Greetings to all the Livingston-Ward family. We thought we'd make a post recapping happenings for the Oregon branch of the Ellen (Livingston) Platz family (and a little from Texas) with very brief mentions of happenings in 2009.
As I think you all probably know, Ellen Platz (daughter of Grove Livingston) had her 102nd birthday in 2009, but then passed away last January. Also, just last week, Gerald Platz (brother of Ellen's late husband) died in Colorado.
I will not try to recreate the entire family tree here, but here are 3 of Ellen Platz's descendants:
Ellen Platz (James Harland Platz)
Patricia (Don Morris)
Steve
Emily
Lynn (Bob Tompkins)
Kathryn (Gary Midkiff)
Patricia (Doug Marquez)
Jennifer (Carlos Tomlinson)
Ben
James
LeeAnn (Michael Shehan)
Emily (Taylor Morden)
Dominika
Judy (Verne Johnston)
Loren
Seth
Robert (Kathleen)
Delia
Johnny
Pat and Don still live in Pendleton, Oregon, and Pat is still working at Cunningham Sheep Company (she's been there for 39 years) and this was her 33rd year as bell choir director at the First Christian Church.
Recently, Pat bought a cello, replacing the one she had for the past 65 years
Don and Pat visited Las Vegas in November to attend the National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors (Don had served on a sea-going tug during World War II). Also in 2009, the Veterans Administration decided that Don's hearing problems were partly service related, so the VA will be paying for a hearing aid in 2010.
Steve lives just south of Portland, Oregon. He editted and printed several copies of the autobiography that Don wrote several years ago. He added a transcription of some of the oral history that he and Karen recorded from Don this year, and attached a DVD with the oral history to each of the books.
Kathy and Gary are living in Texas. Gary is still working at TSA. Kathy I believe is still working at the immigration attorney's office where she's been for some time.
Patricia Marquez graduated from Texas Tech with a Masters in Biology. She is now attending law school (as is her husband Doug) in New York.
Ben graduated from college this year with a Bachelor of Science in Business (plus a lot or computer classes)
Steve is still the executive director of
OTBC, an incubator for tech startup companies in Beaverton, Oregon. He and his friend Karen visited Paris for a week in November, and took lots of pictures (see a few of them
here).
Karen had been working for the Veterans Administration in a temporary position, but her job converted to a permanent position in May of 2009.
Emily Morris had been working full time until the recession lead to a lay-off. In 2009 she was able to work most of the time in positions she found through a temp agency, which found temp jobs at places like Comcast and Informal Education Products (they sell educational toys).
Lynn and Bob live in Pendleton, Oregon, and had their annual open house in October for their non-profit corporation,
Blue Mountain Wildlife, that rehabilitates injured animals, with a primary focus on birds of prey, such as owls, hawks and eagles. You can see pictures (including one of their more impressive eagles) at
this link. During the open house, they released a red tail hawk. Video of the release is
here. Also you can see the falconry demonstration during the open house at
this link.
Jim completed building a RV7a 2 seat experimental airplane kit. He's preparing to sell it, and is considering building another (different) airplane next.
Jim took Seth to the huge annual air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and also met met Bob and Johnny there.
Pat, Don, Jim, Emily, Karen, and Steve all gathered for Christmas at Steve's house just outside Portland. There are a few pictures at
this link.
That's the list that Steve, Pat, and Jim have come up with so far. So what other family happenings were there in 2009?
