Connie Sue (Nolen) Humphries

Connie Sue Nolen Humphries of Portland — and many people’s hearts — rejoined her family in heaven on Friday, Oct. 7 at the young age of 75. 

Her family lost a Mom and Grandma. The people she met in her travels lost a teacher, athlete, Christian, tour guide, baker, and problem solver. And the world lost a treasured friend whose warmth, kindness and decency came not from her Southern upbringing, but from her uncommonly loving soul. 

Connie was born smiling Dec. 24, 1946, in Shreveport, La., the first of the three children of Drew Paul Nolen and Ernestine Hollis Nolen. She grew up all around Shreveport and Caddo Parish with her family, the Girl Auxiliaries of Broadmoor Baptist Church and a bottomless well of lifetime school friends. She was a school spirit machine in the Class of 1964 at C.E. Byrd High School (Go, Yellow Jackets!), where she was active in the pep squad and several academic clubs. 

She crossed the state line into Texas next, going to Waco to study elementary education at Baylor University (Sic ‘em, Bears!). After gathering more lifetime friends, another long list 
of activities and honorary societies and a degree with the Class of 1968, she got her first elementary teaching job in Fort Worth It turned out to be a good choice, because not long afterward 
she met a Bell Helicopter engineer, Richard Daniel “Dan” Humphries of Durant, Miss. They married in 1970 and started a “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” romance that lasted 29 years until Dan died suddenly and too soon in 1999. Dan was at the gate waiting for her last Friday. 

Connie and Dan decided to move away from Texas for graduate school and picked the University of Oregon based on the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the opportunities for skiing, 
backpacking, and rafting. Connie arrived in Oregon in 1971 and never left. After Dan picked up his MBA in 1973, they moved to Portland and then to Corvallis, where Connie earned a Master of Arts degree at Oregon State University. 

Dan and Connie settled in the Portland area for good in 1975. Connie worked hard to get a teaching job in a tough market and was hired at Brookwood Elementary in Hillsboro. She then 
worked at David Hill and W.L. Henry elementary schools, taking a break in 1977 when Katherine Anne (“Katie”) was born. Grant Nolen came along in 1983, and by then she had found her home as a kindergarten teacher at McKinley Elementary in Beaverton. She adored her job and shared her beautiful singing voice and love of reading with all the little ones who passed through her classroom over the next 10+ years. She also became an active member at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and its Mariner group, the Seaweeds. Her love of The Lord, organizational skills and magnetic personality kept her busy there the rest of her life. 

Connie also became an active athlete and member of the Multnomah Athletic Club for more than 40 years. She ran, rafted, cycled and skied, then played tennis until her health told her to 
stop. Then she played some more. After Dan died and her children grew and left home, Connie charged ahead as a volunteer. She joined the Urban Tour Group in 2002, continued activities at St. Andrews, MAC and with her children, and was born again when her two grandchildren came along in the last three years. 

She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Paul, and by her beloved Danny Boy. She is survived by her children Daughter Katie, of San Francisco and Grant and Jessica Garcia-
Humphries of Portland; grandchildren Rafa (3) and Bruno (11 months). She is also survived by sister Molly Apple & brother-in-law Richard, sister-in-law Margaret Nolen, and many nieces and nephews: Holly Cahill, Benjamin, Maddy, and Harrison Apple, Drew Paul Nolen III, Ginny Dean Nolen, Melanie Nolen and Elizabeth Nolen. 

A celebration of life will be held at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Portland at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14th. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to P.E.O. International. 

And let this be the final word on the life of Connie Sue Nolen Humphries: You’d have loved her, too.

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