Dogsblog: Mom

On the day that Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris France, May 21, 1927, in a house in Whitman Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, my Mom, Penny Higginbotham was born. She was born Marilyn Preston to Richard and Pearl Preston. Mom passed away on Feb. 9, 2016 at the age of 88 in Portland Oregon.

At the age of 3 Mom traveled from Boston with her Mother, Father and Brother, Carlton in a 1930 Model A Ford across the United States. Their goal was California where it was sunny and warm and oranges grew in your front yard, however after a month long road trip they got as far as Roseburg Oregon, liked the area and decided to stay. Mom spent the rest of her childhood through High School in Roseburg.

They rented a house in Roseburg, with a little land and a barn. My mom's brother wanted a horse, so they got him a pony that he named Tony, after Tom Mix's horse. Mom wanted an animal too, but was too young for a horse so she got a lamb, she named the lamb Andy. She had Andy until she was 10 years old.

Within the first year of living in Roseburg, the house they were living in caught fire and burned to the ground. Grandma was canning fruit on the wood stove, and it caught the wallpaper on fire. The people of Roseburg helped the family out with temporary housing and other necessities, since they lost virtually everything in the fire. Eventually They found some beautiful property south of Roseburg in an area called "Green". Grandpa built a house on the land and even a playhouse for my mom (above). They still had Tony, but Mom's brother didn't ride him, because he didn't want to ride bare back, and they couldn't afford a saddle. Mom had no problem riding him, but she needed a boost getting up on him. The picture above shows her dog Teddy, helping her by grabbing her foot so she could climb up on Tony.

Mom had a good childhood in Roseburg, and always had animals of one one sort or another in her life. I think this dogs name was shorty.

After High School, she went on a music Scholarship to the University of Oregon for a while and later transferred to Linfield College in McMinnville, where she graduated in 1949. While at Linfield she met her first husband Jimmie Burrows, my Dad and in 1948 gave birth to her son....me.

When I was 4 or 5 years old we took a driving trip across country with my Grandparents and stopped at Knots Berry Farm, where Mom hammed it up with these statues.

Throughout her life, Penny was always a traveler and an explorer. Never satisfied in staying in one place for long, she always hungered for the next experience and the next adventure. In the early 50's my mom and dad and I moved to Minnesota where we lived for the next 10 years.

In 1958 my Mom got divorced from my dad. Eventually she met her second husband, William Adair. They moved from Central Oregon to Portland where they lived for a few years, and where she gave birth to two daughters, Patty and Sally Adair.

After Bill passed away Mom met Ray Higginbotham in 1988. Mom and Ray were married in November of that year and remained together for the next 28 years, and Ray was by her side when she passed away this month. In Ray, Mom had a partner who shared her love of life and adventure. They started their life together by going on a mission trip to the Marshal Islands where Mom taught in an all-girls boarding school. When they returned to the states they went to The Wallowa Mountains in Eastern Oregon near Joseph and lived in a Forest Service cabin, working for the Forest Service keeping care of camp grounds. Later they came back to the Willamette Valley and lived in Donald Oregon. When Mom was 68 she and Ray made a major decision. Mom's daughter Patty had lost custody of her children, and so Mom and Ray decided to adopt the youngest of them, Josh who at the time was just a baby. Josh was raised as their son for the next 20 years.

Mom loved her life and her family, and all of her many friends. She also had a tremendous love of learning. During the last years of her life she read over 2000 books a year on all kinds of subjects.

She was also very interested and active in politics. She met and had long discussions with Eleanor Roosevelt, received an invitation to the inauguration of President Lyndon Johnson and was an active participant in several local political campaigns. On the day before she died she wanted to know who won the New Hampshire Primaries and still had plenty of opinions on the various candidates.

She loved animals, especially dogs. During her last days in the Hospital she was more concerned with her dog Milo, and how he was doing than her own condition. There was very few times during her life when she didn’t own at least one dog and usually a few cats as well.

As with most anyone who has lived to the age of 88 she did have challenges to overcome, and one of the things she was most proud of was her over 40 years of sobriety.