Bernice Ruth Fink

Bernice Fink was born as Ruth Bernice Palmer in 1917 in a tent in a logging camp in Astoria. As a young adult she changed her name to Bernice and went by “Bea”.

She attended grade school in Astoria and Birkenfeld and graduated from High School at the age of 17 from Franklin High in Portland.

She married Henry Kraft and gave birth to 5 girls. In later life she married Sidney Fink and gave birth to one more daughter.

She has 18 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 9 great-great grandchildren.

She delighted in the small things in life and enjoyed sewing. She made most of her daughters clothing. She loved to cook, read, do crossword puzzles, play bingo and travel.

She loved Jeopardy, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, her soaps, and the Blazer games.

She never drove, but that never stopped her from getting where she wanted to go. She took such long strides it was hard to keep up with her. She used to walk to St Johns where she lived for over 40 years. She particularly loved to take the bus to Downtown Portland and had many places she loved to visit there. She loved Lipman Wolfe’s Tea Room for their Monte Cristo sandwiches and their angel pie. Even up to a year ago she was still going downtown; much to the dismay of her daughters. She took her scooter on the bus and went downtown just to go to Nordstrom’s to get some Crostinis from their restaurant. The battery died, so she got caught doing something her daughters had asked her not to do. She was strong willed to the very end.

She always loved babies and made a point of going up to them to talk to them and their mothers everywhere she went.

She was delighted when she found change on the ground and could always tell you just where she found them as if she had just won the lottery.

She always let us know when we were going out that she was just starving hungry and couldn’t wait very long to eat, then she would hardly eat anything on her plate.

She was nicknamed Ra Ra by a grandchild and it stuck for the rest of her life.

She had many sayings. When she called you she would just say “doing”? Another of her famous lines was “Oh fair to Midling” when someone would ask her how she was doing. These last few years she always said “Later Man” as she hung the phone up.

She was a character with a very dry sense of humor. She will be very sadly missed by those who loved her.

A Funeral Service will be held on Thursday, December 9, 2010, at 11:00 AM, in Skyline Memorial Gardens Funeral Home Chapel.

Arrangements under the direction of Skyline Memorial Gardens Funeral Home, Portland, OR. (503) 292-6611