Verna McCubbin
In Loving Memory of Verna Lucille McCubbin,
Our mother Verna expired on July 21, 1999, in Los Gatos, California. She was born on her family's homesteaded ranch near Weston, Oregon, on August 30, 1929, to the proud parents Theodore and Dora Walden. When she was young the family moved to town, Milton-Freewater, Oregon, where she graduated from McLaughlin High School in 1945. She met her future husband Chester Harold McCubbin while working at Roger's Cannery in Milton-Freewater. Harold had just completed his service in World War Two and had come to Milton-Freewater to visit his brothers Earl and Elvin McCubbin, when he met Verna. They were married in Milton-Freewater's First Christian Church on October 2, 1947.
Harold began working with General Electric on the Atomic Energy Reservation in southeastern Washington, and he and Verna moved to Richland, Washington. In Richland they had three children: Thomas Darryl (1948), Janis Kay (1951) and Mark Cordell (1959). They lived in both Richland and Prosser for 12 years before relocating with General Electric to San Jose, California in June of 1960. They bought a home in San Jose where they lived while the two eldest children attended Camden High School. In 1968 they moved to another home a few miles away in Willow Glen where they lived up to the present.
When they moved to California, Verna's long-time interest in art began to blossom forth. Her children remember going with the family to scenic locations in northern California such as Big Basin Redwoods, Point Lobos in Carmel, Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and San Francisco, where she would either paint on scene, sketch scenery, or photograph, so that she could paint in her home studio. She taught others how to paint and exhibited her paintings extensively throughout the greater Bay Area for many years. She owned her own gallery for a short time in Palo Alto, near Stanford University. Her paintings were made into color postcards and were sold in gift shops in Carmel, Monterey and San Francisco, so that her work and style of painting became easily recognizable. Her work appeared in a United Nations exhibit, at Richard Nixon's San Clemente White House, and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev owns one of her paintings.
Besides being a kind and loving mother and artist, Verna was also a strong religious person. She believed that her Lord Jesus was the most important element to this life on Earth. She attended several churches in San Jose, including the Neighborhood Church in Willow Glen, Baptist Church in Los Gatos, Cathedral of Faith and Bethel Church. When her health began to deteriorate she became an avid viewer and supporter of several television ministries. She had had a born again experience in her earlier years and from then on had developed a rich prayer life, which she was so eager to discuss with any who listened. She was also a good listener and counselor and never stopped helping those in distress.
She had a proud family history, which she kept alive through memories of her childhood, oral traditions handed down through family memories and research she had done. Her great grandmother was Sarah J. Cummins, who had arrived in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1845. Sarah was a personal friend of Marcus and Narcissus Whitman, the earliest missionary settlers who had come out west to minister to the American Indians. Sarah captured her life story and her memories of the early frontier days in a book titled “Autobiography and Reminiscences”, which our mother Verna obtained copies of and distributed to family members. The values that her early pioneer family lived by were passed on to Verna and she would often reflect on how they lived and the value system they went by, which is one of the reasons why Verna stood out as a strong individual with abundant strength, initiative and creativity.
Verna had been in fragile health for several years. She had diabetes, a broken foot, and a heart condition. In the last two years of her life she developed fibrosis of the lungs, which may have been a side effect of some heart medication she had been taking. She died of adult respiratory distress. Her loving family: husband, children and grandchildren were at her bedside when she passed on. She is being buried at San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery in Gustine, California, which is a national veterans' cemetery.
She is survived by her husband and children and five grandchildren: Jessica and Rebecca McCubbin; and Andrew, David and Daniel Schneider; daughter-in-law Patricia Sedlak McCubbin and son-in-law Carl Randall Schneider. She will be greatly missed by us all!
For the inspiration of others, here is one of her favorite scriptures:
“Do not fear for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;
Those who contend with you will be as nothing, and will perish.
You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,
Those who war with you will be as nothing, and nonexistent.
For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand,
Who says to you, “Do not fear, I will help you”.
Isaiah 41:10-13: