Lela Alice Brannan was born to James Grant Brannan and Nellie Lee Stimson Brannan on November 9, 1909 in the small mining town of Bodie, Washington. She was Grant and Nellie's sixth child, and she grew up in the wilderness of north central Washington's Okanogan Highland.
As a young woman, Lela worked as a cook for logging and wheat harvesting crews. She met Roy Werner Carlson, a tall, handsome Swede from Chicago, and they were married in Wenatchee, Washington on June 8, 1929. Together they worked the wheat-harvest circuit, she cooking and he on the harvesting field crews. They quickly had four little boys within the next five years: Jim, Skip, John, and Noel.
Tragically, Roy Carlson contracted Tuberculosis (TB) and died on September 19, 1934. He was 27-years-old. After only five years of marriage, Lela was a widow. Impoverished because neither she nor Roy could work during his illness, Lela was alone in caring for her dying husband and four small children, including a nursing baby. No one relieved her because everyone else was afraid of contracting TB if they entered her little home, and there were no government social-safety nets.
By the time Roy died, Lela was near death from exhaustion and malnutrition. Her infant, Noel, did die from malnutrition on February 11, 1935. At the time of his death, Noel was six-months-old. Within just under five months, Lela lost her husband and then her infant boy. At the same time, she had three other little boys to care for — a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a 20-month-old. Lela was was only 24-years-old. She mourned her young husband and infant son the rest of her life, unable to talk about them without crying.
After returning to cooking for wheat-harvesting crews to support her three little boys, Lela was reacquainted with Robert "Bob" Harold Whitman. Bob and Roy Carlson previously worked together on harvesting crews that Lela cooked for. Lela married Bob on April 17, 1936 in Waterville, Washington. They had two daughters together, Nina and Judy.
Lela and Bob managed to get their five children through the rest of the Great Depression. Life was difficult and they were sometimes reduced to near starvation. Working hard at a variety of jobs such as their wheat-harvest jobs, logging for him while she cooked for logging crews, work building the Roosevelt Dam for him, strawberry picking for both of them, and fruit-harvest work for both of them in the Wenatchee Valley, they used their wide variety of skills and Lela's creativity to make it through to better times. Through it all, Lela also cared for her home and five children.
Lela was accomplished at many things. Every year she canned vegetables and tomatoes from her abundant garden, as well as a variety of fruits, and she made her own fruit leather. Lela preserved enough fruit and vegetables each year to routinely feed her extended family of children and grandchildren. She baked bread every week, baked her own homemade biscuits and English muffins (baking the English muffins in large Folgers coffee cans), whipped up batches of homemade noodles in minutes, and her cookie jar was always filled with freshly baked cookies. She made her own berry syrups to pour over her delicious pancakes; pancakes she cooked on the bottom of her overturned cast-iron skillet, turning the bottom of her skillet into a griddle. Sometimes she even made her own butter.
While Bob butchered and skinned their rabbits for meals, Lela butchered and plucked their chickens, and Lela fried both up for dinners. To watch her go out to her barnyard with her little hatchet, choose a hen, and then swoop it up and kill it before it could suffer, was like watching a dance.
She chopped her own wood for her cookstove and home-heating stove. Often she slept in her rocking chair in front of the wood stove that heated her farmhouse in order to keep the fire stoked through the night, ensuring her grandchildren were warm in their beds. She healed her children's and grandchildren's burns, blisters, cuts, and scrapes with black tea, vinegar, and Bag Balm. She picked wild mint to make mint tea and wild blackberries for her homemade cobblers. She was also an accomplished seamstress.
Lela had a large slingshot she made herself, and whenever she was outside she kept that slingshot and some pebbles in the pockets of the aprons that she also made herself, to scare off starlings and neighbor cats messing up her garden. She was a dead-on shot.
A talented musician, Lela played the banjo, accordion, and piano. When her children were young, she played at Grange Hall dances (Bob played the drums), while her children slept behind the piano. Later, her grandchildren danced while she sat on her back porch and played her accordion or banjo. She always had a piano in her home.
Lela cooked on a wood-fueled stove until the mid-to-late 1960s because she preferred to. She said the heat was easier to control for better cooking than she could get from an electric range and stovetop. She used the same mixing bowls, cast iron frying pans, and stand-mixer for almost her entire adult life until she died, because she didn't believe in replacing useful items just because there was something new or prettier available. She repurposed a wide variety of items for household use, for her yard and gardens, and as crafting projects for her grandchildren. She cared for a large flower garden that she planted next to her even larger vegetable garden. Bob and Lela shared the vegetable garden, but the flower garden was hers alone.
Lela's only formal education was as a young girl up the Okanogan in the Okanogan Highland. Local families pitched in and paid a young woman to teach their children; she rotated living with the families and the classroom was in a family's living room. Although those years were few, Lela remained friends with her teacher into their old age, until her teacher died.
Lela loved words and always had a crossword game going. She was a voracious reader and a prolific writer who, despite her lack of formal education, wrote beautifully. She self-studied poetry and tried her hand at writing poetry in its various forms. Bob built her a wall-sized bookcase for all of her books and those shelves held a library for her grandchildren.
Lela had two dreams throughout her life. The first was to be a sailor so she could travel the world. Instead, she called herself an "armchair traveler," finding adventure through reading books and a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. On her bedroom wall of each home she lived in throughout most of her life was the same framed picture of a sailing ship at sea. Her second dream was to be a published writer. That didn't happen for her either, but she wrote innumerable essays, poems, and 15-20 page, handwritten letters to her ex-teacher and other friends, her siblings, and her grandchildren.
Lela's grandchildren called her home, "Granny's pad," which made her laugh, and it was the nucleus of her family. For decades her home was open to her adult children and her grandchildren for extended stays should any one of them need it at any time. Sitting in Lela's warm kitchen, chatting and having tea with her while indulging in her homemade bread and home-canned peaches, felt safe and one felt loved. It was a little slice of heaven.
Cared for through her final illness by her two daughters, Lela Alice Brannan Carlson Whitman died comfortably and peacefully in her home in Cashmere, Washington on June 1, 2001. She was 91-years-old. Married for 65 years, Bob Whitman died three days later.
Lela was preceded in death by her first husband, Roy Werner Carlson; her infant son, Noel Eldred Carlson; her parents, James Grant Brannan and Nellie Lee Stimson Brannan Doyle; her sisters Effie Pearl, Nellie Lenore, Laurel Mae, and Edith Lamb; her brothers, Lloyd Vane, Emauett, Harold Grant, and Murdith "Bud" Sumner; and her much beloved grandson, Dennis Roy Carlson.
Survivors included her three sons, two daughters, five grandsons, nine granddaughters, and numerous great-grandchildren.
As a young woman, Lela worked as a cook for logging and wheat harvesting crews. She met Roy Werner Carlson, a tall, handsome Swede from Chicago, and they were married in Wenatchee, Washington on June 8, 1929. Together they worked the wheat-harvest circuit, she cooking and he on the harvesting field crews. They quickly had four little boys within the next five years: Jim, Skip, John, and Noel.
Tragically, Roy Carlson contracted Tuberculosis (TB) and died on September 19, 1934. He was 27-years-old. After only five years of marriage, Lela was a widow. Impoverished because neither she nor Roy could work during his illness, Lela was alone in caring for her dying husband and four small children, including a nursing baby. No one relieved her because everyone else was afraid of contracting TB if they entered her little home, and there were no government social-safety nets.
By the time Roy died, Lela was near death from exhaustion and malnutrition. Her infant, Noel, did die from malnutrition on February 11, 1935. At the time of his death, Noel was six-months-old. Within just under five months, Lela lost her husband and then her infant boy. At the same time, she had three other little boys to care for — a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a 20-month-old. Lela was was only 24-years-old. She mourned her young husband and infant son the rest of her life, unable to talk about them without crying.
After returning to cooking for wheat-harvesting crews to support her three little boys, Lela was reacquainted with Robert "Bob" Harold Whitman. Bob and Roy Carlson previously worked together on harvesting crews that Lela cooked for. Lela married Bob on April 17, 1936 in Waterville, Washington. They had two daughters together, Nina and Judy.
Lela and Bob managed to get their five children through the rest of the Great Depression. Life was difficult and they were sometimes reduced to near starvation. Working hard at a variety of jobs such as their wheat-harvest jobs, logging for him while she cooked for logging crews, work building the Roosevelt Dam for him, strawberry picking for both of them, and fruit-harvest work for both of them in the Wenatchee Valley, they used their wide variety of skills and Lela's creativity to make it through to better times. Through it all, Lela also cared for her home and five children.
Lela was accomplished at many things. Every year she canned vegetables and tomatoes from her abundant garden, as well as a variety of fruits, and she made her own fruit leather. Lela preserved enough fruit and vegetables each year to routinely feed her extended family of children and grandchildren. She baked bread every week, baked her own homemade biscuits and English muffins (baking the English muffins in large Folgers coffee cans), whipped up batches of homemade noodles in minutes, and her cookie jar was always filled with freshly baked cookies. She made her own berry syrups to pour over her delicious pancakes; pancakes she cooked on the bottom of her overturned cast-iron skillet, turning the bottom of her skillet into a griddle. Sometimes she even made her own butter.
While Bob butchered and skinned their rabbits for meals, Lela butchered and plucked their chickens, and Lela fried both up for dinners. To watch her go out to her barnyard with her little hatchet, choose a hen, and then swoop it up and kill it before it could suffer, was like watching a dance.
She chopped her own wood for her cookstove and home-heating stove. Often she slept in her rocking chair in front of the wood stove that heated her farmhouse in order to keep the fire stoked through the night, ensuring her grandchildren were warm in their beds. She healed her children's and grandchildren's burns, blisters, cuts, and scrapes with black tea, vinegar, and Bag Balm. She picked wild mint to make mint tea and wild blackberries for her homemade cobblers. She was also an accomplished seamstress.
Lela had a large slingshot she made herself, and whenever she was outside she kept that slingshot and some pebbles in the pockets of the aprons that she also made herself, to scare off starlings and neighbor cats messing up her garden. She was a dead-on shot.
A talented musician, Lela played the banjo, accordion, and piano. When her children were young, she played at Grange Hall dances (Bob played the drums), while her children slept behind the piano. Later, her grandchildren danced while she sat on her back porch and played her accordion or banjo. She always had a piano in her home.
Lela cooked on a wood-fueled stove until the mid-to-late 1960s because she preferred to. She said the heat was easier to control for better cooking than she could get from an electric range and stovetop. She used the same mixing bowls, cast iron frying pans, and stand-mixer for almost her entire adult life until she died, because she didn't believe in replacing useful items just because there was something new or prettier available. She repurposed a wide variety of items for household use, for her yard and gardens, and as crafting projects for her grandchildren. She cared for a large flower garden that she planted next to her even larger vegetable garden. Bob and Lela shared the vegetable garden, but the flower garden was hers alone.
Lela's only formal education was as a young girl up the Okanogan in the Okanogan Highland. Local families pitched in and paid a young woman to teach their children; she rotated living with the families and the classroom was in a family's living room. Although those years were few, Lela remained friends with her teacher into their old age, until her teacher died.
Lela loved words and always had a crossword game going. She was a voracious reader and a prolific writer who, despite her lack of formal education, wrote beautifully. She self-studied poetry and tried her hand at writing poetry in its various forms. Bob built her a wall-sized bookcase for all of her books and those shelves held a library for her grandchildren.
Lela had two dreams throughout her life. The first was to be a sailor so she could travel the world. Instead, she called herself an "armchair traveler," finding adventure through reading books and a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. On her bedroom wall of each home she lived in throughout most of her life was the same framed picture of a sailing ship at sea. Her second dream was to be a published writer. That didn't happen for her either, but she wrote innumerable essays, poems, and 15-20 page, handwritten letters to her ex-teacher and other friends, her siblings, and her grandchildren.
Lela's grandchildren called her home, "Granny's pad," which made her laugh, and it was the nucleus of her family. For decades her home was open to her adult children and her grandchildren for extended stays should any one of them need it at any time. Sitting in Lela's warm kitchen, chatting and having tea with her while indulging in her homemade bread and home-canned peaches, felt safe and one felt loved. It was a little slice of heaven.
Cared for through her final illness by her two daughters, Lela Alice Brannan Carlson Whitman died comfortably and peacefully in her home in Cashmere, Washington on June 1, 2001. She was 91-years-old. Married for 65 years, Bob Whitman died three days later.
Lela was preceded in death by her first husband, Roy Werner Carlson; her infant son, Noel Eldred Carlson; her parents, James Grant Brannan and Nellie Lee Stimson Brannan Doyle; her sisters Effie Pearl, Nellie Lenore, Laurel Mae, and Edith Lamb; her brothers, Lloyd Vane, Emauett, Harold Grant, and Murdith "Bud" Sumner; and her much beloved grandson, Dennis Roy Carlson.
Survivors included her three sons, two daughters, five grandsons, nine granddaughters, and numerous great-grandchildren.
Lela Alice Brannan was born to James Grant Brannan and Nellie Lee Stimson Brannan on November 9, 1909 in the small mining town of Bodie, Washington. She was Grant and Nellie's sixth child, and she grew up in the wilderness of north central Washington's Okanogan Highland.
As a young woman, Lela worked as a cook for logging and wheat harvesting crews. She met Roy Werner Carlson, a tall, handsome Swede from Chicago, and they were married in Wenatchee, Washington on June 8, 1929. Together they worked the wheat-harvest circuit, she cooking and he on the harvesting field crews. They quickly had four little boys within the next five years: Jim, Skip, John, and Noel.
Tragically, Roy Carlson contracted Tuberculosis (TB) and died on September 19, 1934. He was 27-years-old. After only five years of marriage, Lela was a widow. Impoverished because neither she nor Roy could work during his illness, Lela was alone in caring for her dying husband and four small children, including a nursing baby. No one relieved her because everyone else was afraid of contracting TB if they entered her little home, and there were no government social-safety nets.
By the time Roy died, Lela was near death from exhaustion and malnutrition. Her infant, Noel, did die from malnutrition on February 11, 1935. At the time of his death, Noel was six-months-old. Within just under five months, Lela lost her husband and then her infant boy. At the same time, she had three other little boys to care for — a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a 20-month-old. Lela was was only 24-years-old. She mourned her young husband and infant son the rest of her life, unable to talk about them without crying.
After returning to cooking for wheat-harvesting crews to support her three little boys, Lela was reacquainted with Robert "Bob" Harold Whitman. Bob and Roy Carlson previously worked together on harvesting crews that Lela cooked for. Lela married Bob on April 17, 1936 in Waterville, Washington. They had two daughters together, Nina and Judy.
Lela and Bob managed to get their five children through the rest of the Great Depression. Life was difficult and they were sometimes reduced to near starvation. Working hard at a variety of jobs such as their wheat-harvest jobs, logging for him while she cooked for logging crews, work building the Roosevelt Dam for him, strawberry picking for both of them, and fruit-harvest work for both of them in the Wenatchee Valley, they used their wide variety of skills and Lela's creativity to make it through to better times. Through it all, Lela also cared for her home and five children.
Lela was accomplished at many things. Every year she canned vegetables and tomatoes from her abundant garden, as well as a variety of fruits, and she made her own fruit leather. Lela preserved enough fruit and vegetables each year to routinely feed her extended family of children and grandchildren. She baked bread every week, baked her own homemade biscuits and English muffins (baking the English muffins in large Folgers coffee cans), whipped up batches of homemade noodles in minutes, and her cookie jar was always filled with freshly baked cookies. She made her own berry syrups to pour over her delicious pancakes; pancakes she cooked on the bottom of her overturned cast-iron skillet, turning the bottom of her skillet into a griddle. Sometimes she even made her own butter.
While Bob butchered and skinned their rabbits for meals, Lela butchered and plucked their chickens, and Lela fried both up for dinners. To watch her go out to her barnyard with her little hatchet, choose a hen, and then swoop it up and kill it before it could suffer, was like watching a dance.
She chopped her own wood for her cookstove and home-heating stove. Often she slept in her rocking chair in front of the wood stove that heated her farmhouse in order to keep the fire stoked through the night, ensuring her grandchildren were warm in their beds. She healed her children's and grandchildren's burns, blisters, cuts, and scrapes with black tea, vinegar, and Bag Balm. She picked wild mint to make mint tea and wild blackberries for her homemade cobblers. She was also an accomplished seamstress.
Lela had a large slingshot she made herself, and whenever she was outside she kept that slingshot and some pebbles in the pockets of the aprons that she also made herself, to scare off starlings and neighbor cats messing up her garden. She was a dead-on shot.
A talented musician, Lela played the banjo, accordion, and piano. When her children were young, she played at Grange Hall dances (Bob played the drums), while her children slept behind the piano. Later, her grandchildren danced while she sat on her back porch and played her accordion or banjo. She always had a piano in her home.
Lela cooked on a wood-fueled stove until the mid-to-late 1960s because she preferred to. She said the heat was easier to control for better cooking than she could get from an electric range and stovetop. She used the same mixing bowls, cast iron frying pans, and stand-mixer for almost her entire adult life until she died, because she didn't believe in replacing useful items just because there was something new or prettier available. She repurposed a wide variety of items for household use, for her yard and gardens, and as crafting projects for her grandchildren. She cared for a large flower garden that she planted next to her even larger vegetable garden. Bob and Lela shared the vegetable garden, but the flower garden was hers alone.
Lela's only formal education was as a young girl up the Okanogan in the Okanogan Highland. Local families pitched in and paid a young woman to teach their children; she rotated living with the families and the classroom was in a family's living room. Although those years were few, Lela remained friends with her teacher into their old age, until her teacher died.
Lela loved words and always had a crossword game going. She was a voracious reader and a prolific writer who, despite her lack of formal education, wrote beautifully. She self-studied poetry and tried her hand at writing poetry in its various forms. Bob built her a wall-sized bookcase for all of her books and those shelves held a library for her grandchildren.
Lela had two dreams throughout her life. The first was to be a sailor so she could travel the world. Instead, she called herself an "armchair traveler," finding adventure through reading books and a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. On her bedroom wall of each home she lived in throughout most of her life was the same framed picture of a sailing ship at sea. Her second dream was to be a published writer. That didn't happen for her either, but she wrote innumerable essays, poems, and 15-20 page, handwritten letters to her ex-teacher and other friends, her siblings, and her grandchildren.
Lela's grandchildren called her home, "Granny's pad," which made her laugh, and it was the nucleus of her family. For decades her home was open to her adult children and her grandchildren for extended stays should any one of them need it at any time. Sitting in Lela's warm kitchen, chatting and having tea with her while indulging in her homemade bread and home-canned peaches, felt safe and one felt loved. It was a little slice of heaven.
Cared for through her final illness by her two daughters, Lela Alice Brannan Carlson Whitman died comfortably and peacefully in her home in Cashmere, Washington on June 1, 2001. She was 91-years-old. Married for 65 years, Bob Whitman died three days later.
Lela was preceded in death by her first husband, Roy Werner Carlson; her infant son, Noel Eldred Carlson; her parents, James Grant Brannan and Nellie Lee Stimson Brannan Doyle; her sisters Effie Pearl, Nellie Lenore, Laurel Mae, and Edith Lamb; her brothers, Lloyd Vane, Emauett, Harold Grant, and Murdith "Bud" Sumner; and her much beloved grandson, Dennis Roy Carlson.
Survivors included her three sons, two daughters, five grandsons, nine granddaughters, and numerous great-grandchildren.
As a young woman, Lela worked as a cook for logging and wheat harvesting crews. She met Roy Werner Carlson, a tall, handsome Swede from Chicago, and they were married in Wenatchee, Washington on June 8, 1929. Together they worked the wheat-harvest circuit, she cooking and he on the harvesting field crews. They quickly had four little boys within the next five years: Jim, Skip, John, and Noel.
Tragically, Roy Carlson contracted Tuberculosis (TB) and died on September 19, 1934. He was 27-years-old. After only five years of marriage, Lela was a widow. Impoverished because neither she nor Roy could work during his illness, Lela was alone in caring for her dying husband and four small children, including a nursing baby. No one relieved her because everyone else was afraid of contracting TB if they entered her little home, and there were no government social-safety nets.
By the time Roy died, Lela was near death from exhaustion and malnutrition. Her infant, Noel, did die from malnutrition on February 11, 1935. At the time of his death, Noel was six-months-old. Within just under five months, Lela lost her husband and then her infant boy. At the same time, she had three other little boys to care for — a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a 20-month-old. Lela was was only 24-years-old. She mourned her young husband and infant son the rest of her life, unable to talk about them without crying.
After returning to cooking for wheat-harvesting crews to support her three little boys, Lela was reacquainted with Robert "Bob" Harold Whitman. Bob and Roy Carlson previously worked together on harvesting crews that Lela cooked for. Lela married Bob on April 17, 1936 in Waterville, Washington. They had two daughters together, Nina and Judy.
Lela and Bob managed to get their five children through the rest of the Great Depression. Life was difficult and they were sometimes reduced to near starvation. Working hard at a variety of jobs such as their wheat-harvest jobs, logging for him while she cooked for logging crews, work building the Roosevelt Dam for him, strawberry picking for both of them, and fruit-harvest work for both of them in the Wenatchee Valley, they used their wide variety of skills and Lela's creativity to make it through to better times. Through it all, Lela also cared for her home and five children.
Lela was accomplished at many things. Every year she canned vegetables and tomatoes from her abundant garden, as well as a variety of fruits, and she made her own fruit leather. Lela preserved enough fruit and vegetables each year to routinely feed her extended family of children and grandchildren. She baked bread every week, baked her own homemade biscuits and English muffins (baking the English muffins in large Folgers coffee cans), whipped up batches of homemade noodles in minutes, and her cookie jar was always filled with freshly baked cookies. She made her own berry syrups to pour over her delicious pancakes; pancakes she cooked on the bottom of her overturned cast-iron skillet, turning the bottom of her skillet into a griddle. Sometimes she even made her own butter.
While Bob butchered and skinned their rabbits for meals, Lela butchered and plucked their chickens, and Lela fried both up for dinners. To watch her go out to her barnyard with her little hatchet, choose a hen, and then swoop it up and kill it before it could suffer, was like watching a dance.
She chopped her own wood for her cookstove and home-heating stove. Often she slept in her rocking chair in front of the wood stove that heated her farmhouse in order to keep the fire stoked through the night, ensuring her grandchildren were warm in their beds. She healed her children's and grandchildren's burns, blisters, cuts, and scrapes with black tea, vinegar, and Bag Balm. She picked wild mint to make mint tea and wild blackberries for her homemade cobblers. She was also an accomplished seamstress.
Lela had a large slingshot she made herself, and whenever she was outside she kept that slingshot and some pebbles in the pockets of the aprons that she also made herself, to scare off starlings and neighbor cats messing up her garden. She was a dead-on shot.
A talented musician, Lela played the banjo, accordion, and piano. When her children were young, she played at Grange Hall dances (Bob played the drums), while her children slept behind the piano. Later, her grandchildren danced while she sat on her back porch and played her accordion or banjo. She always had a piano in her home.
Lela cooked on a wood-fueled stove until the mid-to-late 1960s because she preferred to. She said the heat was easier to control for better cooking than she could get from an electric range and stovetop. She used the same mixing bowls, cast iron frying pans, and stand-mixer for almost her entire adult life until she died, because she didn't believe in replacing useful items just because there was something new or prettier available. She repurposed a wide variety of items for household use, for her yard and gardens, and as crafting projects for her grandchildren. She cared for a large flower garden that she planted next to her even larger vegetable garden. Bob and Lela shared the vegetable garden, but the flower garden was hers alone.
Lela's only formal education was as a young girl up the Okanogan in the Okanogan Highland. Local families pitched in and paid a young woman to teach their children; she rotated living with the families and the classroom was in a family's living room. Although those years were few, Lela remained friends with her teacher into their old age, until her teacher died.
Lela loved words and always had a crossword game going. She was a voracious reader and a prolific writer who, despite her lack of formal education, wrote beautifully. She self-studied poetry and tried her hand at writing poetry in its various forms. Bob built her a wall-sized bookcase for all of her books and those shelves held a library for her grandchildren.
Lela had two dreams throughout her life. The first was to be a sailor so she could travel the world. Instead, she called herself an "armchair traveler," finding adventure through reading books and a lifetime subscription to National Geographic. On her bedroom wall of each home she lived in throughout most of her life was the same framed picture of a sailing ship at sea. Her second dream was to be a published writer. That didn't happen for her either, but she wrote innumerable essays, poems, and 15-20 page, handwritten letters to her ex-teacher and other friends, her siblings, and her grandchildren.
Lela's grandchildren called her home, "Granny's pad," which made her laugh, and it was the nucleus of her family. For decades her home was open to her adult children and her grandchildren for extended stays should any one of them need it at any time. Sitting in Lela's warm kitchen, chatting and having tea with her while indulging in her homemade bread and home-canned peaches, felt safe and one felt loved. It was a little slice of heaven.
Cared for through her final illness by her two daughters, Lela Alice Brannan Carlson Whitman died comfortably and peacefully in her home in Cashmere, Washington on June 1, 2001. She was 91-years-old. Married for 65 years, Bob Whitman died three days later.
Lela was preceded in death by her first husband, Roy Werner Carlson; her infant son, Noel Eldred Carlson; her parents, James Grant Brannan and Nellie Lee Stimson Brannan Doyle; her sisters Effie Pearl, Nellie Lenore, Laurel Mae, and Edith Lamb; her brothers, Lloyd Vane, Emauett, Harold Grant, and Murdith "Bud" Sumner; and her much beloved grandson, Dennis Roy Carlson.
Survivors included her three sons, two daughters, five grandsons, nine granddaughters, and numerous great-grandchildren.
Gravesite Details
Ashes scattered in her garden.
Family Members
Siblings
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