Mavis Corkery Kallsen
William Corkery was the great Aberdeen logger who, when proclaiming that “You bait your own hook”, was probably referring to spar poles and log skidders. Alice Corkery was an erudite scholar who may have stretched Polonius’ instructions when she said, “To thine own self be true”. Mavis Corkery Kallsen and her elder sisters Beulah, Clare, and Merle all learned those tenets well, and each kid grew up knowing she was born special. Mavis never forgot that.
Her childhood family divided their time between the industrial frontier of Aberdeen, the city house on Capitol Hill, and their beach place at Burton. When her father died, Mavis’ family moved to Montrose California, but they continued to spend their summers on Vashon Island. Perhaps in response to her delicate health as a child, Mavis built a robust constitution that ran on indomitable spirit and carried her nearly all the way through her eighty-eighth year.
She met Robert August Kallsen at the University of Washington, and each knew they’d found their prize catch. Their first date was spent under a table, discussing philosophy … whatever. Separated by busy schedules, Mavis dropped a hint about “another man”. Robert immediately issued his now famous “Stop! (stop) Stop! (stop) Stop! (stop)” telegram, hopped a plane, proposed marriage, and became known as “Pop” for ever after.
Mavis accompanied Pop to his home state of Minnesota, so he could build a small-town medical practice. This went fine as summer rolled into autumn, but then the first snow fell and she slid her car into a ditch. She piled the kids on a train and headed west, pausing only to call and invite her husband along. Pop, like any of us, would follow her anywhere.
When the family arrived in Washington, Mavis brought her networking talents to bear with the Junior League of Tacoma. She was a born fund-raiser who could work the phones with the passion and persistence of an evangelist. Her tireless efforts created the Camp Six Logging Exhibit in Point Defiance Park.
She was an avid history buff, winning awards for her work while serving as the archivist for the Pierce County Medical Society. Her early years as an airline stewardess had left her with a travel-bug that she didn’t try to shake. She circled the globe, and entered China as soon as it opened up to the West. Through it all her true dedication was to Pop and his thriving medical practice.
Mavis became a regular among the salmon fishermen off the Clay Banks at Point Defiance. She often fished solo, launching her own boat before daylight, baiting her own hook, cleaning her own fish. When she broadened her fishing grounds to include Canada and Alaska, she brought along her family as crew. She did not relinquish the title of Captain. “To thine own fish be true” – Mavis’ quarry never learned about catch-and-release; her barbless hooks stayed in the tackle box. She caught huge salmon, but never the singular lunker she sought. If Heaven truly gives us what our lives on earth withhold, then Mavis has now engaged that sixty-pound Tyee of her dreams.
Mavis is survived by her balancing force, husband of sixty-five years Dr. Robert August Kallsen; children Clare Kallsen (Larry West), Phil (Peggy) Kallsen, Laurie George (Kinne Hawes), Ron Kallsen, and MaryAnne Kallsen (Michael DeBlasi); grandchildren Dawn (Holke) Mayer (Andy), Bob Roggenbuck (Katie), Shannon Kallsen, Melissa Kallsen, Robin Kallsen, Patrick George, Whitney George, Andy George, Steven George, Leonardo DeBlasi, and Vincenzo DeBlasi; great-grandchildren Jordan Novotny, Will Mayer, Eliza Mayer, Cade Roggenbuck, and Presley Roggenbuck. Would that all of us combined could muster half her pluck.
A memorial service will be at 11:00 AM on Saturday, the Tenth of September, in the Old Saint Peter’s Church at 2910 North Starr Street in Tacoma, with reception to follow.
Paid Obituary.
