Lorraine Groves Cash
1922 - 2003

At her request, services will be private for Big Pine resident Lorraine Groves 
Cash, 80.

Born on a buffalo ranch in Audubon, N. J. on Dec. 22, 1922, Mrs. Cash died on 
Sept. 2, 2003.

Lorraine was born soon after her family moved from Philadelphia, Penn., where it 
had lived since before the American Revolution.  She was proud of her American 
heritage, and her family's role in the formation of the United States 
government.  Her great-great-grandfather was a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence.  

She was also very proud of the fact that all of her grandsons served their 
country, one attending West Point, and that all of her grandsons and 
granddaughters graduated from college.

In 1930, the family moved to the West Coast and lived in Medford, Ore., and 
parts of California.

Lorraine was a rambunctious girl who loved chasing little "sissy-girls" with the 
garden snakes she regularly captured.  She could climb a tree higher than most 
boys, once breaking her arm just to prove it.

In 1940, Lorraine married Harold L. Cash.  Following the family tradition of 
public service, they moved to the China Lake Naval Ordinance Test Station where 
she raised three daughters, pursued a career in the Navy as a civilian, working 
in the Technical Information Division, and began dabbling in arts and crafts.  
Her range of interest was expansive; she read extensively, could identify most 
native plants throughout the West, and was a student of horticulture, geology 
and geography.

She loved to fish, and could often be found at Crowley Lake on opening morning, 
icicles dripping from her line, having a ball.

Lorraine traveled extensively for the Navy as well as for pleasure.  After her 
retirement she and her husband moved to Big Pine.  By that time, her interest in 
gardening and crafts had become fully developed and she produced an amazingly 
varied and prolific body of work; fruits, vegetables, quilts, dolls, jewelry and 
ceramics.  She was a member of the Calico Quilters, who were her deepest friends 
in the valley.  With them, she spent many an all-nighter drinking coffee and 
working on one of their complicated projects.  Lorraine was loved by many 
friends for her witty, sometimes bawdy sense of humor, and her great enthusiasm 
for life.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Harold Cash.

Lorraine is survived by her three daughters, Virginia Crom, Jeanne Printy and 
Ann David; their husbands, children and grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to Pioneer Home Health Care or the Methodist 
Church's Care Center.

The Inyo Register, Bishop, Inyo County, California
Thursday, September 4, 2003 - Page A2
Transcribed by Pat Houser for the Inyo County GenWeb, March 16, 2005