Emily Bertha Cochran

October 18, 2009 - November 1, 2009

OBITUARY INFORMATION: Emily B. Cochran October 18, 1918 to November 1, 2009 Emmy Cochran was born Emily Bertha Lawrenz, to Emil Lawrenz and Minnie Kruger Lawrenz. Emily was born on October 18, 1918 in Dr. Rucker’s office at 2nd and Washington St. in Sherwood, Oregon. She grew up on the corner of 1st and Pine Street in Sherwood where her father owned and operated the Mobil gas station in addition to several other business ventures. Her family’s house is still at that location. Emily married Robert R. Cochran on July 18, 1942 and when Robert joined the Navy the following month she lived with her sister-in-laws Laverne, Maxine, and Bette Cochran in San Francisco. She lived with her husband Bob in East Port, Maine when he was recovering from malaria and his service in the South Pacific. On their return back to Sherwood by train, they stopped in New York City and they were there the day a small plane crashed into the empire state building. After living a year at S.W. King and W. Burnside in Portland after the war, Emily moved with her husband to her home of almost 50 years at the corner of 1st and Park in Sherwood under the loving care of Jovi and Eting Pares at Agape Assisted Living, where she felt safe and cared for. Emily was not only a wife and homemaker, but she was a business partner, helping Bob run Bob Cochran Fuel. She was an enthusiastic traveling companion, camper, and clam digger. One trip left Emily and family stranded in Yellowstone Park due to a catastrophic earthquake. She was a wonderful dancer, Emily and Bob danced together until his death in October of 1979. There are many memories of the dance parties on the patio in Bob and Emily’s back yard. Emily loved to play the piano and the electric organ and her family remembers the music she made over the years. Her niece Shiela Quinn Nix remembers her always playing “Elmer’s Tune” when she would visit Aunt Emily. She was a very good painter as well, and her landscape paintings hung in her home and the homes of friends and family. Emily loved Sherwood, she sold poppies on the street on Veterans Day, belonged to Eastern Star, raised her children in the Methodist Church, worked at the Robin Hood Festival, and loved to go to donuts on Saturday morning in down town Sherwood, and catch up with her friends and family. She always dressed up in costume at Halloween, and delighted in the neighborhood trick or treaters. After her husband’s death she enjoyed trips to Hawaii and San Francisco to visit her son Keith Daniel, travels to Sedona and Seattle to visit her daughter Linda and husband George, and she loved the family picnics at her son Rob’s home on the Willamette River in Wilsonville. She would remind him from time to time that “he wasn’t a chicken any more” when giving him advice about the direction of his life. No one every knew if she was aware that she was leaving a word out of that phrase, but it always made them laugh. Her trips to visit her sister Ada in Spokane and her sister Della “The Queen of the Nehalem” made her happy, and she had a lifelong relationship with her sister and favorite sparing partner, Mabel. She loved her sisters very much. Her trip to Europe with her good friend Madeline Galbraith was the “Trip of a Lifetime”. Her friends remember her playfulness and Nida’s friendship and support enriched Emily’s life. Nida was a dedicated and wonderful friend. Nida, Louise Gardiner, and Emily could be seen often riding in Emily’s car and enjoying each other’s company. Russ Carson is another friend who remembers Emily. Russ has always said that Emily was the best dancer in all of Sherwood and he remembers sitting on the front porch of the Lawrenz house with Emily and her sisters one Sunday morning in December, 1941 when they heard the shocking news of Pearl Harbor. Emily is survived by her daughter, Linda and son-in-law George; her sons, Keith Daniel and Rob; sister, Della; Grandchildren, Jamie and Jeff Nelson; scores of nieces and nephews (three of her nieces were named after her). Emily Cochran was a loving wife, mother, aunt, and friend and has left many with fond and happy memories. Memorial contributions may be made to the Sherwood United Methodist Church c/o Attrell's Newberg Funeral Chapel, 207 Villa Road, Newberg, Oregon 97132