Elnora Holt Singleterry

She was the 2nd child & only girl of Francis & Thyrsa West of Lake Oswego. Buell West was her eldest sibling & younger siblings are Wilber West & Arthur West. She attended Lake Oswego schools until her graduation in the mid 1950’s.

Shortly after graduation she married Neil V. Kilbourne. They welcomed a son, Michael Kenyon Kilbourne followed by Laura Rene the next year. In time that marriage dissolved & 1975 she married Kenneth Singleterry. They were married until his death in 2008.

Elnora or Ellie as she was better known, had several occupations during her life. She worked at Safeco insurance for several years in the rating department. When Safeco moved their corporate office to Seattle, she chose to stay in Oregon to manage the family business in Portland, A Better T Shirt. In 2005, she was badly injured in a car accident & once recovered, she chose to work at Lee’s Farms greeting the school buses of children. She enjoyed that but it was a difficult job in the winter so following her love of being around children, she became a play land attendant at Fred Meyer’s in Tigard & sometimes Tualatin. She was a fixture there until she retired at age 79.

It was the ideal job for her because customers would bring their children to her to play with & she took pride in never just turning the TV on but rather she would read to them & play with them.

Grandma Ellie was known within her family, neighbors & friends families for piling a bunch of kids in the car to go on “adventures”, be it to the fountains or river on a hot day or a ship docked in Portland, or the State Fair. If there was fun to be had, she found a way to share it with children.

Ellie was predeceased by her parents, her older brother Buell, her 1st husband, Neil Kilbourne & 2nd husband, Kenneth Singleterry & sister in law, Sherry West. She is survived by her children, Michael Kilbourne & Laura Seitlinger, her brothers, Wilber West & Arthur West, Sister-in-law Ila Lant, stepson Rod Singleterry & wife Charnelle, stepson David Singleterry, stepdaughter’s Kay & Teri. Grandchildren Gregory Seitlinger, Jennifer Seitlinger & Kenneth Seitlinger, step granddaughter Jackie Singleterry & great grandchild Roman Secundino & step great grandchildren Kaitlin & Andrew Singleterry. Nieces & nephews-Denise, Richard & Mike West, Matthew, Jason & Taylor West, Linda Skolness, Nina Middleton & Peggy Lant.

We will be having a celebration of life in the spring.

Ellie wrote this after a funeral (Uncle Arthur’s) decades ago….it still rings true today.

“We should treasure these moments with the ones we love, because at any moment they could go away. Wouldn’t it be awful to be mad at each other and have something happen? We must try to be more loving to everyone”