Elaine Mae Thrasher, born Elaine Mae Smith on Nov. 19, 1925, in Everett, Wash., passed away April 9, 2014, in Pleasant Hill, Calif., after a brief but intense battle with congestive heart failure and COPD.

Elaine grew up in Clinton on Whidbey Island, where her father ran Smith’s Cash Store and served as the postmaster for Clinton (among many other things!). Elaine married the love of her life, Robert Lee (Bob) Thrasher Jr., a career U.S. Naval officer on Sept. 29, 1945, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Clinton. Bob preceded her in death in 1998.

As a military wife for nearly two decades, Elaine and her family lived in places as far-flung as Hawaii, Key West and Spain. During that time, Bob and Elaine had six children, Barbara, Bobbie Lou, Sandi, Guy Robert, Randy and Erik. Guy Robert passed away as an infant while the family was stationed in Spain in 1958. Bob and Elaine returned to Washington State in 1959 and made their home in the same house where she grew up in Clinton on Whidbey Island a few years later, raising their family there. All five of Elaine’s children graduated from her alma mater, Langley High School.

From the early 1960s to the 1980s, Elaine worked full time at NAS Whidbey. Upon her retirement in 1986 as a GS13, Bob and Elaine moved to Gresham, Ore., where they spent 15 years together before Bob passed away. A few years later, Elaine moved to Walnut Creek, Calif., where she enjoyed being close to her son, Erik, making dear new friends and basking in a warm dry climate that definitely agreed with her.

Elaine was a devoted wife, loving mom of six, grandma of eight and great-grandma of nine children, as well as a loyal and giving friend and the vital hub of her family. She always considered Whidbey Island her beloved home, and her ashes were laid to rest next to Bob; her mother and father, Guy and Elillian Smith; and her beloved sister Geraldine (Gerry) Maylor in the small cemetery next to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Clinton.

No gifts or flowers are desired, just your fond memories of this wonderful woman, our mom, Elaine Thrasher. If you wish to make a donation, please send it to Hospice of East Bay, www.hospiceeastbay.org, who took such wonderful care of our mom in her final days.