Amanda Mehrer was born in Kief, North Dakota on January 21st, 1920 to parents Jacob and Helena (Kandt) Mehrer. She was the 17th of 18 children born to Jacob and Helena. Sadly, Amanda never met six of her siblings as they either died at birth or shortly thereafter. The same year Amanda was born, her eldest sibling Lydia was married at the age of 20. Amanda grew up on a large family farm where they grew wheat, flax, and barley. They raised cattle, pigs, chickens and horses. Amanda and her siblings were educated in a one-room schoolhouse that father Jacob had built on a corner of the farm property. Farm life for the Mehrers was an ongoing full-time operation and they large family worked as a team, each doing their part to support one another and run the house and farm. The older siblings looked after the younger ones, the girls were tasked to most of house chores and the cooking and cleaning and washing, and the boys did the majority of the outside farm work and tended to the livestock.
At the young age of 18, Amanda met and married Arthur Moser on March 23, 1938. Art was a young man from a farm near Kief and was 6 years older than Amanda and was a banjo player in one of the local bands. When the two were courting, they enjoyed going to dances and they always danced the last dance together. Their first child, Sylvester was born later the same year. Right up to the day prior to Sylvester’s birth, Amanda was hard at work on the family farm - driving a tractor on the farm. Their second child, daughter Shirley, was born in 1945. The young family remained in North Dakota until 1946 and for much of that time they lived on their farm with Arthur’s parents. Most Sundays, Art played baseball with the local team against other teams from many of the nearby towns. Amanda would bring Sylvester to watch his dad play ball.
The young family relocated to the St Johns neighborhood of North Portland, Oregon in 1946. By 1955, two of Amanda’s brothers and one sister had also come west and settled in the Portland area. Art went to work as a steel worker for Union Carbide. Amanda worked outside the home as well. She first worked for Nabisco on the cookie line and later went to work for Eaton where she assembled thermostats. Amanda was a bit ahead of her time as it was not the norm for women to work outside of the home. When the young family first touched down in Portland, they rented a basement apartment on Smith Street. They later bought the house across the street from the apartment. In 1964, they purchased a lot, also on Smith, and had a home built on that lot – this remained the family home until 2010. After their arrival in Portland, they always lived on Smith Street.
For rest and recreation, the young family made many trips to the beach in Seaside, Oregon and surrounding areas. They shared many fond memories of those times. Amanda and Art were loving and supportive parents to Sylvester and Shirley and emphasized the importance of a good education. They were great role models who embodied hard work, accountability, perseverance, and being a person of your word.
Amanda and Art worked hard but they certainly made time for fun and recreation together; they enjoyed each other’s company. They went fishing both in the Columbia River and deep-sea fishing. Amanda would also go fishing with her girlfriends and always returned home with large salmon. They went on many vacation trips back to North Dakota to visit family and visited California together several times as well. They went on a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands (a gift from Shirley and Sylvester) to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. In the early 1990s, Art and Amanda rode along with the Rose Festival fleet all the way from Astoria to Portland.
It has been said that Amanda was “one of the luckiest people”. She enjoyed games of chance, especially bingo and playing the slot machines in the local casinos and many of the birthday trips to Reno, Nevada with her daughter Shirley. It has also been said that “wherever she went, she won”. Amanda always came back home with more money than she left with. She loved playing bingo with Art in North Portland. She won countless appliances and cash prizes. She once even won a respectable Oregon Lottery cash prize.
Amanda enjoyed gardening and she grew tomatoes, hot peppers, and other fruits and vegetables. She canned fruits and preserves and even tried her hand at wine making (which took an explosive turn during the fermentation process). She was adept with her hands and enjoyed knitting and Crocheting. Amanda hand crafted many Afghans for family and friends over the years. She loved to work on crossword puzzles and word search challenges. She also took great pleasure in reading the newspaper. She had newspapers from North Dakota sent to her so she could keep up with the latest developments back home. Her favorite colors were pink and sky blue. She had several favorite rocker chairs and they had to be blue, with her special reading lamp close by.
*Amanda never drove a car. When Amanda’s job with Eaton moved to Beaverton, Art picked her up from work every day.
Following Art’s passing in 1994, Amanda remained in the family home on Smith Street. The remaining family made many trips to the Oregon Coast to Gleneden Beach, Depoe Bay, Ocean Shores, and other favorite coastal destinations. The tradition continued with Shirley and Peter.
In the summer before Amanda turned 90, she moved into an independent living facility, Parkrose Chateau. She had outlived all of her neighbors on Smith Street and things were getting a little lonely. She loved all of her new friends at Parkrose! She enjoyed playing bingo twice a week, sharing some popcorn and treats and conversation in the lobby, all the parties and special events and opportunities to be social. She always had someone to visit with at Parkrose. It was also nice not having to cook or clean for a change.
Amanda will be remembered as a person who spoke her mind. When she said she was going to do something, she did it. She enjoyed being social, and loved to just be near family and friends and just talk. Family was of primary importance to her and she showed her love and care in so many ways. She was an amazing and loving grandmother to her one grandchild, Kim Zurcher. Amanda and Kim did so much with one another. They flew and took train trips to Tucson to visit Sylvester and they cherished their time together. She was a loving and dear wife, daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, neighbor, co-worker, and friend and she will be missed.
She is survived by her daughter, Shirley Zurcher (Peter); son, Sylvester Moser (Lorie); and granddaughter, Kim Zurcher.
A funeral service will be held at Skyline Memorial Gardens Funeral Home Clatskanie Room, 4101 NW Skyline Blvd., Portland, OR, on Friday, August 12, 2016, at noon. She will be laid to rest in Skyline Memorial Gardens in the Garden of the Good Shepherd.
Remembrances may be made the charitable organization of your choice.
Please visit Amanda’s online memorial at www.skylinememorialgardens.com
Arrangements under the direction of Skyline Memorial Gardens Funeral Home, Portland, OR. (503) 292-6611
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