Smoke signals., June 01, 2013, Page 10 and 11, Image 19

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townrd Hi nee 2005.
"I think he has a good Htory,"
said Dan Ham, activity assistant
at the Elders' Activity Center, who
watched the transformation. "I
think people would like to know
about a guy who has changed his
lifestyle and lost so much weight."
Lilian! no longer lugs around
almost 200 pounds.
From a healthy 240 pounds for
his O-foot-5-inch frame, Lillard
started gaining weight after he left
physically taxing mill work for a job
driving trucks for C.F. Laughlin in
Yamhill in 1998.
By 2002, he had gained so much
weight that he landed in Willamette
Medical Center in McMinnville
with pneumonia and a massively
enlarged heart.
"They pulled my medical card,
which is the same as pulling my
commercial driving license, and
that put me on Social Security,"
he said.
But that was not enough to get
him on the road to losing weight.
The next year, he spent a month
on life support machines, but not
even a month with tubes going in
and out of him convinced him to
make a change.
His kidneys shut down. He had
congestive heart failure. He even
got a running start on what he
needed to do by losing 80 of the
400-some pounds he weighed when
he went into St. Vincent's Hospital
and Medical Center, but not even
all that was enough yet to convince
him to lose weight.
"I gained it all right back," he said
with his current 242-pound frame
relaxing in an easy chair at the
Elders' Activity Center. "I was not
doing anything different. I had the
same bad habits." After two more
years of it, he finally admitted, "I
just felt sick."
The month at St. Vincent's did
turn into an example, however,
that came back to haunt him as his
weight began to rise.
"I saw it coming around again
and I thought that I could not live
through it again."
Lillard describes his childhood
in the area as a "fun one, a good
one" centered around family. His
maternal grandfather was August
Robert Ford of A.R. Ford Road in
Grand Ronde. Ford was of Ger
man ancestry and ranched more
than 1,000 acres here during his
lifetime.
"We could touch anything (on the
ranch), but his Herefords," said
Lillard. "He died in 1961 and I still
think of him."
As a child, Lillard said, he was
always outgoing and up to some
thing. "I was wired for sound," he said,
and jittered his hand to show how
a little boy full of excitement looks.
He drove his grandfather a little
crazy from time to time, he said,
but the first time his grandfather
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Photos courtesy of John Lillard
Tribal Elder John Lillard, front right, in a family photo taken in 1 955 with sister Norma Billings, front left, and back
row from left, sisters Shirley Warren Flansberg and Donna Casey, mother Blanche Lillard, holding his sister Yvonne
Merrow, and brother Philip Warren.
took him to the store where the
Bonanza is now it was called,
"The Ronde" at that time he re
ally won him over.
"Everybody was calling my grand
father, 'Mr. Ford.' It was, 'Mr. Ford
this,' and 'Mr. Ford that,' and I had
to ask him, 'Don't they know you're
name is grandpa?' "
Lillard also recalled that his
grandfather bought homes for
neighbors in exchange for their
labor on his ranch.
August Ford married Lillard's
grandmother from Kalapuya bands,
Adele Michelle Ford. Their daugh
ter, Blanche, Lillard's mother, grew
up attending the Grand Ronde
Agency School and Chemawa In
dian School for awhile.
Her grandfather took her to St.
Mary's in Beaverton one day, but
"she got home again before him,"
Lillard recalled. St. Michael's Cath
olic Church in Grand Ronde always
played a big role in their lives.
Blanche married Jasper Lillard,
from Tennessee, a man with some
Native American blood, and they
raised Lillard along with three
Warren kids, three Lillard kids and
a seventh child for Blanche, Ruth
Cooper, who walked on in Tacoma
in 1985. Her daughter, Cheryl
Cooper, lives in family housing in
Grand Ronde.
Lillard went to Willamina for the
early years of grade school, then
to the Grand Ronde grade school
for the upper years and then back
to Willamina for high school. He
played basketball and ran track.
He was even something special
at basketball in grade school, re
members Tribal Council member
Steve Bobb Sr.
"He was always tall," Bobb said.
"We used to call him Lincoln. He
and Terry Vick used to run all over
us little short guys."
Bobb added that it was good to
have Lillard around when guys
came around to fight.
"He always had your back. We
always had each others' backs.
It was good to have somebody in
your corner that's got a little size,"
Bobb said. "We were always friends
through high school. We all lived in
the neighborhood as a family. We
had relatives in common, and we
still have that closeness. He was
one of these guys with a likeable
personality. You couldn't not like
him."
Lillard remembers working as a
sidelight to school, mowing lawns,
working at gas stations, doing odd
jobs.
"I used to make a lot of money
when grandpa was around. One
of my favorites was people would
call me up and I would just go and
sit with them. I took money from
somebody once and my mom made
me give it back. 'You don't take
money from neighbors for visiting
with them,' she said. My mom was
amazing. She was a very caring,
giving person."
His other siblings included Shir
ley Warren Flansberg, the oldest,
who walked on in 1995; Norma
Billings still lives in Grand Ronde;
Yvonne Merrow lives in Nevada;
Donna Casey is living in a care
center in McMinnville; and Philip
Warren lives in Elder housing. All
are Elders of the Tribe as well.
He mentioned some of the things
they did growing up. "The drive-in
was cool." They went hunting and
fishing, sports that Lillard still en
joys, along with golf when he can.
"We always went and gathered
mussels, and even eels when I had
to."
During the summers, neighbor
hood children went up to a swim
ming hole on the Ford property. In
those days, only Ford's house and
maybe one other had been built
in the area. Back in the 1960s,
they called the swimming hole
"the hideout," a name that came
to serve the whole area as people
moved in.
Today, Lillard said, "I love the
ocean," where he fishes for bottom
fish like ling cod, red snapper, sea
trout and "whatever else happens
to pop up." He likes the Siuslaw
National Forest for hunting deer
and elk.
Every year, his grandfather paid
for the children to attend the Or
egon State Fair and in exchange
Lillard and his siblings hauled his
hay in. It was about a two-day job,
he remembered.
There was no TV in the house
until he reached his teen years,
he said, though he recalled the ex
citement of listening to "The Lone
Ranger" on the radio.
"Everybody had chores," he said.
"I was mom's wood packer."
In 1967, Lillard enlisted in the
Army.
"I graduated high school in June
1967 and enlisted in December."
His basic training was at Fort
Lewis in Washington and then
he moved to Fort Lee in Virginia,
where he went to school to become
a supply sergeant.
For that job, he said, "You gotta
do what you gotta do to get what
you want." There was some wheel
ing and dealing included, he said.
He spent a year in Germany,
came home for 50 days, "had lots
of fun" and in 1969 he "put in" for
a tour in Vietnam. He landed in
An Khe, where his unit performed
"basic communications" for the 4th
Infantry, and where he remembers
making good use of his "scrounging
skills."
"There was a lot of trading for
different things. It probably wasn't
legal, but we got away with it.
"It was good for me to get out of
Oregon," he added. "I left when I
was 18 and came back when I was
21."
Lillard had good examples for his
military service. "Almost all of dad's
family was vets, and in my mom's
family I had some great-uncles that
were veterans."
As the family grew and spread
out, Lillard stayed to care for his
aging parents and other Elders in
the family. He worked a number
of jobs, one in the registrar's office
at Chemeketa Community College,
followed by his work in the mills
and later in trucking.
He served on the first Tribal
Health Committee after Restora
tion "when we were meeting in
gyms around here."
Today, he serves on the Fish and
Wildlife Committee.
His concern for the Tribe is about
keeping it going. "I think there's a
lot of good things (going on here),
and other things that could be
f
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Tribal Elder John Lillard in 2004, when he weighed more than 400 pounds.
Since then, he has lost almost 200 pounds.
Tribal Elder John Lillard at 19 years of age when he enlisted in the Army.
accomplished. I believe in diversi
fication. In order to sustain what
we have now, I believe we have
to diversify along with the casino.
This is more than a Tribe. This is
a business; a multi-million dollar
enterprise.
"I grew up here with Reyn (Leno)
and Steve Bobb and a lot of others,
and we'd like to see this Tribe sus
tained. Things only last so long on
their own, so you have to find ways
to keep them going."
On June 1, 2005, Lillard looked
at the scale and said, "That's it."
He had said it before, but not with
the "vigor and authority" he had
this time.
"Of course, saying it and doing it
are two different things," he said.
"I sat there that day and thought,
'No sense in waiting any longer.'
I went to the kitchen and tossed
everything I didn't need, including
my frying pan."
Out went the bacon sausage. Out
went the soda. Out went the but
ter, the white bread, any processed
foods. "It was bake or boil for awhile
after that."
He said he dumped the food
rather than give it away because,
"If I liked somebody, why would I
want to give them this crap?"
From June through the end of
2005, he lost 37 pounds. He had
been working with Dr. Theresa
Pratt, who at the beginning of
2006 reviewed Lillard's diet and
made adjustments, adding more
fresh vegetables and limiting the
sodium.
"People don't realize what's in
their food these days," he said.
He started cooking for himself,
he said, and credits his mother for
that.
"She taught all of us to cook. Even
the boys," he said. "I don't dabble in
specialties. I just cook what works
at the moment. Some stir-frys: I
love them."
During 2006, he lost 117 pounds
and hasn't looked back yet.
He insists that he is not on a diet
and his main exercise is walking.
It is all about attitude, he said.
"If you don't have the attitude for
this, you won't make it happen."
The Army, he said, taught him
about the "positive mental attitude"
that he has used to succeed.
He also credits Pratt and other
health care providers at the Tribal
clinic.
"Dr. Pratt was tough, hard
nosed, but really fair," he recalled.
"There's a lot of compassion in that
woman."
Following his dramatic weight
loss, Lillard shared his experi
ence through the Tribal Wellness
Program so that others might be
inspired by his example.
"I'm sure he made an impact,"
said Elder Bonnie Mercier, former
manager of the Wellness Depart
ment. "He was just so straight
forward, matter of fact. He didn't
explain it as some complex, hard-to-deal
with way to lose weight;
just walking every day and eating
something green every meal."
"Once you get good habits," Lil
lard said, "they stay with you." B