Allie Graham Mattson passed away peacefully on April 29, 2025, in Vancouver, Washington, at age 98. She was born to Finnish immigrant parents, Victor and Katri Salonen, in South Bend, Washington, on April 24, 1927.
After graduating high school in 11 years, she worked for Ma Bell in Portland for a year, then attended Northwest College in Seattle. After college, she traveled by train to Washington, D.C., the city she had fallen in love with as an 11-year-old on her first trip to Finland. She worked for John L. Lewis, national president of the United Mine Workers of America, and also for the U.S. Government Immigration and Naturalization Service. Later, she bought her first car, learned to drive and drove it with two friends back to the West Coast.
She then took a job with the 403rd Troop Carrier Wing at Portland Air Base. In Portland, she met and married E.L. “Larry” Graham, and together they raised three children. She spent the last 20 years of her working life as treasurer/bookkeeper of the First Presbyterian Church in downtown Portland.
She enjoyed travel, camping, classical music, steam locomotives and cats. She loved spending time with family and friends at her childhood home in Eklund Park in South Bend, Washington. She also enjoyed entertaining and cooking for people, especially making Finnish pancakes and strawberry pies.
After retiring, she spent 10 years as a host, trip escort and occasional driver for the Luepke (Marshall) Center in Vancouver, taking many cruises and transiting the Panama Canal three times. Her favorite cities to visit were Vancouver, British Columbia; Helsinki; and Barcelona.
In her later years, she married fellow Finnish immigrant’s son Leonard Mattson, and they continued traveling until his death in 2008.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her two siblings, Aino and Arne; her son, Leslie; and her grandson, Colby. She is survived by her two daughters, Lauren (Ken) and Ellen (Dave); two surviving grandchildren, Katriina (Chris) and Brandon (Sherri); and five great-grandchildren.
