By Brenna Wiegand
In her 99 years, Blanche Ritchey May has lived through numerous national crises, wars and 18 U.S. presidents. But the memories she relishes are found on the home front.
Blanche lives at the Mount Angel Towers. Prior to that, the poised and pleasant lady lived in North Bend, Ore., – for 94 years.
One of Blanche’s earliest memories is when she was about 4, the year her brother, Chuck Ritchey, was born.
“It snowed the day he was born,” Blanche said. “Being a builder, my dad built a sled real quick like; my mom took me out for a sleigh ride; he was born the next day.”
“I remember being in the second grade in a four-room school – first grade through high school, and my mom told me I could invite everybody in my class to a birthday party,” she said. “Well, instead of asking everybody in my class I asked everybody in the whole school. So it was kind of a real surprise to my mom when the whole school entered our three-room house.” Some two dozen expectant kids were soon seated all over the floor.
Thankfully, her grandfather, Charles Thom, had the hotel just across the street and managed to bring over ice cream – a rare treat in those days — and since her great-grandmother always baked cookies, the big-to-small party had a wonderful afternoon.
“After that, I may have been the smallest kid in the school but I certainly was the most popular.”
There were big neighborhood Easter parties with egg hunts she always looked forward to.
Blanche was born March 24, 1912, in Portland, Ore., to Paul and Eva Ritchey. Her father was in construction, and when Blanche was 6 months old the young family moved to North Bend where there were better opportunities and family.… Easier said than done, in that day.
Before about 1915, the Coos region was largely isolated from the rest of Oregon due to difficulties in crossing the Coast Range and fording rivers. The Pacific Ocean was used to link people to other interior settlements and towns.
Blanche and her parents arrived in Coos Bay aboard her grandfather’s ship, the Breakwater, a wooden-hulled, steam-powered fishing trawler.
“We had to stay at the bar for a couple of days because it was so rough we couldn’t cross,” Blanche said. “But now they have a new jetty.
Charles Thom was one of the pioneers and entrepreneurs of North Bend. He came from Germany as a teenager with very little money, met up with his family in Wisconsin, and traveled to Oregon’s Umpqua Valley.
“As a young man he bought up land and was able to come to North Bend with $50,000 in the very early 1900s,” said Meladee Beeson, Blanche’s daughter. “He built the hotel in Lakeside and the train that went from there to North Bend. He also had a brewery called Pacific Pride Beer.”
Things dried up in the 1920s when the hotel was destroyed by fire and the brewery closed due to Prohibition.
For Blanche the long Depression was lifted considerably by, at 19, meeting and marrying Harry May. Beach trips, long drives and dances helped offset the growing economic woes. Shortly after the marriage, there came a day when townsfolk trod up the plank-board streets to find that the bank was closed. Harry, a teacher who’d been making $100 a month, found himself working for warrants instead.
This currency was minted on myrtle wood discs printed on a newspaper press. The coins, ranging from 25 cents to $10, were used to make payroll with the promise that they’d be redeemed as soon as cash became available.
Meladee and her brother Marvin grew up with music in the air. One of Blanche’s sisters became a great piano player who played during the silent films in San Francisco. Blanche, too, is musically talented – and Meladee became a jazz pianist.
“My grandmother loved opera, and would put on records for me to listen to while her canary sang,” said Meladee, who would often feign sickness just to stay at her house during the day.
“Their love of music has influenced me greatly,” Meladee said. “When I was growing up, Mom would leave $2, then $3, then $5 on the dining table for my weekly piano lesson. I knew this was a lot of money! We certainly weren’t poor, but I knew how hard she worked at her job and then had to come home to cook and clean – while I escaped to the piano!”
At 14, Meladee announced she was sick of “all that classical stuff” and was quitting piano.
“Lo and behold, she found me a jazz piano teacher who I adored, and from whom I learned so much!”
Meladee was aware of the sacrifice her parents made in order to send her to the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.
“It was and still is so expensive, but its reputation as the ‘Little Harvard of the West’ is so true, and I received a wonderful education there.” A retired English teacher, Meladee, bilingual, now works part-time for Woodburn School District. She and her husband, Dave, live in Silverton.
Meladee remembers always having candy and cookies in the house and her mother had a beautiful flower garden where she grew lots of sweet peas.
Since Harry was a teacher, the family enjoyed summer trips to many states. And they never left a state before visiting its capitol – “why, I don’t know.” But her mother knows.
“My husband being a teacher, he felt children should know about certain things.”
Blanche was close to her brother Chuck, who spent two tours in World War II Germany before becoming an accountant in Coquille. He died a few years ago at 90.
Harry died in 1988, and shortly thereafter Blanche had to stop driving due to the progression of macular degeneration.
“That didn’t really stop me,” she said. “I always called a cab and was on first-name basis with the cab drivers.”
By about six years ago, the disease had rendered her nearly blind and it was time to say goodbye to the home she and her husband had poured their hearts into; to the only town she’d ever known where she was well known; and where her husband, parents and both sets of grandparents are buried.
With her customary grace, Blanche closed the door on a home still ringing with the music, laughter and tears of a life lived to the full – and a new chapter began.
“It was an adjustment, but my daughter helps me so much, and the people here at the Towers are lovely; all of them help me,” Blanche said.
Meladee relishes the opportunity to spend so much time with her mother now; they love attending concerts and are both enamored of Duke Ellington, from whom Meladee once received an impromptu piano lesson.
Blanche still has a busy life; while not at a concert or on a Towers “ride in the country,” she stays active by walking, riding her exercise bike and attending the Thursday yoga class. She listens to plenty of music, especially classical and 1940s dance music.
“Mom listens to books probably two hours a day,” Meladee said. “I try to keep her up with the new things; she loves history and love stories – nothing risqué, though!”
Blanche’s favorite dining partner is her son-in-law, David Beeson.
“They both eat slowly and linger long after in conversation – sometimes for an hour or more,” Meladee said.
Blanche still misses the “good old north breeze” of her coastal home, but is warmed by the love encircling her and by pursuing the many good things that life has to offer.
“If I could characterize mom’s life in one word it would be ‘optimistic,’” Meladee said. “She always tries to look at the bright side of everything, no matter how tragic it may be.”
“Blanche is quite a remarkable lady,” said Rosie Thompson, operations manager at the Towers. “She has a very sweet and pleasant personality; I never see her without a smile. ”
“No one can take away our memories; I’ve been blessed by so many things,” Blanche said. “I don’t expect to live much longer – but then I certainly didn’t expect I’d ever live in a retirement center, either.”
