OCEAN PARK Ñ Grace Mildred Margaret Sundquist, 87, died Aug. 1, 2003 in Ocean Park. The daughter of Herman and Wilhelmina ÒMinnieÓ (Witikka) Anderson, she was born Sept. 12, 1915 in the small village of Oneida on the banks of the Columbia River.

OCEAN PARK – Grace Mildred Margaret Sundquist, 87, died Aug. 1, 2003 in Ocean Park. The daughter of Herman and Wilhelmina “Minnie” (Witikka) Anderson, she was born Sept. 12, 1915 in the small village of Oneida on the banks of the Columbia River.

She married Milton Blackman in the early ’30s and divorced. She and Oswald Johnson married in the late ’30s and he died in the ’40s. She married LeRoy Sundquist on June 13, 1950 and he died in 1968.

Mrs. Sundquist was a woman of uncommon good sense, tremendously varied talents, and great wit. Raised on a remote farm accessible only by boat on Sisson Creek near Deep River, she learned early to be independent and self-sufficient. She worked as a farm wife, bi-lingual store clerk, restaurant owner/chef, carpenter, painter of houses and pictures, interior decorator, paperhanger, bark peeler, brush picker and cannery worker. She read widely and amazed family and friends with impromptu recitations of poetry learned when she was an elementary school girl. She was a superb needle-woman, gardener and flower arranger. She was always an avid fisherman in creeks, rivers and ocean and her pickled fish was the best.

She is survived by sister Matilda Anderson Smirnes of Lake Oswego, Ore.; nieces and nephews John Jensen and wife Diane of Lincoln, Calif., Karen Jensen Carroll and husband Jack of Salem, Ore., Geraldine Silvola Stanley of Long Beach, Irene Hicks Shuler and husband Kaye Dethridge of Sitka, Alaska and Ocean Park, Dennis Hicks of Sitka, Alaska, Nathan Silvola of Portland, Ore., Bruce Anderson and wife Beverly of Lompoc, Calif., Brian (Charlie Brown) Anderson of Long Beach, Sharon Anderson Bighill of Otis, Ore., Kathy Anderson Crayne of Big Timber, Mont., and Richard Smirnes and wife Lisa of Lake Oswego, Ore.; also many great, great-great and great-great-great nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by brothers John Nestor, Richard, Henry William, Frank and Henry David Anderson; and sisters Mary Ellen Anderson, Marjorie Ella Anderson, Lucille Anderson Hicks, Anne Anderson Johnson, Elizabeth Anderson Silvola and Josephine Anderson Jensen. Some of these brothers and sisters died during the infamous influenza outbreak of 1918.

At her request, there will be no formal service. A gathering of family and friends will be held in Ocean Park on Sept. 13. Arrangements are by Penttila’s Chapel by the Sea, Long Beach.