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MARCH 1,2012
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PEARL continued
from front page
tered goat and, to this day, Pearl
attributes the rich goat milk for
her longevity.
Phillips thinks some other things
might also have contributed to her
mother's long life.
"Mom always told us that you have
to stay busy," Phillips recalls. "You
can't lie around and do nothing. And
that's part of the reason she's still
here at 100 years. She's always been
active. I never remember my mother
taking the day off."
"She is as alive and peppy now as
when I first met her," says Tribal
Elder Kathryn Harrison. "That
same smile. She has such a happy
outlook on life. I can see why she
has lived so long. She's nice to have
around and nice to be around."
In addition to goats, Pearl's grand
father grew flowers in two green
houses in Tillamook, and the family
is still surrounded by flowers.
"They're in every window," says
Pearl. Her son, Tribal Elder Har
old Lyon, planted the yard at her
Dayton home with irises, tulips
and daffodils. "There are flowers
everywhere," Pearl says.
Her parents were former Tribal
Elder James Hugh Langley and
Emma Zuercher, who had a colorful
approach to cooking. Phillips calls
it "bohemian," by which she means
that Emma cooked with caraway
seeds and Swiss cheese, and made
things like potato dumplings and
sauerkraut balls.
Emma also made salmon wieners
with a recipe that has. long been
lost and never duplicated, Phillips
says, but in Emma's time local bars
couldn't keep them in stock.
Following the tradition, when
Pearl's family owned a store in
Lafayette, Pearl ran the soda foun
tain, recalls Phillips. "Her milk
shakes were so good that a friend
who was running a truck stopped
every day for mother to make him
a milkshake. And in the meantime,
she was taking care of me."
"(Her father) taught the children
the ways of the Indians and to al
ways respect Mother Earth," says
Phillips.
Father and daughter "were very
close," says Phillips. "He taught her
to catch fish with wild huckleber
ries when everybody else was still
using salmonberries."
They fished in the ocean, rivers
and creeks, everywhere around.
They caught and canned and ate
clams, oysters, mussels and crab.
They ate tuplo (wild celery), fern
fronds and berries, and a lot of
mauich (deer) and wild birds.
Pearl attended Cloverleaf School.
She rode with the teacher, Mrs.
Pierce, to school every day.
When she was 10, Pearl stuck her
foot with pitchfork.
"Nobody could afford a doctor in
those days so she got blood poison
ing," says Phillips. But a friend of
the family, Tribal member Addie
Petite, came to the rescue with a
Native cure.
"He found wild ginger leaves at
the creek, warmed them a little and
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Photo by Michelle Alalmo
Tribal Elders and sisters, from left, Pearl Lyon, Bernice Jensen and Ruby Bigoni came together to celebrate Pearl's
1 00th birthday during a birthday party at the Elders' Activity Center on Tuesday, Feb. 21 .
placed them on her foot, and the
next morning the blood poisoning
was gone."
When she was 14, Pearl took her
younger sisters, then 8 and 6, to
Fargo (near Aurora) to camp in the
bottom of their Uncle Clint Barker's
farm, where they also picked straw
berries. "She was very responsible," Phil
lips says.
She also was first in her family
to graduate from high school, and
her son, Harold, says she always
emphasized education when he was
growing up.
"Not too many people graduated
from high school in those days,"
says Pearl, "so I felt it was quite an
accomplishment."
Pearl married Harley Lyon, a
farmer and railroad worker from
Lafayette, in 1932. Many from the
family remember picking beans and
strawberries the Lyon family grew.
"I used to go out and stay with
her every year to pick strawber
ries and green beans," says Pearl's
niece, Diane Locklear of Portland,
who is daughter of Ruby Bigoni.
"She is very gracious, very humble.
She does nice things for people, but
doesn't expect a thank you. She is
always thinking of others."
While most in her family think of
her as a mother and homemaker,
she also worked for 19 years as
a nurse at the Oakwood Glenn
Nursing Home in McMinnville,
better known among many there
as "Pearl's Boarding House."
Her cousin's husband, former Trib
al Elder Tom McKnight (grandfather
to Tribal Elder and Tribal Council
Vice Chairman Reyn Leno), would
tell people he visited that he couldn't
stay long because he had to get back
to Pearl's Boarding House.
"I loved to work with people," says
Pearl. "You learn a lot about life from
all the people." She adds, however,
"My husband wasn't too happy with
me being gone all the time."
Granddaughter Mary Ann Wil
son, says that she is in nursing
today because of Pearl. "There are
five or six of us that are nurses be
cause of her," Wilson says. Wilson
is a registered nurse and owns a
training school for nursing aides
in Vancouver.
Mary Ann's daughter, Bobby Sue
Wilson, is a licensed practical nurse
at a nursing facility in Washington
state. Melissa Sue Gulledge, Phil
lips' granddaughter and Pearl's
great-granddaughter, is a medical
assistant in Vancouver, and yet
another of Pearl's great-granddaughters,
Dusty Gentry, is almost
a registered nurse.
"They're all very compassion
ate kids," said Phillips, herself a
certified nurse aide. "It all started
because of Pearl."
She was always supportive, many
say. Pearl remembers two pieces of
advice she felt comfortable giving:
"Have patience, and if you need
help, look at the end of your arm!"
With Pearl in the room helping
to keep the many events straight,
Phillips recounts an early life full
of family moves.
Although Pearl has now lived in
her doublewide in Dayton for some
41 years, in the early years the fam
ily moved time and again to keep up
with Harley's many occupations and
business interests. He made money
every time the family bought and sold
a home, Phillips says, making the
moves worthwhile for the family.
"He was always making a dollar,"
she says.
Here's the dizzying list of places
they lived in the early years:
After marrying, Pearl and Harley
moved to McMinnville and lived
in a small, but new house where
the Spruce Goose now sits.
Then, the Lyons moved to Lafay
ette on Locks Road across from
the Bunn family.
Then they moved to Parrot Moun
tain. Then they bought the Heidinger
Place in Dayton, probably in 1940,
as Pearl and Phillips remember.
They moved from there to Hillsboro,
where Harley worked at various
jobs until they moved to Amity.
VihfJribjex
page to see more photos
They moved into the Smith's
house where Harold lived after
..awhile. Her husband was in the
service, so the Lyons rented what
is Harold's birth house.
Then, to the Dayton house across
from the old cemetery.
Then they lived at the Carter
place in Dayton. The Reebers live
out there now. They raised beans,
berries and cucumbers, and all
kinds of miscellaneous things.
Then they moved to McMinnville
and bought the James Foster
(his old hunting partner) place,
another farm.
Then, they sold that and bought
the Alfred White place in Dayton.
They sold that and moved to the
acreage where Pearl now lives at
3600 Ash Road.
"All the moving didn't seem to
bother her," says Phillips, "but
finally, she put her foot down and
said, 'We're not moving anymore.' "
Tribal Council member Jack Giffen
Jr. said, "It's an honor to know you,"
and on behalf of the Tribal Council
gifted Lyon with a leather pouch
containing 100 gold dollar coins.
Tribal Elder Betty Bly, vice chair
of the Culture Committee, gifted
Lyon a Pendleton blanket from
the committee. Lyon had been a
member and honorary member of
the committee in recent years.
Tribal Elder Cherie Butler of the
Elders Committee gifted Lyon with
fresh flowers from the Elders.
With five generations coming
up behind her, Pearl now has 37
grandchildren, great-grandchildren
and great-great-grandchildren.
"I used to go to all the trips that
the Tribe put on," she says, but
even today with a troubling hip,
she makes time to get out and enjoy
family and friends.
"I have had a wonderful life,"
Pearl says. D