Carole Bernice Ford

On January 21, 1924 Carole Bernice was born to William & Erna Furber. She was born at home, in a small house on North Magnolia Avenue in Portland Oregon. The site of that home on Magnolia Avenue was soon developed into Woodlawn City Park and Woodlawn Elementary School. When she was 5 years old the family moved a few blocks to 915 North Portland Blvd. They would live there until she was 19 years old.

Some of Carole’s first memories were of playing with her lifelong friend Mureen on Magnolia Avenue, climbing trees, picking blackberries, and attending school together. She attended Woodlawn Elementary for 8 years and then Jefferson High School for 2 years before switching to Portland Union Academy (now Portland Adventist Academy). While at Jefferson High, Carole played “Aunt Marge” in the school play “Little Women” but she didn’t get to be in the main showing because it was on Sabbath, someone else played the part that day.

To attend PUA (Portland Union Academy) she had to take 3 city buses to get to school each day, but she was happy to attend a school where the classes and social activities were aligned with her values and where there were social activities she could attend on Saturday nights. Often her friend Mureen would attend these activities with her. Mureen was popular with Carole’s friends and enjoyed the activities there as well. She graduated from PUA on May 18, 1941 and her picture is in the hallway there with her classmates.

After graduation she worked in a battery factory-but not making batteries. “It was something like woodworking” she said. She was working to make money for nurses training.

On December 7, 1941 Carole and Mureen were horseback riding when news came of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When they got home they found out that Roosevelt had declared war.

Her sister Alice (9 years older) wanted her to come to California and work with her in the Paradise Valley Hospital where she was a supervisor of nurses. Carole moved there in January of 1942 and worked with Alice until school started in the fall, then started nurses training at PUC (Pacific Union College). She completed a year there before transferring to Loma Linda University to continue her nursing course.

When asked how she met Wendell, Carole said she worked with his cousin and that her roommate knew him from academy. But here’s where it gets interesting. She was on a date with her fiance’ Kenny, trying out a new pair of ice skates. Both she and Kenny were beginners at ice skating, although she had done quite a bit of roller skating. She and Kenny were both just trying to stay standing up while this Wendell Ford she’d been hearing about, was dazzling everyone with his fancy skating skills. She was impressed. Apparently Kenny started retreating into his studies so much after he proposed to her that he never wanted to socialize or even get together. He neglected their relationship to the point that she broke up with him. When Carole’s name appeared on a list of girls that hadn’t been asked to a social event Wendell asked Kenny if that was right and he said yes. So Wendell asked her to the event. After that their first dates were – ice-skating at the Blue Jay skating rink about 15 miles up in the mountains northeast of San Bernardino. On their first trip up there Wendell was showing off his “new” 10 year old Chevy and wanted to impress Carole and his other classmates who owned newer cars with how fast his car would go. So on the way home he passed everyone on the hill. Carole’s interpretation of this was “He must be in a real hurry to get rid of me”.

After straightening out that little misunderstanding the dates continued. Wendell was an excellent ice skating teacher and Carole an excellent student – having been a good roller skater before. Soon they were the couple whose skating everyone admired. They later taught all their kids to skate, we too were impressed by their skills.

Carole & Wendell were married on December 26, 1944 about 8 months after their first date. This was at the end of Wendell’s 2nd year of medical school. They moved to Los Angeles for him to finish his clinical work and training at White Memorial Hospital. Carole was halfway through nurses training. Due to complications of transferring for the remainder of her training she quit school and got a job in a brassiere factory. Wendell enjoyed telling people that “his wife was in uplift work”.

Wendell & Carole raised their family together in Hemingford NE, New London MN, & Hermiston OR. They retired to Sandpoint ID & later to Longview WA. In 2012 they moved to Cherrywood Retirement Home in Portland OR where they lived out the remainder of their lives.

Carole said things that made her happy were; “time with family & friends, and seeing my children grow up and do so well.”

She said her favorite places to live have been Portland & the Northwest, Sandpoint, and Hermiston - since that was where she and Wendell had lived the longest and had such good, best, friends - and the church there was great.

In Hermiston Carole was always involved in children’s activities. She taught in children’s Sabbath School for 20 years, was a Cradle Roll leader for 8 years, where one of her favorite songs was “I’ll Meet You in Heaven and Live Next Door to You”. She and Wendell were involved in Pathfinders for many years – especially in Hermiston from 1960 to 1992.

We all know that Carole loved to cook, and she was good at it. She could make fake meat taste as good as the real thing. But I had to ask what her favorite foods were since she was always making someone else’s favorite. She said “Oh my, so many”… listing Sabbath dinners and potlucks, birthday cake, either white or chocolate. Oh and Chocolate chip cookies & coconut cream pie!

Carole enjoyed some memorable travels too, she said some of her most memorable trips were on Maranatha projects, a mission trip to Curacao, and that special trip Wendell always dreamed of taking her on - to Italy, where he had been stationed as an Army Captain at the end of WWII.

Carole Ford is survived by her sons Alan & Greg Ford, daughters Kathy Falter, Cheri Lemke, & Wendy Norfolk; her grandchildren Rohn & Thomas Falter, Robert, Joel & Steven Lemke, Margo Cox & Natalie Apodaca, Ryan & Kevin Ford; great-grandchildren Benjamyn, Diana & Nicholas Falter, Payton, Brady, & Nash Lemke, Sophia & Luke Falter, Alice & Max Lemke, Clara & Tommy Cox, Elise Ford, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her husband Wendell Ford, sisters Helen & Alice Furber, Ruth Schuler, brothers Donald and Arthur Merlin Furber, son-in-law Marc Avery, and daughter-in-law Rhonda Ford.

Carole had a message for her kids and grandkids;

“Keep in touch with each other, and make heaven your goal.”