Hazel Nadine Bourasaw died July 3, 1996 at the Skagit Valley Convalescent Center near Sedro-Woolley, where she had resided for the most of the last seven years. She was 88.
She was born in Middletown, MO on June 30, 1908, the daughter of William Crayton Kirks and Effie Jane (Noel) Kirks. She was the 4th of 11 children in the farming family. When she was 19, she moved to St. Louis to work at a tentawning factory and it was there that she met her late husband, Victor A. Bourasaw.
They were married in California in 1932 while he was on duty with the U.S. Navy. She moved with him to Hawaii in 1941 and she was living nearby when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec. 7. She returned with her son Jerry to Missouri in 1942. After her husbands retirment from the navy, he moved her and their two children to the Skagit Valley in 1946, linving for the first year near Mount Vernon.
In 1948 they bought a farm on Atwell Lane in the Utopia district east of S.W. Hazel worked for 25 years in various canneries in the county, retiring from Stokley Van Camp in 1973. She and Victor were both very active in the American Legion and the Eagles and spent many years volunteering with Loggerrodeo and 4-H activites. Victor died in 1982, just months short of thier 50th wedding anniversary.
Hazel was also past president of the Gertrude Sawyer Orthopedice Guild of Sedro-Woolley. Before she was confined to the nursing home in 1989 she was involved with the Community Center in the city and was an avid dancer and gardner.
She is survived by her sons, Jerry of Burnaby, B.C. and Noel, who resides at the family home in S.W. and four grandchildren; brothers Harold Kirks of Bowling Green, MO, Melvin Kirks of WEllsville, MO and Eldon Kirks of Philadelphia, PA.
A memorial service is being conducted at the Sedro-Woolley American Legion on the afternoon of July 11 and a fellowship memorial will be held in conjunction with worship services at Trinity Presbyterian Church at 10 am July 14. There will be no funeral. Hazel was very interested in history and memorials should be directed to the Sedro-Woolley Museum.
Note: Hazel's ashes were laid to rest in her husbands plot at Union Cemetery in Sedro-Woolley, along with her son Noel's ashes on January 13, 2016.