Edith Jay Thompson

A new Angel arrived in Heaven in the early morning of October 23, 2025. Edith began life in Bisbee, Arizona on February 8th, 1930, middle child of Henry and Gertrude Buff Waters. Born during the Great Depression, she knew what it was like to be poor. Even as a child she worked with her sharecropping family to tend onion fields, then later as a teen ushered at the local theater and helped her mother to clean house. She left school at 17 to marry Harold “Sonny” Denning, and she later completed her GED at LBCC at the age of 70, to demonstrate to her grandchildren the value of education. During her nearly 50-year marriage to Sonny, they relocated many times between Arizona, California, Colorado, and Oregon while Sonny, an accomplished mechanic, tried his hand at several jobs. They raised three sons: Harley, Ron, and Rick, and enjoyed many outdoors activities through the years: camping, fishing, and hunting. Once the boys were in school, she worked as a housekeeper for Corvallis families, and continued that work into her 80s. Many of those families stayed in touch with her. Sonny passed away in 1996, and in 2001 Edith married Ivan Thompson of Sweet Home, where they lived until his death in 2009. She briefly moved back to Arizona, but decided that Oregon was home and returned. Edith was preceded in death by her husbands and her son Rick, her daughters-in-law Sandy, Lynn, and Sharon, and step-great-grandsons Joseph and Zachary. She outlived all of her siblings: Everett Waters, Kathleen Whissman, Lorene Fields, and Ron Waters. She is survived by sons Harley and Ron; grandson Heath Denning, wife Brittney and their seven children; Mike Denning and his wife Tonya and their four children; her daughter-in-law Diane Jarvi and her children Shannon, Tiffany and Shane and their offspring, including her first great-great-grandchild; and her Thompson stepchildren, Colleen and Dale, step-grandchildren, and step-great-grandchildren. She loved them all and tried her best to keep up with their activities. One granddaughter/guardian angel in particular, Tamy Norton, deserves acknowledgment for her kindness and devotion to her Grandma in her final years. Edith's family and friends will remember her for that friendly and cheerful welcoming smile, her accomplished quilting talent, her enduring family ties, and the example she set with a strong work ethic and spiritual faith. At Edith's request, there is to be no formal funeral service, so a celebration of life will be announced in a few weeks.

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Edith Jay Thompson

February 8, 1930 - October 23, 2025