Maxine Grevstad

Maxine Eugenia Hester was born in Port Orchard, WA on March 6, 1916, the oldest child of Percy and Ella (Lundberg) Hester.  Maxine lived and thrived in Port Orchard for all of her growing up, school, and much of her married life, until moving to a new home on Hood Canal near Port Gamble in 1970.  She resided in that home until moving to Bay Point Retirement home in Bremerton in February, 2010.  Maxine graduated from South Kitsap High School in the class of 1934, then fell in love with Olalla resident Christian Grevstad,  accepted his proposal of marriage and married on October 20, 1935 beginning a life long love affair.  When Maxine told her father that Chris had proposed and they were going to be married, he said, “Well honey, you are married for a long time.”  Little did he know then, they would be married 70 years, 2 1/2 months. before Chris’s sudden death in Jan 2006  They both enjoyed all those years in activities and good health. In June of 1942 they were blessed to adopt Diana Gayle Grevstad who was the light of their lives.  While Chris worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, when their only daughter  Diana entered school, Maxine went to work at Kitsap County Bank, which was a job she loved.  When she moved to Hood Canal, she retired from the bank.  But she missed working, and took on a “part time” job with Great Northwest Savings and Loan as a “traveling teller,” until her final retirement in the late 1970s.  Maxine, with her Swedish heritage, loved to cook, bake, read recipes, grow flowers, play cards, and especially dance.  For many years, they went dancing around Kitsap County every Saturday night.  Maxine and her brother Don Hester were great dancing partners.   She canned every summer until 2008 and was famous for her cookies, pies and Swedish Pancakes.  Maxine sewed, crocheted, knitted, did crafts and dug clams & goeyducks in front of their Hood Canal home until the summer of 2009.  She was well known for talking the crew of the goeyduck boats out of a goeyduck or two, which she prepared and both made chowder and fried. Her many activities included being a Girl Scout leader, a life time member of the Port Orchard Chapter of the Phythian Sisters lodge, serving as its Grand Chief of the State of Washington in 1987-88, Past President of the Kitsap County Credit Women, past officer of the Poulsbo Sons of Norway lodge, and member of the Sons of Norway Ladies Club.  For many years she was a member of the Kahn’s Men’s Wear bowling team and they won many championships.  Well into her mid 80s, Maxine & Chris were still traveling to  Tumwater, WA to man the free coffee station at the rest area there as a fund raiser for the Knights of Pythias Lodge.   Having learned it at her Mother’s knee, Maxine, her Mom and her brother Don were avid baseball fans, most especially following first the Seattle Rainiers baseball team on the radio, and then the Seattle Mariners on TV.  If it was summer or fall, there was a baseball game on. Maxine and her husband Chris camped and fished, and Maxine traveled with Chris while he went hunting most years.  They enjoyed traveling, and beginning in the 1970s, they became “snow birds” and pulled their travel trailer to Arizona every year, where they greatly enjoyed their time with other Kitsap County residents in Yuma.  Darts were a big favorite of theirs.   Chris was a lifetime member of Bremerton Elks Lodge #1181 and they enjoyed being members and outings with the Elks travel club.  She was a great card player, and enjoyed bridge, pinochle, cribbage, rummy and especially the game of Tic.  If no one was available to play cards with her, Maxine played solitaire…for many years with cards and then on the computer.  She did the daily crossword puzzle in the newspaper until just a year ago.  Maxine never missed an opportunity to have a good time with people. She was preceded in death by her husband Chris and her only daughter Diana Grevstad Darragh.  She is survived by her loving brother Donald Hester of Bremerton, grandchildren Michael Darragh (Althena,) Bremerton, Aaron Darragh (Michelle,) Burlington, and Christy Murphy (Tom) with PSNS in Japan.  7 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren. Brother in law and sister in law John and Mary Grevstad of Gig Harbor, loving nephews, nieces, cousins, neighbors and longtime friends and neighbor Joyce (Cooper) and Don Jurgich of Belfair.    Maxine was the niece of longtime Port Orchard educator Maynard Lundberg.