Lois Audrey Nelson Rockey

Lois Audrey Nelson was born on October 4, 1926, in Camas, Washington. She was the 2nd youngest child of six to Edna May Cox Nelson and Raymond Nelson.At the age of six in 1932 Lois lost her dearest father to respiratory failure brought on by mustard gas poisoning during World War I. He was a photographer and the family’s sole support during the depression.Edna lost the business and tried her best to raise six children on her own. The years that followed were hard and fear filled years. Lois felt that without the FDR Lunch & Milk program at school she and her siblings would have gone hungry. When Lois’ brother Harold was thirteen, he suffered with Muscular Dystrophy. Their mother had to place him in a state-run institution because she could no longer care for him. These growing up years shaped Lois’ life for all time. She worked every day after school and gave the money to her mom from age 13 until she married at nineteen. Lois grew into a beautiful young woman who worked at the prestigious Paramount Theater downtown Seattle as an usher. When she was 17, she met James Bollinger Rockey who was in town for Naval training in 1943. They corresponded over the next two years while Jim was overseas in places like Guadalcanal during WWII. In 1945 Jim returned, asked Lois to marry him, and on September 30, 1945 they married. They had three children Larry James, Linda Marie and Colleen Susan.Lois boasted that all three of her and Jim’s children served their country in the Military. Larry was drafted into the Army and went to Vietnam. Linda joined the Marines after graduating from college, and Colleen joined the Air Force upon High School graduation. In 1953, Lois returned to work at Western Union, where she worked for the next 26 years. Her proudest achievement was attaining the Night Shift Supervisor position at Western Union and that she was a Union Shop Steward for 22 years.Unfortunately, she was laid off when Western Union closed their Seattle office 5 years before Lois could retire. She then took care of a sick neighbor for 2 years. She and Jim bought a house in Renton and moved. Jim started getting sick from Parkinson’s disease. For the next 8 years Lois stayed home to care for him and her Special Needs granddaughter, Jennifer. Linda moved from Washington to Texas with Jennifer and her other four children. Lois lost Jim in 2005. Then she lost her son, Larry, in 2009 due to leukemia caused by exposure to Agent Orange. In 2020, she lost her granddaughter Kiersten to cancer. Lois had grown very close to Kiersten. She cherished talking to her every day on the phone. In 2010, Lois moved in with her daughter, Colleen, and her husband George in Great Falls, MT, due to failing health from medical problems such as Scoliosis and advanced age. She lived with them for almost 12 years. She enjoyed helping around the house as much as she could. She loved sitting on the deck watching the birds, watching old TV westerns, and the Mariner baseball games. She went on a trip to Washington the last week of May 2021, and enjoyed seeing her granddaughter and her daughter-in-law, Pat, and great-great-grandson, Chance. On June 4, 2021, she was hospitalized with Pneumonia and a blood infection. While in the hospital, another grandchild visited her from Georgia. Lois passed in her sleep June 16, 2021. She leaves behind her daughters, Colleen (George) Kupka of Great Falls and Linda M. Crandell of Plano, TX; daughter-in-law, Patricia Rockey of Centralia, WA; grandchildren, Ron (Andrea) Fox, Jacquelynn (Jared) Wichman, Andrew (Carla) Rockey, Shanna (Brooke) Rockey, Jennifer Crandell, David (Joscelyn) Crandell, Sarah (Ryan) Monday, Katlyn (USMC Maj. David) Blassingame, Hannah Crandell, Anthony (Amy) Weber and Brian (Alexia) Weber; 15 great- grandchildren; and 1 great-great-grandson.