Yvonne A Lillehaug-Collins

Yvonne Anne Budig Lillehaug-Collins (1920-2020) passed away peacefully into the arms of her Lord in the early morning of May 24, 2020 in McKinleyville, CA with her family by her side. Yvonne was born May 12, 1920 to the late Grace Anne Hews and Herbert Sandolph Berwick in Reeder, North Dakota. Spending her early years in ND, she and her family moved to Denver, where Yvonne graduated from East High School, class of 1937, and married her high school sweetheart Millard Budig. She earned her college degree at Colorado University in Boulder, CO. She was a teacher at heart, as were her daughters Gloria and Valerie. She taught shorthand, typing, business writing and other business classes for over 25 years in Denver, with adults at the vocational Opportunity School and with junior high Denver Public School teenagers, sponsoring the bowling club and a class business venture selling big dill pickles. A charismatic educator, Yvonne taught weekly evening typing and shorthand classes on public television. Before her long teaching career, she worked at Gates Rubber Company, where she was awarded the Gates Gold Award for Creative Thinking, supervised the secretarial pool, and taught them Dictaphone technologies. Working as a civilian for the Air Force, she taught officers business letter writing skills and revised military manuals for clarity.
Yvonne made a lasting impression on everyone she knew. Her contagious joy, optimism and love made every day of her 100 years a "Happy Day," words she spoke often, from the moment she sat up in bed in the morning, stretching her arms open wide, and planning new adventures, projects and kindnesses she wished for everyone around her. She taught us to work and persevere at things we care about, to love and support each other, to honor family, stay close to God, be true to our country and uphold the local and global community. At home in the kitchen Yvonne could cook up a storm – ice cream cookies, baked beans, a special coleslaw, frog eye salad, and custard pudding. She made hot chocolate from scratch, stirring patiently until it was just right. Her hand-written recipes are in our own kitchens now, frayed lovingly from many years of use. When it was necessary to stand her ground, she faced up to the car mechanic who charged too much for repairs on our Pontiac. When it was necessary during the pre-vaccine polio epidemic, she fearlessly scooped up her little girl and drove her up into the Colorado mountains to camp out in a tent to keep her safe. Yvonne was a bubbling spring of joy that spilled over to others around her. A precious mother who taught her daughters well, she would say, "If nothing bad or sad ever happened in your life, you wouldn't have any character at all!" and when we were hurting, "Say oh, and let it go."
From the very beginning, Yvonne and Millard, and then the girls were a camping family. They packed up their tent, sleeping bags, fishing poles, night crawlers, camp stove, green lantern, boxes of matches, a lot of band aids, and wonderful meals including fried chicken and apple pie, and left immediately after Millard's work on every Thursday in the summer for the rivers and streams of Colorado and Wyoming. On fishing trips Yvonne could catch the biggest rainbow of the family in a lake or one nearly as big with a makeshift branch fishing pole from a streambank. She would fry fish over a campfire or the Coleman cookstove, bake potatoes in the embers, and rescue her daughters who sat on a cactus or had a fish hook caught in a finger. With the girls in town there were happy days of campfires, woodland adventures, and Gates picnics.
Yvonne was a seamstress and an embroiderer, and progressed to making beautiful woven wall hangings and designing needlepoint creations that often documented family history. She told written stories, including episodic girl-hero mysteries sent in daily letters to Girl Scout camp to read around the campfire. Fifty years later she was reading her stories and journal impressions of Morocco to the Silver Quills writing group in McKinleyville and writing to the newspaper about Dr. Loncar's heroism in the Emergency Room. In 2009 she published Little Dragon, her farm and Sauk-Fauk village story book "for young people, their parents, and their grandparents." She shared it with students in McKinleyville schoolrooms and with bookstores and the University of Minnesota on a Midwestern book tour.
Yvonne lived and traveled to Europe with each daughter in turn, with her first husband Millard Budig to his secret fishing spots, with her second husband Selmer Lillehaug to many Ports of Call in the Caribbean, and to Canada, Morocco, and down the Snake and Columbia Rivers with her third husband Joe Collins. Widow of all three, she continued to venture out, taking Joe's funeral urn all the way to Alaska at the age of 96 and going on a short excursion to sea out of Crescent City when she was 98. She let boxer dogs walk her on Clam Beach, rescued her runner daughter bitten by a dog in Westhaven and her son-in-law trucker stranded at a rest area on Hwy 101. She convinced her last husband Joe to go to Morocco with her to support a fledgling university study program and studied Arabic. When she was 97 she studied conversational Haitian Creole.
May this cherished angel rest in God's embrace so richly deserved for an earthly life well lived. She will remain lovingly in our hearts forever. Yvonne was simply full of kindness, caring, love and exuberant generosity. God has blessed us all who have been fortunate enough to be part of her life.
Beloved mother of her two daughters, Yvonne is survived by Gloria Anne Torrison (George), Denver, CO and Valerie Jean Budig Markin (the late Robert Markin), McKinleyville, CA. Predeceased by her husbands Millard Budig, Selmer Lillehaug, and Joe Collins. Also surviving are her sister Audrey Lutz (Robert), Carlsbad, CA and brother Jack Berwick (Shirlee) Ventura, CA, and beloved grandsons Scott Torrison (Clara) of Chugiak, AK and Jeff Torrison (Toni) of Lakewood, CO. Great-grandchildren include Jacob, Joshua, Jonah, Joey, Holly, and Luke Torrison, and great-great-granddaughters Averi and Evva. Also survived by nieces and nephews Lori, Kathi, Wendy, Robyn, Mike, Grace, the late Kristi and Jerry and many dear friends and relatives. Memorial services at Grace Good Shepherd Church in McKinleyville and in Denver will be published and take place at a later date when we are able to gather safely again.