Obituary of Opal Hatcher

Visitation will be held from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, prior to the service. Goldie was born April 13, 1913 to Robert and Mollie Cooksey in a rural sod home in Wheeler county Nebraska. She had four siblings: Howard, Chet, Pearl and Mabel. The family moved from Nebraska to Montana to British Columbia and then to Washington State where Goldie graduated from Tonasket High School in 1932. After high school she moved to Seattle where she obtained her beautician’s license in 1933 and went on to own and operate her own beauty shops. In 1934 she met and married Vernon Anderson. They continued living in Seattle where, in 1942, she gave birth to her son, Brady. Julie, her daughter, followed in 1948. At that time, Goldie sold her beauty shops and started a home day care, while caring for her own two children. Goldie was resourceful and creative. Together with Vernon they began to buy, renovate and resell older houses in Seattle. They turned a few of them into boarding houses to further their income. Profits from their real estate ventures allowed them to put a down payment on a 100-acre chicken farm in Tenino in 1955. Goldie has always said she was a farmer at heart, and finally she had her farm. While Vernon was in Seattle 4 days a week working for Richfield Oil Co., Goldie managed the ranch. When the egg business became unprofitable, Goldie, ever the entrepreneur, used her resources to create a dude ranch with 18 horses. Children came from as far away as Seattle to experience life on a real working farm in the country. Goldie and Vernon were divorced in 1964. She continued living on the ranch until a house fire brought an end to this segment of her life. From the proceeds of selling the farm, Goldie then bought the Maytown Store and developed it into a restaurant and trailer park. She hired help to run this enterprise while she worked at Maple Lane Institute and later at Cedar Creek Camp as a cook. As a single mom, Goldie worked hard to support her family during this challenging period of her life. True to her nature, she turned adversity into opportunity and prosperity. In May 1973 she married Norman Hatcher and shared comfortable and happy times during their short marriage. Goldie developed many warm and reciprocal relationships with Norman’s extended family that continued far past Norman’s death in 1974. The annual Hatcher fish fry put on by Norman’s daughter, Eleanor Selness and her family were one of Goldie’s favorite family events. In her sixties, she earned her Real Estate license and worked for a broker in Tumwater. During that time she acquired several income producing rental properties of her own. She loved the work and meeting people, many of whom became life long friends. She built and sold two spec houses, one with the help of her step grandson Frank Marshall and the 4-unit complex in Tumwater where she lived from 1980 until her death. Goldie was a great cook and loved to eat good food. She was always thinking up reasons to throw potluck parties for all her friends and family. All her life Goldie loved to dance, especially square dance. Even at her 95th birthday she got out of her wheelchair and danced a few steps to her favorite song, The Tennessee Waltz. Goldie had a great sense of humor and loved a good joke. She also loved to play jokes on people, especially on her grandson Miles. Goldie had a lifelong love of gardening. Her vegetable plots always produced enough food for her own table and freezer, plus some extra to send home with visitors. Even in her last years, wheel chair bound and nearly blind, Goldie used innovation and other’s helping hands to keep her garden producing. Goldie’s faith in the future, symbolized by the little seedlings she started in every sunny windowsill each spring, was key to her longevity. She didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘can’t.’ Anyone who knew Goldie knew they could always find a sympathetic ear to their problems and a dose of her winning philosophy of life. Throughout her long life Goldie kept close loving contact with her siblings’ families, most of them in Eastern Washington: The Perry’s, The Cooksey’s, the Rayton’s, the Attwood’s, and the Dobbin’s. Much love and good times were enjoyed at their gatherings throughout the years. Goldie is survived by her children Julie and Brady and by her grandson Miles. She leaves many in-laws, grand children, nieces, nephews, and cousins as well as a stepdaughter and stepson and many step grand children, nieces and nephews. You may leave memories and condolences for the family by clicking on "View Guestbook" below.