Wilda Marie (Schonbrod) Toussaint passed away Jan. 27 in Portland, at the age of 92. She died peacefully of an ongoing heart condition at Laurelhurst Village, after four days of hospice care.

She was born May 2, 1927, in Eureka, S.D., to Walter and Mae (Youngberg) Schonbrod. In 1936, packed into an automobile with her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and three siblings, Wilda moved to Oregon. She attended Rockwood School and Gresham High School. Her parents separated, and eventually her mother remarried and began a photography studio in Tillamook. Wilda graduated From Tillamook High School in the mid-1940’s.

After high school, Wilda followed her sister, Aline, to Seattle. The call of wild overtook her in 1947  when she followed another friend and the promise of a job to the Northern Commercial Company in Fairbanks, Alaska.  There, among other adventures, she met and married Don Toussaint. Their wedding was Feb. 25, 1950, at 8 a.m. at the Immaculate Conception Church. It was 20 degrees below zero.

In 1964, after a flood, an earthquake, six children and another on the way, she decided she had enough of the wild and returned to Oregon. The Toussaints made their home in McMinnville until 1970, when Don’s job at Grasle Electric necessitated their move to Portland. They settled in the Buckman neighborhood,  where they lived for the next 29 years. They were active members of St. Francis Church, and six of their seven children attended Washington High School on Stark Street.

Wilda had a lifetime love of reading and study of archeology, and once she had a couple children in college, fulfilled a lifetime dream of a college education. She pursued a degree in archeology and anthropology at Portland State University, graduating in the early 80s at the age of 54. She then worked as an archaeological surveyor for various interests, all over Oregon and Alaska for the next 15 years. She was particularly proud of work relating to the Land Bridge theory in Alaska.

After retirement, inspired by Wilda’s archeology work in the desert, the Toussaints moved to Harney County. They built a house outside Princeton on Sod Hill Lane, where they enjoyed the wide open space, the antelope, the sagebrush, their friends and neighbors, and a spectacular view of Steens Mountain. Wilda was a member of St. Thomas Church in Crane. She enjoyed the wildlife refuge, the bird festival, and many other local activities.

When her husband’s health declined, Wilda sold their Sod Hill home and moved back to Portland, eventually settling Don and herself into a retirement home in Gresham. In July of 2019, she moved into an assisted living facility in her old Buckman neighborhood in Portland.

She was known throughout her life as a person of great energy, stamina and enthusiasm. She was a prodigious cook and a whirlwind in the kitchen, producing a weekly batch of bread,  many cookies and brownies, jams and jelly, right  into her late 80s. She held strong opinions and often vented them in forthright Letters to the Editor, in whatever town she was living at the time.  She was also well known wherever she lived for her sociable, albeit irascible nature. She very much enjoyed telling stories of her early life in South Dakota, Oregon and Alaska.

Wilda is survived by her sister, Aline Smith of Lacey, Wash.; children, Don Jr. of Portland, Leslie (Jim Olney) of Port Townsend Wash., Lisa Dillard (Mike) of San Antonio Texas, Jim of Beaverton, Dan of Portland,  and Therese McAllister (Ken Anderson) of Portland; several grandchildren, step-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Wilda was preceded in death by her husband, Don in 2014; son, Steffen Edward in 2018; and brothers, Carl and Robert Schonbrod in 2019.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 28, at St Henry’s Church in Gresham. A reception will follow in the parish hall.  Interment will be at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland.