Obituary of Margaret Leisbeth Bishop Usher

Maggie was born to Prentiss and Elise Bishop on July 3, 1938 in Port Townsend, Washington. She and her older siblings, Charlene Goranjo, Jack, Robert, and Richard Bishop, were raised on a farm in that community with a view of the Puget Sound. She graduated from Port Townsend High School in 1956.

Maggie worked in a wide variety of jobs, from office work at the courthouse in her hometown, to bookkeeping for all kinds of companies, to managing a Portland location of “The Shoe Mill” shoe store. It was at “The Shoe Mill” where she met and married the love of her life, Robert Paul Usher in Portland, Oregon in 1992. They cherished each other as they lived through life’s joys, trials, and tribulations until Bob’s death in 2012. Their home was almost a museum of frogs. They were everywhere you looked, from everywhere, and in and on everything. While they had no children together, she got to be step-mother to Bob’s daughters: Maureen Nicholson (Usher) and Lynne Usher.

Maggie was kind, open, non-judgemental, intensely curious, artistic, and intelligent. She loved reading, gardening, cooking, canning, baking, sewing and quilting, rearranging her furniture and traveling the Northwest. She was a great friend and loved to bring people together around food, games, and celebrations. In August of 1995, Maggie won a special trip to Pittsburgh for her, Bob and their close friends, Bruce and Laurie Weinsoft. The prize included round trip air, tickets for WWE wrestling match, and they even got to bring home their chairs from the arena.

Maggie did all she could to help those around her. Even when she could only get around on a motorized chair, she traveled by bus all over Portland to support Red Cross blood drives. She organized food donations for the residents of her apartment building. She brought lunch to homeless people frequenting the park across the street from her apartment. Maggie never knew a stranger.

We will all miss her beautiful smile, easy laugh and constant support. I am sure she is delighted to love us all from Heaven while she revels in being with loved ones who have gone before, especially her beloved Bob.