Seaside

Oct. 24, 1934 — Dec. 16, 2024

Irene Dunn, 90, of Seaside, passed from this life on Dec. 16. Irene was cared for by her daughter, Linda, and a professional and caring staff at Providence Seaside Hospital in her final days.

Though her health had declined over the past three years from a cardiac stroke, Mom was loved, and also well cared for, by the team at Suzanne Elise assisted living. She would not have spent her remaining years anywhere else but in her beloved oceanside town at Seaside.

Irene was first and foremost an ambassador of “the beach life,” to which all her many friends will attest. The keeper of the neighborhood keys, regular weather prognosticator and daily beachcomber with any one of her three canine best friends, she may just be proof that sea and salt air are secrets to a long life.

Irene is survived by her two daughters, Linda Columbia-Cael, of Olympia, Washington, and Valerie Columbia, of Vashon Island, Washington; four siblings, John, Albert, Danny Garcia and Sally Bacca; also, five grandchildren and three great-granddaughters, who all spent years vacationing with Mom in her “near beach” home.

Our deepest thanks to her whole community of Seaside friends who became our friends over these last 25 years. You surely made Mom’s life rich with laughter, spontaneity and wine, as well as our own.

A brief oceanside ceremony is planned early spring to send off our beloved mother, grandmother and friend to the sea, as per her final request.

Hughes-Ransom Mortuary and Crematory is in charge of the arrangements.