Violet Fannie Skipper

On Oct. 16, 2019, at the age of 95, Violet Dorvinen Grove Skipper left this world while the music “When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be” was playing in her room in Astoria, Oregon.

Violet Fannie Dorvinen was born Jan. 14, 1924, in Oskar, a small rural community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She was the first child born to Felix Walter Dorvinen and Fannie Kustava Heikkila Dorvinen.

Violet’s parents were children of Finnish immigrants to Michigan. As they lived in a community that was primarily Finnish, she and her siblings, Robert (Bob) and Margaret (Margie), all learned to speak Finnish at a young age. A fourth child, Beatrice, only lived to be 2 months old. Violet often held and cared for her baby sister.

Violet attended a one-room school in Liminga, Michigan, that was located on the corner of the farm that her mother grew up on, and on which her father tried to earn a livelihood. His last potato crop, in 1935, cost more to ship to Chicago than he got for the potatoes, so the family decided to move to the Pacific Northwest to see if their prospects might be better.

Felix got a job falling trees in the virgin forest of Big Creek in Knappa, Oregon, and the family bought a small farm in Svensen. Violet attended Knappa schools from eighth grade through high school, graduating in 1942.

She worked in Portland for a time during the war, then in Astoria.

On May 19, 1945, in the Norwegian Lutheran Church in Astoria, Violet married Walter Stanley Grove, who was a warrant officer in the Navy. In 1949, they started a poultry farm in Burnside, Oregon, near Svensen. Grove’s Poultry Farm sold fryers throughout the North Coast for 30 years.

Violet was a hard worker. “My philosophy on life,” she said, “is work hard and enjoy life.” She planted and tended beautiful flower gardens, and especially loved roses.

For years, she and Walt would put on a large chicken barbecue on the Fourth of July on their unique patio overlooking the Columbia River. The year 1964 was especially memorable, as all her mother’s sisters, who lived in Washington, Michigan and Georgia, came for a reunion.

Violet was a great hostess. In later years, she had a large get-together of friends and family each Christmas Eve, where lutefisk took center stage.

Walter passed away on March 18, 1993, in Astoria. Violet married their good friend Richard (Dick) Frank Skipper on Feb. 14, 1994, in Astoria. Dick and Walt had been classmates in high school, and had continued to be good friends throughout their lives. His first wife, Ellen Rautio Skipper, had also passed away the previous year.

Violet and Dick moved to Knappa, Oregon, where they spent 13 years together until Dick died July 22, 2007. Violet said, “I had a happy life with two wonderful husbands who took good care of me.”

In 2010, Violet took some family members back to visit her roots in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She was blind by that time, but enjoyed large family reunions with both her mother’s and father’s sides of the family.

When Violet was no longer able to live alone, she moved to Clatsop Retirement Village, and then later to Kancharla’s Grand Adult Foster Home, where she lived until the end of her life.

She and her family are very appreciative of the caring services these fine establishments provided. The family would also like to thank Lower Columbia Hospice for their compassionate service over the last two months.

Besides her husbands, Violet was preceded in death by her parents and siblings. She is survived by Richard Skipper’s children and grandchildren; by her sister-in-law, Esther Hekala Dorvinen; and by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

A memorial service will be held at the Crossroads Community Church in Svensen at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2. A reception will follow in the fellowship hall.

Committal will be at Greenwood Cemetery in Astoria at 3:30 that afternoon. All are invited.

Funeral arrangements are by Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary.