Virginia "Granny" Speckman, age 96, passed away in her sleep the morning of May 28, 2018. She had lived in her West Salem, Oregon home since 1963. Born in her family home on February 2, 1922 in Toppenish, Washington, Virginia was raised in the Yakima Valley by her parents Ernest and Lena (Sigurdson) Hake. She learned early on how to tell a good story from characters among the farm hands in her father's employ, a skill she used for the rest of her life entertaining friends and telling tales of the world she grew up in to her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
She graduated from Toppenish High School and attended Reed College for two years from 1940 to 1942. After the Second World War broke out she worked at the Post Exchange (PX) on the Portland Army/Air Base while attending classes at Reed. It was on the base that she met her future husband Lt. Henry A. Speckman, a native of Newport, Rhode Island. After a short courtship and even shorter engagement, they were married at the base chapel on September 25, 1943. Throughout their loving 58 years of marriage they had five children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild, and six more great grandchildren were born after Henry's death in 2001. In the mid-1960s, she re-entered the workforce alongside Henry until they both retired in 1985.
Virginia and Henry's retirement was spent well with friends and a large family giving frequent cause for celebrations and family gatherings.
Her wit remained sharp and her sense of humor intact bringing smiles and laughter to all her friends and family until her final day. Her strong will, impeccable memory and fierce independence kept her behind the wheel and living in her own home as well. Virginia's vitality exceeded the bounds of her own body, and so her passing came as a surprise.
Preceding her in death, in addition to her husband, were: her sister and brother-in-law Hazel and Henry Alderman and their son Henry; brothers Wallace and Charles; brothers and sisters-in-law Ernest and Margaret Hake; and Harold and Barbara Hake and their son Charles.
She graduated from Toppenish High School and attended Reed College for two years from 1940 to 1942. After the Second World War broke out she worked at the Post Exchange (PX) on the Portland Army/Air Base while attending classes at Reed. It was on the base that she met her future husband Lt. Henry A. Speckman, a native of Newport, Rhode Island. After a short courtship and even shorter engagement, they were married at the base chapel on September 25, 1943. Throughout their loving 58 years of marriage they had five children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild, and six more great grandchildren were born after Henry's death in 2001. In the mid-1960s, she re-entered the workforce alongside Henry until they both retired in 1985.
Virginia and Henry's retirement was spent well with friends and a large family giving frequent cause for celebrations and family gatherings.
Her wit remained sharp and her sense of humor intact bringing smiles and laughter to all her friends and family until her final day. Her strong will, impeccable memory and fierce independence kept her behind the wheel and living in her own home as well. Virginia's vitality exceeded the bounds of her own body, and so her passing came as a surprise.
Preceding her in death, in addition to her husband, were: her sister and brother-in-law Hazel and Henry Alderman and their son Henry; brothers Wallace and Charles; brothers and sisters-in-law Ernest and Margaret Hake; and Harold and Barbara Hake and their son Charles.
Virginia "Granny" Speckman, age 96, passed away in her sleep the morning of May 28, 2018. She had lived in her West Salem, Oregon home since 1963. Born in her family home on February 2, 1922 in Toppenish, Washington, Virginia was raised in the Yakima Valley by her parents Ernest and Lena (Sigurdson) Hake. She learned early on how to tell a good story from characters among the farm hands in her father's employ, a skill she used for the rest of her life entertaining friends and telling tales of the world she grew up in to her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
She graduated from Toppenish High School and attended Reed College for two years from 1940 to 1942. After the Second World War broke out she worked at the Post Exchange (PX) on the Portland Army/Air Base while attending classes at Reed. It was on the base that she met her future husband Lt. Henry A. Speckman, a native of Newport, Rhode Island. After a short courtship and even shorter engagement, they were married at the base chapel on September 25, 1943. Throughout their loving 58 years of marriage they had five children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild, and six more great grandchildren were born after Henry's death in 2001. In the mid-1960s, she re-entered the workforce alongside Henry until they both retired in 1985.
Virginia and Henry's retirement was spent well with friends and a large family giving frequent cause for celebrations and family gatherings.
Her wit remained sharp and her sense of humor intact bringing smiles and laughter to all her friends and family until her final day. Her strong will, impeccable memory and fierce independence kept her behind the wheel and living in her own home as well. Virginia's vitality exceeded the bounds of her own body, and so her passing came as a surprise.
Preceding her in death, in addition to her husband, were: her sister and brother-in-law Hazel and Henry Alderman and their son Henry; brothers Wallace and Charles; brothers and sisters-in-law Ernest and Margaret Hake; and Harold and Barbara Hake and their son Charles.
She graduated from Toppenish High School and attended Reed College for two years from 1940 to 1942. After the Second World War broke out she worked at the Post Exchange (PX) on the Portland Army/Air Base while attending classes at Reed. It was on the base that she met her future husband Lt. Henry A. Speckman, a native of Newport, Rhode Island. After a short courtship and even shorter engagement, they were married at the base chapel on September 25, 1943. Throughout their loving 58 years of marriage they had five children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild, and six more great grandchildren were born after Henry's death in 2001. In the mid-1960s, she re-entered the workforce alongside Henry until they both retired in 1985.
Virginia and Henry's retirement was spent well with friends and a large family giving frequent cause for celebrations and family gatherings.
Her wit remained sharp and her sense of humor intact bringing smiles and laughter to all her friends and family until her final day. Her strong will, impeccable memory and fierce independence kept her behind the wheel and living in her own home as well. Virginia's vitality exceeded the bounds of her own body, and so her passing came as a surprise.
Preceding her in death, in addition to her husband, were: her sister and brother-in-law Hazel and Henry Alderman and their son Henry; brothers Wallace and Charles; brothers and sisters-in-law Ernest and Margaret Hake; and Harold and Barbara Hake and their son Charles.
