ONABEL BRIDGEWATER

Onabel Bridgewater, 89, of Estacada, Ore., died peacefully Friday, Sept. 17, 2004, with her eldest granddaughter by her side.

On Aug. 3, 1915, an extraordinary woman was born to the late Joseph and Eulalie Mayhew. Raised in Michigan, Ms. Bridgewater married her first husband, George Campbell, and had her first two children, Gerald and Donny.

In 1935 they left Michigan and headed north to Alaska as part of the Matanuska Colony Resettlement Program. Later she would be featured in a documentary regarding her life as one of the original colonists.

In that year, meningitis took the life of her 14-month-old son, Donny. Despite the tragedy, Ms. Bridgewater remained in Alaska. She and her husband cleared the land and produced three more sons, George, Sidney and Norman.

In 1944, the family returned to Michigan. The war in 1945 called for Ms. Bridgewater to work in a factory to help the war effort. In 1967 she again moved to Alaska to be near her sons.

In her life she built a total of six houses, in two states, with her own hands. She also assisted in building several other structures. Ms. Bridgewater built her last house in Wasilla.

In 1986, she became interested in solar power to lower expenses. The Anchorage Daily News did an article on her and dubbed her a solar power pioneer in the Matanuska Valley.

Ms. Bridgewater longed to live where she could grow prize roses and fruit trees. She left Alaska in 1987 and moved to Estacada, Ore. Eventually she purchased 20 acres where her dreams of planting roses, fruit trees and a vegetable garden could come true.

As the years passed, her children and several grandchildren would also move to the Northwest region.

Her family said, "She loved spending time with her family and friends. She taught them with love that with hard work, motivation, wisdom, independence, a love for life and a sense of adventure you can accomplish your dreams, as she herself did.

"Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma, you will be missed terribly, but never forgotten. Until we meet again . . ."

Ms. Bridgewater enjoyed fishing, hunting, gardening, baking and most of all, sharing her life with family and friends.

She leaves behind two sisters, Cherrian Gaffke and Gloria Meyers; four sons, Gerald, George, Sidney and Norman; 11 grandchildren and 15 great- grandchildren.

There will be no services. Crown Funeral Home handled the arrangements.