The McCart Kids

Larry shares tidbits about himself and his six siblings.

He continues the story: Mom and Dad moved from Jennings Lodge to a home they purchased in Lake Grove on Railroad Street (now Lower Drive) about 1937. My youngest sister Nora and I were born in Oregon;  Grace, Lois, Virginia and my brothers Warren, Jr., and Don were born in South Dakota. The pecking order went Warren, Jr., Virginia, Lois, Don, Grace, Nora, and me, Larry.  ‘s

All seven of us attended Lake Grove Elementary. I can just hear the chatter in the teacher’s room:  ‘Another McCart kid coming through.’  After grade school, Warren attended Benson Polytechnic. He graduated early and enlisted in the Navy, serving in WWII. When his stint in the Navy ended, Warren returned to Oregon; married and worked at the Buttermilk Corner in downtown Portland–I think that was a pancake restaurant–until he landed a job with the National Cash Register Company. He had a long career with National Cash Register, living and working in Eugene, Bremerton, WA., El Centro, CA., and Des Moines, IA.

Sis writes poem for school newspaper

When my sister Virginia was in the fifth grade (1939) at Lake Grove Elementary, she wrote a poem titled Strict Church Rules for the school newspaper. (Author’s note: An interesting title coming from a fifth-grader. Maybe her teacher, or another adult, edited the original.) Since there was no Lake Oswego High School until 1951, Virginia attended West Linn High School. Her husband, Ray Silver, worked for Crown Zellerbach after serving in the Navy during WWII. Ray's father and his daughter Marilyn also worked for Crown Z. Between the three of them, they have over 100 years of employment with the paper mill.. Marilyn is still working there.

Lois also attended West Linn High School where she met and married her sweetheart, Jim H. Cook. Jim’s family owned a large farm where Stafford and Rosemont Roads intersect, known today as the historic Shipley-Cook Farmstead. Cook’s Butte is also named after Jim’s family. Although Jim was raised on a farm and did farm chores as a kid, farming was not his preferred vocation. Employee number 450, Tektronix hired him to open their field office in Van Nuys, CA in 1956. Jim and Lois raised their family in southern California, returning to the farm for family reunions, major holidays, and celebrations.

The farmstead remains in the Cook family today. Jim and Lois’ son Rick currently lives on and manages the farm; brother Steve lives in Gladstone with his wife Karen but this doesn’t prevent him from tending the chickens and doing other farm chores when help is needed.

 Don became a plumber, eventually opening his own business in Lake Grove. He passed away as the result of a plumbing accident at The Grotto. Grace, sister number three, attended West Linn High School but graduated from Lake Oswego High School. She married Carl Applewhite. They moved to Texas where he worked for Texas Instruments for many years.

Nora and I graduated from Lake Oswego High School. She met her husband Ron Baker at Consolidated Freight, where she worked in data processing. I attended Portland State, earning a degree in applied science, which landed me jobs at Hyster, Cascade Corporation, and Toyota Lift. I currently live out near Sherwood.

Sadly all of my siblings have passed away and although I’m the only surviving McCart, I communicate frequently with my nephew Rick Cook. We chat about the history of the farm; and make plans for the annual 4th of July picnic, which has been a Cook family tradition for over a hundred years.”