Chehalis native Georgie Bright Kunkel, a standup comic who served as a Rosie the Riveter during World War II and vowed she would live forever, celebrated her 105th birthday with her family on Aug. 31.
When her caregiver in Seattle told her, “Don’t cause any trouble, Georgie,” she responded, “That’s no fun.”
Five years ago, I wrote a column about Georgie celebrating her 100th birthday with a drive-by celebration because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the family celebrated in person, but it’s bittersweet because Georgie spent time in the hospital with Covid and received an ITP diagnosis. ITP is a blood disorder that decreases the amount of platelets, which can result in easy bruising, bleeding gums and internal bleeding. It’s terminal, so she’s now on hospice, said her daughter, Kim Waligorska, of Seattle.
“She is so strong today, walking around and eating her favorite food: pie,” Kim said. “She … has such a fighting spirit.”
Georgie Myrtia Bright was born on Aug. 31, 1920, two months after her father, George, died at 46, leaving behind a widow with 11 children. Myrtia Bright taught school to support her family and served as Lewis County School Superintendent from 1923 to 1931. The family lived at 768 Prindle St. in Chehalis.
After finishing high school in 1938, Georgie graduated in 1941 from Western Washington College of Education, now Western Washington University in Bellingham, and taught at Vader Grade School and Edison Elementary School in Centralia. During World War II, she served as a local air raid warden, rationed food and gas, and worked at Boeing Co. in the Seattle office and later as a mechanic at the Chehalis branch plant (which now houses the Lewis County PUD). Her brother, Norman Bright, competed to run in the Olympics and served in the Army Mountain Rescue Unit and her oldest sister, Anne Williams, served in the Army Nurse Corps in Africa and France.
When the war ended, Georgie married U.S. Army veteran Norman Kunkel on April 25, 1946, and they had four children — Stephen, Susan, Kim and Joseph. They had been married 62 years when Norman died on April 2, 2009.
Georgie, who did standup comedy in Seattle, wrote a book called “Color Me Feminist” and longs to see passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, her daughter said.
She’s still sharp, plays cards and recognizes friends, family, and precious great-grandchildren. She never smoked and seldom drank but laughed a lot and credited fate for her longevity.
“She always felt it is important to stay active and engaged,” Kim said. “Comedy got her through hard times when my dad was having major health issues and later when she lost him. She loved doing her comedy routines on stage.”
We always laughed a lot whenever she shared bits of her routine during Rosie the Riveter gatherings in Centralia, Chehalis, and Seattle.
One of the perks of writing my column is meeting wonderful people and listening to their stories. This year we’ve lost quite a few senior citizens who shared their recollections for this column.
Shirley Ann (French) Nelson of Chehalis died on Aug. 24, 2025, at the age of 104. In late summer of 2021, I wrote several columns about her life. She was born on July 2, 1921, and her sister, Elizabeth, known as Betty, arrived three years later. They grew up in South Thurston County, living in logging camps, at a farm, and in a house near a store in Rochester. After brief stints in Tacoma and later California, the family settled in Southwest Washington. Shirley graduated from Centralia High School in 1938 and attended business college. In the early 1940s, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a clerk typist and stenographer. She became a “Government Girl” or G girl, dancing with GIs at Fort Belvoir in Fairfax, Va., on weekends. She married Joe Hebert, but they divorced after 15 years.
Shirley worked for Mutual Lumber Co. in Bucoda, then Centralia Plywood, and later sold Viviane Woodard Cosmetics. In June 1959, she married Air Force veteran Jim Nelson, a widower with two young daughters whom she adopted. They had been married 43 years when he died on Oct. 26, 2002. In later years, she knitted several hundred prayer bears as gifts for sick children at Mary Bridge Hospital in Tacoma. She knitted the first one for her friend Jean Bluhm’s great-grandson Noah Markstrom, who suffered from brain cancer. He died at six.
Shirley described electronics as the greatest change she had witnessed in a century of life. Working hard and staying positive proved the secret to her longevity, she said. Her mother lived to be 105, and Shirley almost did.
I’m sorry I won’t be able to attend her service at noon on Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Chehalis because I’ll be at the Southwest Washington Writers Conference.
I did join a throng of people at Toledo High School on Aug. 24 for the service honoring Don Buswell of Toledo, who was born on Aug. 30, 1922, in the same house where he died on July 23 this year just shy of his 103rd birthday. I shared his recollections and family history in columns in May 2023.
Don was the fifth of six children in his family and grew up in Toledo, where he graduated in 1939. He learned to fly B-24s and B-26s and served as a flight instructor during WWII. He and his brother Anor and another man started the Hardly Able Logging Co., which later became Buswell Brothers Construction. They also formed Yellow Creek Logging Co. with Lawrence Gault and Ray, Wilbur and William Wallace of Toledo.
On Aug. 4, 1950, he married Karen Bernice Peterson in Sutherlin, Ore. They had been married 71 years when she died in 2022 at 94. They raised four sons — Don, Carl, Guy, and Alan. As a Toledo School Board member, Don handed each of his sons their diplomas when they graduated from high school.
At the service, his daughter-in-law Heidi Buswell shared a few of the many jokes and stories Don kept in a tattered blue binder.
“Don loved jokes,” she said. “He loved hearing them, but he loved telling them even more. It didn’t take much to get him started, and he had a seemingly endless supply.”
Don participated in the Toledo Lions Club, helped with Toledo Cheese Days and the veterans wall, and offered hundreds of kindergartners the opportunity to pick pumpkins from his patch during field trips. He and Bernice were honored as Toledo Big Cheeses in 2003, and last year he and his sons were.
“Don seemed larger than life, mostly because he never seemed to slow down and also because of all the things that he was involved in,” she said. “Countless times, he saw a need in the community and then worked to find a way to meet that need.”
Earlier in the year, we lost Carol (Matteson) Ponder, who died on April 13, 2025, at the age of 91, passing away in the H Street home in Centralia where she had lived for 73 years. In June and July 2022, I shared Carol’s stories about the history of Salzer Valley and her life in Centralia. She married Richard Ponder on Sept. 1, 1951, and they raised four children — Susan, Marilyn, Andrew, and Richard, or Dickie.
And on Feb. 14, 2025, we lost Doris (Hastings) Bier, who was 97. She grew up in Adna, worked at the Mount Rainier Ordnance Depot assembling Diamond T truck axles as a teenager during World War II, and married Clayton Bier on June 13, 1947. They raised five children — Nancy, Linda, Wayne, Robert and Peggy. I loved taking Doris to Rosie the Riveter events and watching her shine as she shared her recollections.
I know many other precious people have passed away this year, but sometimes it seems like a season of loss, a time when a wealth of history leaves this life. At those times, I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to preserve just a few of the stories they’ve left behind.
•••
Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
