005, Don moved back to Seattle to be nearer to her. Paul visited from Alaska about five times a year for two to three weeks at a time. Leona knew that she was not alone but surrounded by loved ones.
Leona loved to hear a story about her former strength in the last months of her life, a time when any speech or movement was nearly impossible. Her eyes showed such delight as her son would recount the story to any new visitor. Leona had been home from the hospital for two days after major surgery. Her son Paul, a high school sophomore, was arm wrestling a teammate from the wrestling team in the kitchen. Leona cut in and after a small head start, beat the lad, much to his red faced surprise and to her son's delight. Her strength later showed itself in her fight with Parkinson's.
In early May of 2008, Leona caught a cold which may have turned to pneumonia, something which she herself had called 'death's blessed angel' in reference to Walt's passing years before. Her son Paul had just spent three weeks in Seattle making daily visits. He left Monday night. Wednesday evening, Don visited Leona for an hour, listening to music with her. She had eaten well that evening. The next morning she declined rapidly. Don, who had been there earlier in the day, was summoned by Angle Wings and rushed to be there. Leona died in his arms, listening to loving assurances, with background music of a soprano singing a beautiful Puccini aria.
Memberships
Leona was proud of the organizations to which she belonged. She was a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild SAG, the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors AFTRA, the American Legion, the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association. The combination of organizations illustrates her versatility.
source: Bonney-Watson, 1732 Broadway in Seattle, Washington.
Biography
Leona Evaline Sampson Austin
June 9, 1921 to May 8, 2008
Leona Austin passed on May 8, 2008, at 86 years of age. Leona is survived by her two sons
Early Years
She was born Leona Evaline Sampson in Aberdeen, Washington on June 9, 1921 to Frank 1875-1955 and Nellie Paulina Mae Elder Sampson 1899-1974. She was 'Leona' to her family; 'Sammy' to her nurses training and Army Air Corps pals and Illinois in-laws; and as 'Lee' to friends and co-workers since the 1960's.
Frank Sampson came from a logging family that moved from New Hampshire to Michigan in the mid 1800's. He was born in Evart, Michigan. At age 18 in 1903, he had a violent argument with his father, George, and left home for Grays Harbor Washington where the vast woods and the size of the trees had become world renoun. Frank was a big man and worked in logging camps. For a short time he worked as a bouncer for the infamous Billy Gohl in one of the Aberdeen bars. Leona later recounted that Frank did not much care for the work. He also worked for the Simpson Lumber Company in the woods running a steam donkey. He excelled at bar brawling, a weekend pastime in the rough logging town of Aberdeen. Gaitha Campbell, who had married Frank's niece, recounted how he and Delbert Wilson, who had married his other niece, would go into bars with Frank who would hold out his arms for them to swing on to show off his strength.
At age 31 Frank met a 17-year-old woman from Trinity, North Carolina through a 'lonely hearts' magazine. Nellie May was bored with farm life. They corresponded until Frank proposed by mail and Nellie May accepted. Frank took the train to North Carolina to meet her in 1916 and they were soon married.
Frank and Nellie Sampson returned to Aberdeen where he continued work as a boiler engineer at the Eureka sawmill in Hoquiam and Nellie May worked in a logging camp kitchen. Frank worked at the Hoquiam sawmill for 25 years until it burned down in the 1930s.
Frank and Nellie had seven children: Lewis 1918-1919, Floyd 1919, Leona 1921, Ethel 1922-1924, Howard 1925-1990, Donald 1928 and Dale 1933-1998. Lewis died an infant and Ethel died shortly before age three. Frank and Nellie divorced in 1933. Nellie remarried Ernest E. Warren 1894-1974, and they provided Leona with an additional brother, Kenneth E. Warren 1934.
In 1924 or 1925, Leona and her mother Nellie May, took the train back to North Carolina to live with Nellie May's family for nearly a year. Nellie May was distraught over the death of Ethel to scarlet fever. Bessie Sampson, Leona's aunt and Henry's wife, took care of her infant brother Howard back in Aberdeen. The North Carolina Elder family welcomed Leona in a way she would always cherish and never forget. She recalled cold mornings sitting in front of a wood stove with her grandfather Elder, talking quietly with him while the house warmed up.
School Days in Aberdeen and Bremerton
Back in Grays Harbor when things were difficult Leona would think about her name: 'Leona,' as in 'Leo the Lion,' and 'Sampson,' like the strongman Samson from the Bible. She took strength from the meaning of her name. Once when she was in second grade she found her older brother Floyd tangled in a fight in an alley near their house. Floyd was getting the worst of it. She jumped into the fray tackling the other boy to the ground while telling Floyd to run home to get their mother. The fight continued for a long time and the boy asked eagerly if Leona's mother would be coming soon. They called a truce and went to look for Floyd. They found him enjoying a game of baseball with some other neighborhood boys. Her younger brothers would sometimes threaten would-be bullies with 'I'll have my sister come beat you up' which she was not pleased to hear about later.
Leona lived in Hoquiam and Aberdeen until her junior year of high school in 1935. She did not live a conventional girl's childhood, staying home from school for chores and babysitting brothers. Taking after her mother, baseball became one of her favorite pastimes. She was not always allowed to play because she was a girl. She solved that problem once at age nine by hitting her friend, Junior Cross, on the fingers with a bat sending him home crying. Because they were one player short her brothers and the other boys now let Leona join the game. Years later as a pretty young high school sophomore with an interest in boys she was mortified when Junior told this story to her friends.
She loved the family outings at their cabin on Lake Quinault where her father would fish for salmon with the permission of the Quinault Indian tribe. She often reminisced of one evening when her father was telling stories to a visitor about cougars in the woods of Washington. He then turned to the nine year old and said, 'Leona, go down to the Lake and fetch some water.' The fearful little girl completed this task while there was much laughter back at the cabin. A few days later there was a report of an actual cougar attack nearby and Leona was never again allowed to fetch water.
Leona's remembrance of her parents' divorce was of sitting on a bench outside the courtroom in Montesano, her feet not quite able to touch the floor. She was called into the courtroom and placed on the witness stand. The judge asked with whom she wished to live and she chose her mother.
When her grandmother Ida Sampson died in 1932 it was 10-year old Leona who was sent into the room by her fearful mother. She was told to check Ida's breathing to see if she was dead. Leona thought later that this experience turned her toward nursing. Ida was her favorite person in the world. Leona spent many happy days with her at Bay City on the south side of Grays Harbor where Ida and George Sampson had their bungalow. Leona fondly remembered running up the back of a dead whale that had beached there when she as about 8. In all her childhood, the person who was most kind to her, the person she loved the most, was her grandmother Ida.
Nurses Training and WW II
After graduating from Bremerton High School in 1939, Leona and a best friend took their first trip to Seattle by ferry. It was a true adventure. Leona remembered shopping at Nordstroms that day. A year later she enrolled in nursing school at Everett Hospital, which was part of the University of Washington Nursing Program. One fond memory of nursing school was coming back to the dorm after curfew and climbing to her second story room. Being caught meant expulsion. Not being caught was delicious adventure, especially with her terrible fear of heights. She earned her degree in three years, going to school during the summer and after graduation enlisted in the Army Air Corp as a nurse. Lt. Austin was stationed at Las Vegas, then a hot, dusty, small desert town. While there, she nursed airmen burned in training accidents at the local air bases and badly wounded soldiers returning from combat in the Pacific. What she remembered from Army hospitals turned her against the war in Vietnam as early as 1964, before it became popular to be against the war.
Normandy Park—Family, Nursing, Singing and Acting
In March 1945, she married Army Air Corps Capt. Donald F. Austin Sr. When Don came back from Tinian where he had been a B-29 Captain, they attended his family reunion in Illinois. Young, good looking and in uniform, 'they were like movie stars' as one of their nephews at the reunion later reported. After being discharged form military service, Don and Leona moved to Portland where Don was stationed as a co-pilot for United Air Lines. In 1947 they transferred to Seattle where a new airport called Sea-Tac was going to open in two years. Leona had two sons, Donald Franklin Austin II 1947 and Paul Douglas Austin 1948. In 1951 they moved to the Normandy Park home where she lived until 2004. The house had a spacious view of Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound. The neighborhood provided woods in the back where children could play.
Divorced in 1957, Leona worked hard as a nurse balancing a modest income with a firm commitment to keep the house and raise her two sons. She succeeded and was able to provide modest vacations for the family at Twin Harbors or Lake Wilderness. Leona had a second marriage to Walter Swenson of Raymond, Washington. Walter was a close friend of the boys until his death in 1989.
Don went on to teach high school in Portland for 16 years before becoming an attorney and practicing law in Hawaii, California, and Washington. He currently lives in the house Leona struggled to keep. Paul went north to Alaska to work construction and still lives in Fairbanks. He continues to work as a material coordinator in the oil industry. After her sons were raised, Leona spent much of her leisure time with Walt at a beach cabin near North Shore above Willapa Harbor, a mobile home on Anderson Island south Puget Sound, and on Puget Sound in her boat.
Leona had a serious interest in singing. She had taken voice lesson since her 20's and later sang with the Seattle Opera Chorus off and on for six seasons beginning in 1966. During that time she was fortunate to sing on stage with such legends as Joan Southerland, Anna Moffo, Eileen Farrell, Sherrill Milnes, Beverly Sills, and Franco Corelli. Leona also became a founding member of Seattle Light Opera where she played principal roles in five productions and worked on publicity, sets, and costumes in numerous other productions. After leaving Seattle Light Opera in the early 1980s, she acted with the Pecadillo Players and the Valley Community Players.
During this time she continued in nursing. In 1987, Leona retired from Group Health's Burien office. She reasoned that there were far fewer good-looking women at her age than when she was twenty giving her an advantage in modeling. She sought a new career in modeling and acting, appearing in both video and print commercials for such companies as U.S. Bank, Pay N Save, J.C. Penny, Safeway, SeaFirst, Country Health Bread, Princess Cruise Lines, and the Washington State Lottery.
Leona was past 80 years old in her last acting classes with teacher Richard Brestoff. She was by far the oldest student and could not always remember her lines. Although polite, the teacher and other students may not have recognized any talent with Leona. At the end of one class, the teacher asked if any student had a monologue or something to perform for the class. Leona raised her hand and said, 'I can sing.' One by one the other students were selected to give their performances as Leona persisted, 'I can sing.' Finally, the teacher had to give her a turn. She sang 'Sunrise, Sunset' from 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Having performed the female lead role in a local production several years before she knew the song and performed it well. Her strong soprano voice needed no microphone in the large hall. Classmates and teacher were surprised and applauded enthusiastically, an applause, which she always remembered. She continued taking acting classes until her last audition in the fall of 2003 at the age of 82.
Leona's strength helped her to deal with health issues in later years. In 1998 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was cured through chemotherapy. Parkinson's was diagnosed in 2000 followed by macular eye degeneration in 2002. In 2005 it was discovered that she had been having Multiple mini-strokes. She rarely complained or whined, but bravely dealt with the ravages of time. She voluntarily stopped driving. By 2004, her health had made it difficult for her to continue living in her home in Normandy Park where she had been for 53 years so she chose to move from the house into an assisted living facility.
Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings
She bravely endured the steady physical decline from Parkinson's and strokes with dignity. She gradually lost her ability to walk, to feed herself, and eventually even to talk, in the end only being able to communicate with her eyes and a few vowel sounds, or on a good day with two or three difficult-to-understand words. When she occasionally was able to say a few words, she saved those words for things that were important to say like 'I love you' or 'God bless you.' From 2004 until 2006 she resided at Normandy Park Assisted Living. In early 2006 she moved to an adult family home, Angel Wings on 190th and 4th Ave. South. There she received the best of care, even telling one of her sons shortly after arriving, 'I'm so lucky to be here!'
Don and Paul chose Angel Wings for their mother after inspecting more than three dozen facilities. The best part about Angel Wings was the people who took care of Leona, primarily Maria Lazea and her daughter Amelia Herzog. Maria and Amelia met Leona's daily needs patiently and kindly. Amelia and her husband Cornelius own Angel Wings. Their 24-hour a day loving care was deeply appreciated by Leona and her sons.
Leona enjoyed the company of her sons and friends during the last years of her life at Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings. In 2005, Don moved back to Seattle to be nearer to her. Paul visited from Alaska about five times a year for two to three weeks at a time. Leona knew that she was not alone but surrounded by loved ones.
Leona loved to hear a story about her former strength in the last months of her life, a time when any speech or movement was nearly impossible. Her eyes showed such delight as her son would recount the story to any new visitor. Leona had been home from the hospital for two days after major surgery. Her son Paul, a high school sophomore, was arm wrestling a teammate from the wrestling team in the kitchen. Leona cut in and after a small head start, beat the lad, much to his red faced surprise and to her son's delight. Her strength later showed itself in her fight with Parkinson's.
In early May of 2008, Leona caught a cold which may have turned to pneumonia, something which she herself had called 'death's blessed angel' in reference to Walt's passing years before. Her son Paul had just spent three weeks in Seattle making daily visits. He left Monday night. Wednesday evening, Don visited Leona for an hour, listening to music with her. She had eaten well that evening. The next morning she declined rapidly. Don, who had been there earlier in the day, was summoned by Angle Wings and rushed to be there. Leona died in his arms, listening to loving assurances, with background music of a soprano singing a beautiful Puccini aria.
Memberships
Leona was proud of the organizations to which she belonged. She was a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild SAG, the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors AFTRA, the American Legion, the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association. The combination of organizations illustrates her versatility.
source: Bonney-Watson, 1732 Broadway in Seattle, Washington.
Leona Evaline Sampson Austin
June 9, 1921 to May 8, 2008
Leona Austin passed on May 8, 2008, at 86 years of age. Leona is survived by her two sons
Early Years
She was born Leona Evaline Sampson in Aberdeen, Washington on June 9, 1921 to Frank 1875-1955 and Nellie Paulina Mae Elder Sampson 1899-1974. She was 'Leona' to her family; 'Sammy' to her nurses training and Army Air Corps pals and Illinois in-laws; and as 'Lee' to friends and co-workers since the 1960's.
Frank Sampson came from a logging family that moved from New Hampshire to Michigan in the mid 1800's. He was born in Evart, Michigan. At age 18 in 1903, he had a violent argument with his father, George, and left home for Grays Harbor Washington where the vast woods and the size of the trees had become world renoun. Frank was a big man and worked in logging camps. For a short time he worked as a bouncer for the infamous Billy Gohl in one of the Aberdeen bars. Leona later recounted that Frank did not much care for the work. He also worked for the Simpson Lumber Company in the woods running a steam donkey. He excelled at bar brawling, a weekend pastime in the rough logging town of Aberdeen. Gaitha Campbell, who had married Frank's niece, recounted how he and Delbert Wilson, who had married his other niece, would go into bars with Frank who would hold out his arms for them to swing on to show off his strength.
At age 31 Frank met a 17-year-old woman from Trinity, North Carolina through a 'lonely hearts' magazine. Nellie May was bored with farm life. They corresponded until Frank proposed by mail and Nellie May accepted. Frank took the train to North Carolina to meet her in 1916 and they were soon married.
Frank and Nellie Sampson returned to Aberdeen where he continued work as a boiler engineer at the Eureka sawmill in Hoquiam and Nellie May worked in a logging camp kitchen. Frank worked at the Hoquiam sawmill for 25 years until it burned down in the 1930s.
Frank and Nellie had seven children: Lewis 1918-1919, Floyd 1919, Leona 1921, Ethel 1922-1924, Howard 1925-1990, Donald 1928 and Dale 1933-1998. Lewis died an infant and Ethel died shortly before age three. Frank and Nellie divorced in 1933. Nellie remarried Ernest E. Warren 1894-1974, and they provided Leona with an additional brother, Kenneth E. Warren 1934.
In 1924 or 1925, Leona and her mother Nellie May, took the train back to North Carolina to live with Nellie May's family for nearly a year. Nellie May was distraught over the death of Ethel to scarlet fever. Bessie Sampson, Leona's aunt and Henry's wife, took care of her infant brother Howard back in Aberdeen. The North Carolina Elder family welcomed Leona in a way she would always cherish and never forget. She recalled cold mornings sitting in front of a wood stove with her grandfather Elder, talking quietly with him while the house warmed up.
School Days in Aberdeen and Bremerton
Back in Grays Harbor when things were difficult Leona would think about her name: 'Leona,' as in 'Leo the Lion,' and 'Sampson,' like the strongman Samson from the Bible. She took strength from the meaning of her name. Once when she was in second grade she found her older brother Floyd tangled in a fight in an alley near their house. Floyd was getting the worst of it. She jumped into the fray tackling the other boy to the ground while telling Floyd to run home to get their mother. The fight continued for a long time and the boy asked eagerly if Leona's mother would be coming soon. They called a truce and went to look for Floyd. They found him enjoying a game of baseball with some other neighborhood boys. Her younger brothers would sometimes threaten would-be bullies with 'I'll have my sister come beat you up' which she was not pleased to hear about later.
Leona lived in Hoquiam and Aberdeen until her junior year of high school in 1935. She did not live a conventional girl's childhood, staying home from school for chores and babysitting brothers. Taking after her mother, baseball became one of her favorite pastimes. She was not always allowed to play because she was a girl. She solved that problem once at age nine by hitting her friend, Junior Cross, on the fingers with a bat sending him home crying. Because they were one player short her brothers and the other boys now let Leona join the game. Years later as a pretty young high school sophomore with an interest in boys she was mortified when Junior told this story to her friends.
She loved the family outings at their cabin on Lake Quinault where her father would fish for salmon with the permission of the Quinault Indian tribe. She often reminisced of one evening when her father was telling stories to a visitor about cougars in the woods of Washington. He then turned to the nine year old and said, 'Leona, go down to the Lake and fetch some water.' The fearful little girl completed this task while there was much laughter back at the cabin. A few days later there was a report of an actual cougar attack nearby and Leona was never again allowed to fetch water.
Leona's remembrance of her parents' divorce was of sitting on a bench outside the courtroom in Montesano, her feet not quite able to touch the floor. She was called into the courtroom and placed on the witness stand. The judge asked with whom she wished to live and she chose her mother.
When her grandmother Ida Sampson died in 1932 it was 10-year old Leona who was sent into the room by her fearful mother. She was told to check Ida's breathing to see if she was dead. Leona thought later that this experience turned her toward nursing. Ida was her favorite person in the world. Leona spent many happy days with her at Bay City on the south side of Grays Harbor where Ida and George Sampson had their bungalow. Leona fondly remembered running up the back of a dead whale that had beached there when she as about 8. In all her childhood, the person who was most kind to her, the person she loved the most, was her grandmother Ida.
Nurses Training and WW II
After graduating from Bremerton High School in 1939, Leona and a best friend took their first trip to Seattle by ferry. It was a true adventure. Leona remembered shopping at Nordstroms that day. A year later she enrolled in nursing school at Everett Hospital, which was part of the University of Washington Nursing Program. One fond memory of nursing school was coming back to the dorm after curfew and climbing to her second story room. Being caught meant expulsion. Not being caught was delicious adventure, especially with her terrible fear of heights. She earned her degree in three years, going to school during the summer and after graduation enlisted in the Army Air Corp as a nurse. Lt. Austin was stationed at Las Vegas, then a hot, dusty, small desert town. While there, she nursed airmen burned in training accidents at the local air bases and badly wounded soldiers returning from combat in the Pacific. What she remembered from Army hospitals turned her against the war in Vietnam as early as 1964, before it became popular to be against the war.
Normandy Park—Family, Nursing, Singing and Acting
In March 1945, she married Army Air Corps Capt. Donald F. Austin Sr. When Don came back from Tinian where he had been a B-29 Captain, they attended his family reunion in Illinois. Young, good looking and in uniform, 'they were like movie stars' as one of their nephews at the reunion later reported. After being discharged form military service, Don and Leona moved to Portland where Don was stationed as a co-pilot for United Air Lines. In 1947 they transferred to Seattle where a new airport called Sea-Tac was going to open in two years. Leona had two sons, Donald Franklin Austin II 1947 and Paul Douglas Austin 1948. In 1951 they moved to the Normandy Park home where she lived until 2004. The house had a spacious view of Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound. The neighborhood provided woods in the back where children could play.
Divorced in 1957, Leona worked hard as a nurse balancing a modest income with a firm commitment to keep the house and raise her two sons. She succeeded and was able to provide modest vacations for the family at Twin Harbors or Lake Wilderness. Leona had a second marriage to Walter Swenson of Raymond, Washington. Walter was a close friend of the boys until his death in 1989.
Don went on to teach high school in Portland for 16 years before becoming an attorney and practicing law in Hawaii, California, and Washington. He currently lives in the house Leona struggled to keep. Paul went north to Alaska to work construction and still lives in Fairbanks. He continues to work as a material coordinator in the oil industry. After her sons were raised, Leona spent much of her leisure time with Walt at a beach cabin near North Shore above Willapa Harbor, a mobile home on Anderson Island south Puget Sound, and on Puget Sound in her boat.
Leona had a serious interest in singing. She had taken voice lesson since her 20's and later sang with the Seattle Opera Chorus off and on for six seasons beginning in 1966. During that time she was fortunate to sing on stage with such legends as Joan Southerland, Anna Moffo, Eileen Farrell, Sherrill Milnes, Beverly Sills, and Franco Corelli. Leona also became a founding member of Seattle Light Opera where she played principal roles in five productions and worked on publicity, sets, and costumes in numerous other productions. After leaving Seattle Light Opera in the early 1980s, she acted with the Pecadillo Players and the Valley Community Players.
During this time she continued in nursing. In 1987, Leona retired from Group Health's Burien office. She reasoned that there were far fewer good-looking women at her age than when she was twenty giving her an advantage in modeling. She sought a new career in modeling and acting, appearing in both video and print commercials for such companies as U.S. Bank, Pay N Save, J.C. Penny, Safeway, SeaFirst, Country Health Bread, Princess Cruise Lines, and the Washington State Lottery.
Leona was past 80 years old in her last acting classes with teacher Richard Brestoff. She was by far the oldest student and could not always remember her lines. Although polite, the teacher and other students may not have recognized any talent with Leona. At the end of one class, the teacher asked if any student had a monologue or something to perform for the class. Leona raised her hand and said, 'I can sing.' One by one the other students were selected to give their performances as Leona persisted, 'I can sing.' Finally, the teacher had to give her a turn. She sang 'Sunrise, Sunset' from 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Having performed the female lead role in a local production several years before she knew the song and performed it well. Her strong soprano voice needed no microphone in the large hall. Classmates and teacher were surprised and applauded enthusiastically, an applause, which she always remembered. She continued taking acting classes until her last audition in the fall of 2003 at the age of 82.
Leona's strength helped her to deal with health issues in later years. In 1998 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was cured through chemotherapy. Parkinson's was diagnosed in 2000 followed by macular eye degeneration in 2002. In 2005 it was discovered that she had been having Multiple mini-strokes. She rarely complained or whined, but bravely dealt with the ravages of time. She voluntarily stopped driving. By 2004, her health had made it difficult for her to continue living in her home in Normandy Park where she had been for 53 years so she chose to move from the house into an assisted living facility.
Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings
She bravely endured the steady physical decline from Parkinson's and strokes with dignity. She gradually lost her ability to walk, to feed herself, and eventually even to talk, in the end only being able to communicate with her eyes and a few vowel sounds, or on a good day with two or three difficult-to-understand words. When she occasionally was able to say a few words, she saved those words for things that were important to say like 'I love you' or 'God bless you.' From 2004 until 2006 she resided at Normandy Park Assisted Living. In early 2006 she moved to an adult family home, Angel Wings on 190th and 4th Ave. South. There she received the best of care, even telling one of her sons shortly after arriving, 'I'm so lucky to be here!'
Don and Paul chose Angel Wings for their mother after inspecting more than three dozen facilities. The best part about Angel Wings was the people who took care of Leona, primarily Maria Lazea and her daughter Amelia Herzog. Maria and Amelia met Leona's daily needs patiently and kindly. Amelia and her husband Cornelius own Angel Wings. Their 24-hour a day loving care was deeply appreciated by Leona and her sons.
Leona enjoyed the company of her sons and friends during the last years of her life at Normandy Park Assisted Living and Angel Wings. In 2005, Don moved back to Seattle to be nearer to her. Paul visited from Alaska about five times a year for two to three weeks at a time. Leona knew that she was not alone but surrounded by loved ones.
Leona loved to hear a story about her former strength in the last months of her life, a time when any speech or movement was nearly impossible. Her eyes showed such delight as her son would recount the story to any new visitor. Leona had been home from the hospital for two days after major surgery. Her son Paul, a high school sophomore, was arm wrestling a teammate from the wrestling team in the kitchen. Leona cut in and after a small head start, beat the lad, much to his red faced surprise and to her son's delight. Her strength later showed itself in her fight with Parkinson's.
In early May of 2008, Leona caught a cold which may have turned to pneumonia, something which she herself had called 'death's blessed angel' in reference to Walt's passing years before. Her son Paul had just spent three weeks in Seattle making daily visits. He left Monday night. Wednesday evening, Don visited Leona for an hour, listening to music with her. She had eaten well that evening. The next morning she declined rapidly. Don, who had been there earlier in the day, was summoned by Angle Wings and rushed to be there. Leona died in his arms, listening to loving assurances, with background music of a soprano singing a beautiful Puccini aria.
Memberships
Leona was proud of the organizations to which she belonged. She was a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild SAG, the American Federation of Television and Radio Actors AFTRA, the American Legion, the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association. The combination of organizations illustrates her versatility.
source: Bonney-Watson, 1732 Broadway in Seattle, Washington.
Family Members
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