Florence Mabel Carter

Florence Mabel Carter, 84, formerly of La Grande, died May 11 at her home in Florence.

A memorial service will be held at a later date in Mapleton.

Mrs. Carter was born Dec. 30, 1922, to Myrven and Jettie Stewart in Marshall County, S.D. Raised there, she moved to Minnesota after graduating from high school.

She attended St. Cloud Teachers College and taught in a one-room schoolhouse in North Dakota. During World War II, she tested radios in bobbers at Holman Field and also worked as a mail censor at a POW camp in Georgia.

On Sept. 30, 1944, she married Ralph V. Carter in Deer Creek, Minn. In 1959, along with their four children, they moved to Oregon. They have lived in Klamath Falls, Prineville, La Grande, Portland, Salem, Mapleton and Florence. She worked as an apartment manager, a U.S. Census taker, an assistant in Crook County Assessor Office and as a matron for the La Grande Police Department.

She was an avid reader, expert seamstress and needle-crafter, baker extraordinaire and gifted gardener. She even raised pineapples in Mapleton.

Survivors include her children, Shari McGlasson, Deb Lee, R. Doug Carter and Connie Barton; siblings, Frances Peterson of South Dakota, Glenn Stewart and George Stewart of Minnesota, Andy Stewart and Jack Stewart of Arizona; 15 grandchildren and a multitude of great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband and sisters, Vivian and Mae.

Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association, 1846 Pearl St., Eugene 97401 or to Peace Harbor Hospice, 310 Ninth St., Florence 97439.