Wilmina Vellema

  Longtime resident of Whatcom County Wilmina “Peggy” Vellema, 92, passed away on March 11, 2016, at her home in Lynden.
  Peggy was born on Feb. 11, 1924, to Mr. and Mrs. G.E. Strengholt of Sanborn, Iowa. Raised on a Northwest Iowa farmstead that lacked electricity and indoor plumbing, she never relented from her claim of having to walk two miles, to and from elementary school, in the snow, uphill both ways. When she was a teenager, Peggy’s father Gerrit Strengholt auctioned his Midwest family farm, loaded the remaining belongings into a car and a farm truck and set forth to the Evergreen State for a new and better life. Uprooted, Peggy soon made new friends at Lynden High School who provided the necessary peer support when she then decided to discard her given name of Wilmina with a trendy upgrade to “Peggy,” an action which mortified and took many years for her mother Wilma Strengholt to embrace.
  Like many young women of that era, during World War II, Peggy joined the ranks of “Rosie the Riveters”; her job was to hand scrub the interiors of the Boeing B-29 wing fuel tanks. She married her sailor sweetheart Dick Vellema on June 20, 1946, in Custer at the farmstead home of her parents. The couple lived in a tiny, hand-built trailer before building their first house on Division Street (the lot, permits, house and all was a sum total of $8,300) that was finished just prior to the arrival of their first child.
  Peggy’s memories included working adjacent to W.H. Waples, on the mezzanine level, in the perched accounting department of his Lynden Department Store. In addition to supporting her husband’s Lynden-based construction business, her next three decades were largely dedicated to the raising of their four children. One of Peggy’s several residences in town was on Front Street across from Gate #2 of the Whatcom County fairgrounds. This home came with a large piece of property which unexpectedly morphed into a family hobby farm. At the start, Peggy failed to fully realize how those many sheep, geese and chickens, together with the occasional horse and cow, would exert such measure on those years of her life. Annually, this homestead also transformed with the arrival of the summer Northwest Washington Fair when Peggy and her family would rise to their yearly mission of operating their Gate #2 parking lot. You may perhaps recall having observed the family busily engaged with their car flagging and parking venue.
  In retirement, Peggy and Dick enjoyed traveling. Each year Peggy would set up housekeeping in their motor home whereupon they would caravan with motorhome friends. Their traverses around the country were certain to include visiting relatives in Iowa and “snow bird” RV parks in the Southwest. Peggy also remained active in her later years, always out and about and more than willing to take up new interests, such as learning at age 81 to play bridge, participating in the Red Hat Society and surfing the unfamiliar internet. She was always eager to meet new people, make new friends and enjoy their company.
  Peggy was preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 59 years, Dick; brother Larry Strengholt; and sister Cynthia (Strengholt) Bajema. She is survived by her sister, Bernace (Strengholt) Korthuis; her children, Karen Heys, Clark Vellema, Karla Foss and Kristi Vellema; 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
  Visitation with the family will be held in Gillies Funeral Home of2 Lynden on Friday, March 18, from 4 to 7 p.m. A memorial service for Peggy will be held at her church at noon on March 19. Peggy was a charter member of Bethel Christian Reformed Church, 1105 Liberty St., Lynden.
  Remembrances in her name may be directed to Lynden Christian Schools.