Viola Wren

Viola Wren, 92, a resident of the Olympia area for six years, died at Roo Lan Health Care Center on March 22, 2004.

Viola was born in Monkedahl, Sweden, and came to this country at the age of five. She grew up on a farm in Minnesota with her parents, Hilda and Oscar Landgren, and married Clifford Strand in 1930. They divorced. In 1955 she married Willie Lee Wren, who passed away in 1988.

During the war years, Viola made crescent wrenches for the Diamond Caulk and Horseshoe Company in Minnesota. After that, she was a cook on the most famous streamlined ferry in Puget Sound, the Kalakala. In 1969, after working for many years in the restaurant business in Moses Lake, she retired and volunteered as a teacher's aid at Knolls Vista School.

While living in Moses Lake, Viola attended the Free Methodist Church. She liked to sing, and knew all the old hymns. As an artist, she painted lovely scenes of nature and animals. She also was excellent with stitchery, crocheting intricate lace tablecloths and doilies.

Viola loved all things bright and colorful, from the afghans she made to the abundance of flowers that decorated her home. All who knew her remember her as a cheerful woman who had a loving or encouraging word for anyone she met, whether friend or stranger.

She is survived by: a son, Paul Strand of Lacey, Wash.; a daughter, Mavis Mattoon of Newport, Wash.; a stepson, Duane Wren, of Quincy, Wash.; nine grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and one great great-grandson.

She was preceded in death by a granddaughter in 1958.

A Celebration of Life service will be held on Saturday, April 17 at 2 p.m. at the Moses Lake Free Methodist Church, located at 935 W. Valley Road in Moses Lake.