Loretta Wallace

Loretta Faye (Hanson) Wallace went home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ at about 2:45am Friday, November 12, 2021.

She was born September 10, 1937 in Fresno, California to the late E. Harry Hanson and Clara Jessie (Kragh) Hanson.

She was the second of three girls. The firstborn, Beverly (Hanson) Rolen is currently living in Montague, California and her younger sister, Marilyn (Hanson) Gifford is in Eugene, Oregon.

She waited to marry her high school sweetheart (surviving spouse) Guy Robert Wallace until she completed her nurses training. She worked as an RN while raising three children: Michele Wallace Snider of Grand Junction, Colorado, Melinda (Wallace) DeCouto of Turlock, California, and Grant Wallace of Snoqualmie, Washington. And she continued her varied and storied nursing career until she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2009.

She is grandmother to five, and step-grandmother to four more. She is the great- grandma (Grandmama) to nineteen.

Loretta Hanson-Wallace was the author of seven books:

Purple Patches - humorous lessons of faith and humility that she learned while parenting her three children.

Something About Harry - the story of her father, E. Harry Hanson, an outside the box thinker who had a profound effect on the world which continues today

Dancing Around the Bucket - stories from Loretta’s childhood through high school, where she met and fell in love with her would-be husband, Guy Robert Wallace. (You’ll learn about the significance of the First Baptist Camp to Guy and Loretta in this book)

Portrait of Gunde - the story of Loretta’s maternal Danish-immigrant grandmother, Gunde Marie Kragh as told through Gunde’s own words (from her diaries) accompanied by historic photographs

Nurse! Nurse! I'm worse! - true stories from Loretta’s 61 year nursing career that will make you laugh, cry, and see others and yourself in a new positive way

Potpourri, a Literary Anthology - more stories from Loretta’s life as well as other poems, riddles, and musings by other authors, which she enjoyed

Healing Touches - Loretta’s battles with a myriad of illnesses and ailments and how God (often through the healing touches of others) saw her through

Loretta loved and was loved by nearly everyone she met. She was an excellent friend (most called her “the best”), a faithful and caring wife, a loving mother, and a delightful grandmother. She thrived on the love of her friends and family.

In her own words (from Dancing Around the Bucket, Introduction) she writes

"When the “bucket is kicked” and all of the life giving water is spilled, my dance will end. In my dance around the bucket I have splashed out some of the water...

When my time comes for me to leave this mortal body, I envision I will learn a new dance. I will rejoice in my new life, unconcerned that no water remains...”

Dance Loretta! And as you do, we give thanks for the true privilege we had to have been splashed by some of your life-water. We are the dancers now —May we follow your lead: living for Jesus, that we might be as lovely (and loving) as we trip the light fantastic.

As we remember our dear Loretta, we can be encouraged by the words of her cousin, Judy Kragh Lewis who wrote a poem called She walks With Angels. (This is an excerpt)

In later years, alive to pain

Complaints were not her style

She’d patiently await her Lord

To meet Him with a smile

The one she always wore for us

Though suffering all the while

...encouraged by God’s Angels

A perfect body promised her

When entering His Glory

She meets her Lord ~ with joy, she shouts

Her meekness turned to glory

Glory for her Lord, complete

From this servant, unfolds her story

A story where in steadfast faith

She lives to see HIS GLORY!

...and now, FOREVER, she walks with Angels.