Mary Lasher Worden

Former Bainbridge resident Mary Lasher Worden, 95, died April 12 in Port Townsend.

She was born March 6, 1911, in Olympia, Wash., next door to the capitol campus. She graduated from Washington State Col­lege. Over her lifetime, she lived in Olympia, Pullman, Portland, Ore., Tacoma, Fox Island, Bainbridge Island and, since 1998, Port Townsend.

Her homes were characteristically spare, clean and arranged with an eye for showing off selected art, flowers and found objects. She enjoyed entertaining small groups, and her cooking reflected the same simplicity and sophisticated taste.

She had a life-long interest in American history, particularly in the cultural and natural history of the Pacific Northwest.

She was an avid reader and was known for her informed but concise contributions to conversation, and for her research and organization of historical materials.

She wrote copy for a Portland advertising agency in the 1930s, where she met her first husband, Victor E. Kaufman, who died in 1965.

In 1944, she published a novella built around logging camps of the Northwest. She was a volunteer for the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma and the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. And she was a frequent participant in programs of the North Cascades Institute and Olympic Institute.

She also contributed to the work of her second husband, Northwest writer William L. Worden, who died in 1982.

She is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth Ann Kaufman (Nik) Worden of Port Townsend; step-grandchildren Seth Worden of Bonney Lake and Michael Worden, Peter Worden and Kaia Holmes of Seattle; and great-grandchildren Patrick Worden, Justin Worden, Maari Swain and Iman Holmes.