WALLER, Myrtle Christine

The Daily Miner, Kingman, Arizona - Published on Sunday, January 16, 2011 - Our dear mother, Myrtle C. Waller, passed away on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2011, at the age of 95, at Cerbat Guest Home, where she lived for the past 15 months. She was born on April 12, 1915, at Sisseton, S.D., to Norwegian immigrants Tobias (Tom) Wadholm and Charlotte (Lottie) Hartland. She was very proud of her Norwegian heritage, but never had the opportunity to visit the "homeland." She was a very strong woman who worked hard all of her life. She spent her childhood on a homestead farm at Van Hook, N.D., in a one-room tarpaper shack with her five sisters and one brother. Siblings, Louise, Lorene, Gertie and Theodore, along with half-sisters Marie and Hjordis, all preceded her in death. Two sisters, Edith Wilber of New Town, N.D., and Mavis Slind of Jamestown, N.D., are surviving. In 1936, Myrtle married Elmer Waller and they had three children born in North Dakota. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, she traveled by rail to Southern California, settling in the Paramount area. Elmer had traveled to California looking for work the year before. During WWII she worked at Firestone Tire Company making fuel tanks for military aircraft. After that and until retirement, she worked at several garment manufacturing companies. She was always the lead sample maker, making sample garments for the salesmen to show to prospective department stores and higher-end dress shops. She was always the lead top-stitcher. Elmer passed away in 1984, leaving her a widow. She lived in their home by herself for the next 23 years, doing all of her own housework and gardening. She never drove, but instead liked to walk, nearly a mile every day. Myrtle came to Kingman in 2007 to live with her daughter after having a mini stroke. She is survived by that daughter, Delores Schattler of Kingman and a son, Leroy Waller of Anaheim, Calif. Another son, Myron Waller of La Mirada, Calif., died in 2007. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Michael and Steven Tucker of Kingman, Daniel Tucker of Lakewood, Calif., Linda Klaas of San Jose, Calif., Leanna Waller of Long Beach, Calif., and Eric Waller of Virginia Beach, Va. She is also survived by four great-grandchildren. Sutton Memorial Funeral Home in Kingman is handling arrangements. Services and burial will be at Forest Lawn, Cypress, Calif.