Roberta Ann, “Anne”, McLean was born in Seattle, Washington at Swedish Hospital to her parents, Robert and Margaret Nelson. She was the first of four sisters who would play an important part of her whole life. She spent most of her childhood living in the Queen Anne area where she had many happy memories playing with her sisters, Susan, Mary and Nancy, and their lifelong neighborhood friends, Barbara and Irene. She attended St. Margaret’s Catholic School for most of her early school years. Her claim to fame during this time was she made it into the Seattle Times after running out onto Dravus Street and being hit by a car!  Luckily, she wasn’t badly hurt! She then went to Forest Ridge for her freshman year and graduated from Queen Anne High School in 1957. In high school, she was an excellent student and she wrote her Bobbi’s Hatch column for the school paper! 

She loved all of the extended family gatherings at the Nelson homestead in Ballard, Aunt Esther’s beautiful home in Broadmoor and with the Sullivan side at Grandma Podie’s house. There were many times when her mom would pack up her and her sisters, and they would head up to see Aunt Tat and her cousins, Pam and Sally, at their house on Haller Lake. Things got hard for all of the family when they lost their mom to breast cancer in 1958 at the age of 49, and then four years later their beloved Aunt Tat and their Uncle Bill several years after that. It was a very difficult time for all of them but they forged a lifetime bond of love and friendship that helped them cope with these devastating losses. 

Thanks to the generosity of her beloved Aunt Esther. She was able to attend the University of Washington, where she joined the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority house where she met several of her lifelong friends. (Her sisters and cousins would also became members of AGD while attending the UW.) She met her first husband, James McLean, on a blind date set up by one of her sorority sisters.  She always thought Jim looked so handsome and was very smooth hanging out with his Sigma Nu fraternity brothers on the quad at UW! 

They married in 1959 and went on to have their three children: Jamie in 1960, Scott in 1961 and Jennifer in 1962. She was a very busy homemaker while living at their first house in Juanita. They then moved to Laurelhurst in 1967 when her youngest daughter entered Kindergarten.  At this time, she decided to finish her Political Science degree at the UW. It was at the height of the antiwar demonstrations.  She said she got frustrated because as an older student, she just wanted to finish her degree, while most of the other students and professors just wanted to go out and protest!

 Also, around this time, she went back to work part time through her friendship with her dear sorority sister, Joan Komen, working at Volume Food Services, first at the UW concession stands on game days and then helping in their office with bookkeeping. She then gained more work experience working as an office manager at a manufacturing firm. In 1971, she started her career at Safeco Insurance as a Surety Representative, and in a 10-year period, she climbed the corporate ladder to become one of the first women to become an assistant vice president in 1979.  She also earned three professional designations over the years. She left Safeco Insurance in 1981 to help start a new company, Pacific Marine Insurance Company, and was instrumental in starting their surety department. She loved her colleagues there too and they stayed in contact for many years.  The final part of her career was acting as a Surety Consultant. During these years, she was still very involved in her AGD sorority working on their board with longtime friend and sorority sister, Pam Proske. 

While at Safeco, she met Oral Thompson, and they married on New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas in 1980.  Not soon after, they purchased a beautiful home in the View Ridge neighborhood where many beautiful memories were made celebrating family birthday parties and holidays there. On Sundays, she loved to make her favorite meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and pie which she credited to being taught by her mother-in-law Naomi Nolan at Jim’s request! 

Not soon after Orrie’s retirement and Pacific Marine being sold, they decided to move to the sunny and warm climate of Arizona in the late 80’s.  They first lived in the Tucson area and then finally settled in Green Valley, where they lived until Orrie passed away in 2016. They had a great retirement together, pursuing travel, hobbies, square dancing and meeting many good friends, attending Spring Training with with her youngest daughter, Jennifer and the Spring relatives, and spending time with her sister Mary and brother-in-law, Frank.  Anne also did volunteer work throughout her retirement, first in Representative Al Swift’s office in Everett, WA, and then at a local elementary school and library in Arizona. She also was active in Bible study, book groups and began a lifetime fellowship with the PEO Sisterhood. She made many friends there and stayed in touch with her good friends, Delores, Kathleen and Marge throughout the years.

To be closer to family and friends, she moved to Edmonds, WA in 2018 and made a new life for herself as a widow. She settled into her beautiful condo at 41 Pine near Mary and Frank. Here she would love to sit by her fireplace drinking her boxed red wine, reading, working on stitchery projects and shopping online! She loved going to Bible Study with her cousin Pam and her daughter Kathy, and getting together for the annual cousin birthday lunches!  With her “3 Amigos” friends, Pam and Margaret, they would eat out at their favorite spots all over Edmonds.  Jennifer took her on many great trips over the years to see family in Spokane WA, Long Beach CA and Scottsdale AZ and with her stepdaughter, Dianne Tierney, they would get together for many lunches at Anthony’s or Arnie’s where her favorite server, Caesar, never forgot her!!

She started to experience some health issues at this time too. First needing a pacemaker, then surviving sepsis and finally never recovering from her hip replacement after getting Covid at the rehab center.  She moved to Assisted Living at Crista in Shoreline, WA and was lovingly cared for there in the last years of her life. She was surrounded by family, friends and her caregivers in the last few weeks and passed away just one day past her 87th birthday. 

Our mom was a strong leader, hard working, smart, driven, and sassy, very generous and kind. She loved her family, visiting her grandchildren and stayed close to all of her nieces attending all of their weddings and getting to know their children. She was a great role model, lifelong learner, and loved by so many. She will be dearly missed by all.

A celebration of life and interment will be held on Saturday, January 25th at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline, WA at 11am and then lunch at 1pm at Scott’s Bar and Grill in Edmonds, WA where we will toast to her very long and well lived life!