After a courageous battle with cancer, Florence Logsdon Anderson passed away on November 21st at her home with her family by her side. She was 84 years old and lived those years to the fullest. Those of you who knew our mother will appreciate that she wrote her own obituary and left it in what she called her "dead file". She had a tattoo of an angel on her front shoulder when she was 74 and wanted us to tell the funeral home to make sure that they placed "this side up". The following is her life story in her words. Born June 4, 1922 on her parents' homestead in Choteau County, Montana, she was the daughter of Deston (Dick) and Luella Woods Mason. At the age of 4 she became the only first grade student in a one-room schoolhouse located on the Montana Prairie. In 1927 following a drought that devastated their wheat farm, her parents sold their combined homesteads, bought a Model A Ford and headed back to Washington State where her Mother had lived in Wilber and her Father in Mount Vernon. On the way they spent four months visiting relatives in Santa Clara, California before arriving in the Skagit Valley in May of 1928. Promoted to the second grade before leaving Montana, she attended schools in California, Anacortes and Clear Lake before settling down at Lincoln Elementary in Mount Vernon. She attended the 4th and 5th grades at the Roosevelt Annex located where the YMCA is now. She returned to Lincoln school for the 5th grade then went on to Roosevelt for two years, becoming part of the last 8th grade mid year graduating class at that facility. She was a member of the 1940 graduating class of Mount Vernon Union High School where she enrolled in journalism classes. Her working career began the summer of 1940 at the S.A. Moffit Freezing plant for 22-1/2 cents an hour. That winter she moved to Seattle and worked as a carhop at the Triple X Barrel on Olive Way. When World War II began she returned to Mount Vernon and went to work at Thriftway Drug Store becoming the manager of the lunch counter at the age of 18. In 1944 she became bookkeeper/receptionist and chair-side assistant for Dr. Fred Stockfleth, training under him to become a dental technician. On April 14, 1945 she married Wayne Logsdon in the USO Club in Couer d'Alene, Idaho. Lather that year they moved to Farragut Naval Base where Wayne was stationed. It was there that their first child was born. When the war was over they moved to Spirit Lake, Idaho, returning to Mount Vernon in 1946. She returned to the drug store as a cashier and cosmetician five days a week while keeping the dental office open for Dr. Stockfleth one day a week on his day off. In 1948 she became the second woman member of the Skagit Rifle and Pistol Club. The shooting range was in the abandoned chicken house in their back yard on Riverside Drive with bales of straw serving as a backstop. After the birth of her daughter, she became a stay at home mother of her growing family of 4, born during a six-year period. She was an active figure in PTA, Cub Scouts and Blue Birds when her children were young. In the early 1950's she took courses in creative writing at Skagit Valley College. She always found time to write and had articles published in magazines and newspapers on a freelance basis. Later she worked as a quality control technician at Stokely VanKamp and occasionally as a food demonstrator for a friend's salad dressing business. She was one of the five founding members of the Skagit Valley Writers League and a lifetime member having served in various offices in the 60's. She and Wayne built their 5 bedroom home on what was then Kimble (now Dike) Road in south Mount Vernon doing the work themselves (it took seven years!). Wayne passed away in 1968 and Florence went to work at Larry's Pharmacy on College Way. In 1973 she married Robert E. Anderson. During the 1970's she wrote a freelance column for the Skagit Valley Herald specializing in humor and opinion pieces and contributed weekly to "The Wonderful World of Women" column. She wrote many articles for national magazines and newspapers in six different states as well as for radio and television. In the 1970's she and Bob bought a commercial fishing vessel and spent 4 summers in southeastern Alaska fishing for halibut and salmon. In 1980 Bob became an aerospace contractor and they spent the next 12 years traveling throughout the US following his work, even spending three months in Australia in 1992. Florence was a member of the First Christian Church and of the 4th Armored Auxiliary. She was a charter member of the Kiwanis Club of South Mount Vernon and served as president at the age of 80. She never hesitated to express her opinion on civic, social or political matters but was always willing to listen to the opinions of others. She is survived by her daughter Paige Logsdon and her companion Bill Mol, sons Deston (Chip) Logsdon, Thomas Logsdon and Gregory Logsdon; eight grandchildren, Louise (Bill) Johnson, Denise (Alan) Campbell, Rebecca Mullinnex, Wayne Logsdon, Shawn (Lynette) Logsdon, Justin (Leonie) Logsdon, Kimberly Chamberlain and Jeremy Logsdon; ten great-grandchildren, Amanda Johnson, Robert Bradford, Tanner and Trevor Chamberlain, McKenna and Ryan Mullinnex, Alexander Logsdon and Nico Logsdon; three stepsons, Fred (Connie) Anderson, Gary (Jeanne) Mitchell, Mike (Sue) Mitchell, Macie Paige Logsdon and Jerad Campbell; four sisters-in-law; daughters of the heart, Linda and Sydney Logsdon and many nieces and nephews from the Anderson, Logsdon and Herbaugh families. She was preceded in death by her parents, a brother, Thomas Alfred Mason and her two husbands, Wayne Logsdon and Bob Anderson. Mom always called herself "The Grand Old Matriarch". Rest well Mother, your love lives on. A Memorial Reception will be held Saturday December 2, 2006, 1:00pm at the Hawthorne Reception Room 1825 E College Way in Mount Vernon.