Elizabeth Fort

Elizabeth Fort Elizabeth Jane Fort (1926-2011) | Visit Guest Book Her story began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where her Swedish ancestors had settled. Born the youngest of four children on April 4, 1926, she attended high school in Minneapolis and worked for an uncle in Jasper, Canada. In 1942, at age sixteen, she moved to the Portland area to work in the airplane factories. When she graduated from high school she did some modeling and bicycled with a girlfriend from Minneapolis to New Orleans where they received a key to the city. She returned to the midwest and attended the University of Minnesota receiving her bachelors degree in 1948, and in 1951 her masters degree in international relations from the University of Chicago. In the summers she worked in Washington, DC and Miami. She met Colbert Hughes Browne while skiing in Minneapolis and they married in the first Quaker marriage in Florida on Nov 13, 1949. During the early years in Florida, the couple lived on a houseboat which was moored on the Miami River, later moving to Key Largo and Miami where she taught high school history. Her husband finished medical school and in 1958 the couple packed up a car and an old truck, and moved to Eugene where he interned at Sacred Heart Hospital. The family then moved to Oakridge where Dr. Browne set up his medical practice and where the countryside offered camping, hiking and exploring opportunities. Elizabeth (known as Betty) loved to climb Diamond Mountain and explore old mines along Christy Creek and in the Bohemia area with all four children trekking along. The family spent time watching the Oregon Legislature and Congress. She attended the University of Oregon Law School, commuting from Oakridge and taking some time off from school during the births of her last two children. She had four children: Claudia, a lawyer (making the two one of the first mother - daughter lawyers in Oregon), who works and resides in Grants Pass with her husband Bob Tillotson; Scott, who had a logging company and predeceased her; Paula, who received her masters degree in social work, now residing in Arizona with her husband, Mark Morgan; and Christopher who lives with his wife Pam in Terra Haute, Indiana. When she finished law school she had a private practice in Eugene, then entered the Oregon political scene. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1969 through 1971 and the Oregon Senate from 1971 to 1977, enjoying the judiciary committee and changes in juvenile law. She also became the editor of the Juvenile Court Law Digest, then moved on to serve on and chairperson the Oregon State Board of Parole, a position she did not much enjoy. In 1973 she married Judge William S. Fort, who loved to travel as much as she did. For a time she resided in Medford, then moved back to Eugene and the mountains she loved and the Hult center she enjoyed. She had regrets, among them not being able to join the marches in Birmingham and Washington, DC, and not being able to join the Peace Corps. After Judge Fort died in 1988, she traveled widely with friends, rafted with friends and dove into the world of bridge where she made some of her fondest friends. She laughed, loved and traveled with her friends, her children and grandchildren: Katherine, Patrick, Katrina and her grandson-in-law, Michael; and her great-grandchildren: Nolan, Hannah Rose, Jasper, Janessa and Jordynne; her nephew, Stefan Radosevich; and numerous others related through marriage, most residing in Eugene. Her dogs and flowers were a source of happiness. She loved learning and loved to see others learn, always offering to help educate, always stressing education, drawing one's own conclusions, tolerance, respect of others and peaceful resolution of conflicts. She was an elegant woman who loved, laughed and lived up through the last minute of her life and who wanted those remaining behind to do the same. Betty passed away suddenly at home on November 7, 2011. A Celebration of Life service will be held at the Musgrove/England Eugene Memorial Chapel at 1152 Olive Street, Eugene, OR on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 2 p.m. She will be inurned in the family plot in Oakridge. Memorial contributions may be made to Oregon Public Broadcasting or to Greenhill Humane Society. P