Thelma Kay Higginbotham

In Portland, on August 10, 2022, Thelma Kay Higginbotham died at 80. Born February 11, 1942 in Portland, carrying Finnish-American stories that arrived without footnotes. From the start, she treated promises like tools: keep them sharp, do not lend them lightly. She tended tenters that shook the floor into a rhythm. A dye house tenter notebook yellowed but legible outlasted two managers. Colleagues still mention a dye house tenter notebook yellowed. She married Edward in 1967. They kept a house that stayed modest when the neighborhood did not. They raised three children through public schools and ordinary weather. After Edward died in 2015, she kept the routines that still made sense: the walk, the garden, the Sunday call. Neighbors remember the radio low on a Saturday while repairs got done. She preferred the hour before a town fully wakes. Portland was home enough that she never rehearsed an introduction. The radio is still tuned to the station that played while work got done.