Esther Cochran

West Linn

May 16, 1927 — Oct. 4, 2015

Esther Catherine Cochran passed away in West Linn, Oregon, on Oct. 4, 2015, at the age of 88. Esther was born on May 16, 1927, in her grandmother’s home in Los Angeles, California, to Everett and Margaret (Coupland) Curnow. She was the third of seven children.

Esther grew up in Hammond, Oregon, and lived in the Warrenton-Hammond area until 2011, when she relocated to West Linn. She attended Hammond Grade School and Warrenton High School.

After graduating from high school in 1945, she went to work at the Point Adams fish packing cannery in Hammond. She was proud of her ability to operate and troubleshoot the machinery where she was assigned to work. She told of lifting the 100-pound bags of salt used at the cannery, and how her boss switched to ordering 50-pound bags when her job was reassigned because the other workers couldn’t carry the larger bags like she could.

She met Sam Cochran at a community dance in Hammond and they were married on June 11, 1954. Together they raised four children. Esther enjoyed working alongside Sam in many capacities, including building houses and taking care of the grounds and maintenance at Clatsop Plains Pioneer Presbyterian Church, where they were members for many years. She and Sam obtained real estate licenses and sold homes for a time in the mid-1970s. Upon Sam’s retirement, they became active in the Warrenton Senior Citizens’ meals program and activities.

As a young woman, Esther enjoyed playing shuffleboard with friends at the Buoy 9 Tavern in Hammond, and she bowled on league teams in Astoria. She later took up golf, and often beat out the women and men in her party in their long drive distances. She loved to watch sports of any kind, and was an enthusiastic supporter of Warrenton High School teams. She brought a cowbell to the home football games and would ring it loudly to celebrate the Warrenton team’s touchdowns.

Esther encouraged her children to learn to play musical instruments, and sat through many hours of piano lessons as all four children took their turns with the instructor. She had taken accordion lessons when she was young, and would on occasion play the waltzes that she had learned years ago. She loved to go clam digging, take family camping trips when her children were young, and never passed up a good crab feed.

Esther’s husband, Sam, passed away in December 2012. They had been married 58 years. She is survived by her children, Wanda of Portland, Sam Jr. of Yucca Valley, California, Casey of Warrenton, and Colleen of Vancouver, Washington; grandchildren, Will Cochran, Melissa Cochran, Amanda Cochran, Madison May and Emily Watson; great-granddaughter, Isla May; sister, Merna Lamprecht of Centralia, Washington; and many nieces and nephews. Her three brothers, William, James and Ralph, and two sisters, Viola Childers and Mary Lou Broberg, predeceased her.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, at Clatsop Plains Pioneer Presbyterian Church, 33324 Patriot Way, Warrenton, Oregon.

Remembrances can be posted on the Crown Memorial Centers website, www.anewtradition.com

For those who wish to make a memorial remembrance, the family suggests Warrenton Senior Citizens, P.O. Box 192, Warrenton, OR 97146.