Obituary of Charles Stewart Hammond

Dad was born in Oakland, Oregon on April 14, 1930 and passed away on December 29, 2009. Dad was born to Frank and Veva Hammond. He was the sixth of eight children. Gone before him are his parents Frank and Veva, and siblings, Lena, Clara, Frances, Rosie and brother Arthur. He is survived by his sister Laura, and brother Lloyd (Bernice). Dad married Meriena May Cavin on January 7, 1952. Of this union three children were born: son's Charles and Wayne who met Dad at The Golden Gate and daughter Irene who is left behind. Dad was preceded in death by first wife Meriena in 1976. In 1978 Dad married Patricia Danford. Pat brought with her three more children; daughter Samatha, son Tony and daughter Sabrina. Dad is survived by wife Patty and children; Sam, Tony and Sabrina. Dad and Pat were married for 31 years before his passing. When Dad married Pat, he did not become a step parent, but a Dad that was always treated with much love and respect. Sam, Tony and Sabrina lost Dad Robert at a young age and were then raised by their new Dad. Dad lost his mother Veva at the age of eight years old to a rattle snake bite. He then lost his Dad Frank at the age of fourteen due to a train accident. After this he moved in and was raised by Grandpa Hunt. Dad loved his Grandpa and spoke about him many times. Dad loved to hunt and from the time that I can remember he always wore a red felt hat. Mom had thrown it away many times and somehow he always managed to retrieve it. The hat was old and had seen better days, but it was his favorite and he said that he would never get another deer without it. Well, one day Pat took that hat to a nearby store and put it in the dumpster and it was never seen again. It took her about two weeks to finally tell Dad what she had done and although she bought him a new one, his reaction to the old one being gone can NOT be repeated here. One of Dad and Pat's favorite things to do was dance. After many attempts Dad finally "got rhythm" and stopped stepping on her feet. They spent many times at the club just dancing the night away. Another thing that Dad especially liked to do was to go fishing on the Puyallup River. Anyone that could fish was welcome, but the one thing that Dad hated was to be out-fished; which he was quite often. I can remember when I was just a kid; can't remember how old for sure but around eight or ten and we had gone to Oregon for the family reunion. Well, Wayne was afraid of the water so I was playing in a smaller pool with him while the older kids played in the larger pool; we are talking lake not swimming pools. There was one kid there that kept splashing Wayne and I told him to knock it off several times. I finally got really upset because I would protect Wayne to the death and I grabbed the kid and pushed his head under the water. My Aunt Rosie was sitting on the bank yelling at me to hold him down, don't let him up, and my Dad was yelling LET HIM UP, LET HIM UP. I was "torn" (not) between the two and didn't know which one to listen to. In all the confusion I kept the kid's head held under the water. Well, I guess Dad thought that I was really going to drown the kid and after about two minutes Dad came tearing down the hill after me. All the time Aunt Rosie is still yelling at me to hold him down and Dad yelling let him up. Aunt Rosie was sitting on the bank laughing so hard she was doubled over and tears were running down her face. On the other hand Dad was getting closer to me so just before he reached me I let go of the kid and ran the other way just as fast as I could. Leaving Dad to take care of the kid. Long story short, the kid didn't pick on Wayne any more. Thanks Dad for the memories, especially this one. May you rest in peace. One day it will be your turn to meet me at The Golden Gate -