Erna Amelia Ozment Garton, "Grandma GG", 101, passed away Mar. 5, 2024, surrounded by the flowers she loved and first signs of Spring at her home in Orland, CA. She was born August 3, 1922, the 11th of 17 children of Hassie Genevia Parker Ozment and James Arthur Ozment in Sumterville, AL. She attended primary school in a one-room schoolhouse in Sumterville and high school in Livingston, AL before enrolling at Auburn University for 2 years at the start of World War II. She left college in 1943 to volunteer for the Marine Corps, was trained at Cook's and Baker's School after basic training at Hunter College in New York and served at Marine Corps Airbases in New River and Cherry Point, NC rising to Sargeant in charge of feeding 2200 women and officers.

There she met Edward Garton, a Marine Corps pilot, on a blind date. Ed courted her while ferrying planes up and down the Atlantic Coast until his squadron of B-25 bombers was assigned to battle Japanese in the Islands scattered across the South Pacific. At the end of WWII Ed returned to the US Continent and Erna was discharged from the Marines while Ed was placed on inactive reserve for 10 years. Ed and Erna were married in Atlanta, Georgia on November 25, 1945. They moved to Chico, CA where both enrolled at Chico State College and Ed started working part-time to supplement their income from VA while pursuing degrees in home economics and accounting. After one year, Erna dropped out of college in 1947 at the birth of their son, Edward Ozment and started working part-time at a local flower shop, Dunwoodies on the Esplanade. Erna learned to make professional bouquets and was enthralled with the fun of gardening and flower arranging. Upon Ed's graduation in Accounting, they moved to Orland where Ed started an accounting practice that grew through the years and eventually expanded to include real estate brokerage and a variety of newly created businesses, including some Ed helped start, like Pak-Away bumpers and spare gas tanks. Their daughter Gail Elizabeth was born in 1950.

In Orland Erna joined the American Baptist church where she regularly provided flower bouquets for services, weddings and events as well as leading the youth group and taking them to church summer camp at Camp Tehama along Mill Creek near Mineral, CA. Erna started a Cub Scout den and Brownie den for her children and their friends to join. Once Erna's children left home for college, she took a 2 1/2 year course to become a national flower judge and started judging at county fairs throughout the northern half of the state, including the California State Fair held in Sacramento. To attain and maintain her rank as a Nationally Certified Flower Judge Erna had to win a minimum number of 1st place and Best of Show ribbons at yearly flower show competitions in Northern California, a status she maintained for more than 4 decades. Her accomplishments were recognized with various awards including the 1996 Helen S. Hill Award for Flower Arranger of the Year by the National Council of State Garden Clubs, the highest award presented nationally by the organization at their national meeting in Dallas, Texas.

She was designated a "Living Treasure" by the Butte District of Garden Clubs of America, she was recognized with a "True American Hero" award by the Glenn County Fair Board in 2000 and Citizen of the Year by the Orland Historical Society. She received numerous awards of merit from the City of Orland and California State Flower Clubs. Erna was predeceased by her husband, Ed Garton in 2007 but is survived by her 2 children, Edward O. (Virginia) Garton of Moscow, Idaho and Gail (John) Ficher of Chico, 4 grandchildren Jodi (Adam) McClory and Tim (Tracy) Garton of Moscow, ID, John Ficher of Myrtle Point, OR and Hassie Ficher of San Marcos, CA and 7 great grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for later in the year. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Orland Free Library, 333 Mill St, Orland, Ca 95963.

Arrangements are held under the direction of Sweet-Olsen Family Mortuary.

Erna Amelia Ozment Garton

Her Life as Heroic Quest

Goal: Summarize and frame Erna Garton's life in a concise and meaningful way as a quest. The seven elements of this heroic quest* include her as protagonist growing up in a Deep South ranching family, shifting circumstances by going to college and joining the Marines, launching a quest for herself and her children to develop themselves, collecting allies to facilitate achieving the quest, addressing the challenges of apathy and lack of vision of organizational colleagues in addition to constraints of traditional role of housewife, transforming herself into a nationally recognized flower arranger/judge and her resulting legacy of successful children, flower designing grand-daughters, students and colleagues (*after Joseph Campbell's original formulation with 17 steps).

Erna Amelia Ozment, (our heroine) was born on August 3,1922 the 11th Of 17 children of Hassie Genevia Parker Ozment and James Arthur Ozment in Sumterville, Alabama, a village in SW Alabama. Her father was a cattle rancher who got his start as a butcher after taking the money his father, Dr. Thomas Jefferson Ozment of Tuscaloosa, Alabama had given him for a year of college and bought a horse that he rode west to Texas. He worked on the King Ranch breaking ranch horses until a horse fell on him and broke his leg, whereby the King Ranch paid for his training as a butcher. Her mother, Hassie Parker was born in Tuscaloosa as one of a long line of Parkers stretching back 5 generations to John Parker, Sr. born 29 September 1740 in British America and beyond that 30 generations further of Millers in England and France to Ragnvaldsson Poppa of Bayeux, "Second Duke of Normandy and Leader of Normans" who died in 930 and is buried in Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen France - his sarcophagus is located along the south side of the cathedral in a line with the sarcophagus of Richard the Lion Heart (1155-1199). Erna grew up in a large family in which an older sister took care of her till she went to school at a one-room school in Sumterville and subsequently high school in Livingston. One setback came in high school when she was invited to go to a prom in a nearby town with the quarterback of that school's football team. Her father refused to give her mother permission to purchase Erna a prom dress with her mom's egg money and likewise denied permission for Erna to attend the dance.

Erna left home to attend college at Auburn University where she lived in a coop for 2 years to pay for her room and board, thereby undertaking her first shift of circumstances.

Shift of Circumstances

Erna attended Auburn University for 2 years before volunteering for the Marines during World War II. She was sent to Hunter College for basic training then spent 6 weeks at Cooks and Bakers School before stationing at Marine Corps bases in New River and Hunter Point, North Carolina where she met a young marine pilot, Edward E. Garton, on a blind date arranged by a girlfriend dating Ed's copilot. They went on numerous dates including Ed flying her up the coast to various bases during his duties ferrying planes along the East Coast prior to being sent to the South Pacific to fly B-25 bombers during the latter part of World War II. After 1 ½ years in the South Pacific Ed returned to the US mainland just before the Japanese surrendered following US dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Once WWII ended Erna was discharged from the Marines and a couple months later Ed was moved to inactive reserve in the Naval Air Corp. Ed proposed to Erna and they were married in Atlanta, Georgia on 25 November 1945 prior to travelling west to Chico, California where they resumed college, both enrolling at Chico State College. After one year of college during which they both worked part-time, Erna became pregnant with their son Edward Ozment (Oz) Garton and she dropped out of college to take care of Oz. She worked part-time at a florist shop, Dunwoodies on the Esplanade, so that Ed could attend labs every day for his class requirements. The next big shift of circumstances came when Ed and Erna moved to Orland, California, 20 miles from Chico. Ed started a book-keeping and accounting business in an office of Hank Hoskins where he'd worked part-time during his last college year. Ed and Erna moved into VA family housing on Yolo Street in Orland and Erna shifted to mother and homemaker. In a few years they moved into their own home on Walker St and Erna started her quest for fulfilling activities and first-rate educational and community experiences for Oz and her daughter, Gail Elizabeth Garton, born in 1950.

A Quest

Erna joined the American Baptist Church in Orland, rather than the more conservative Southern Baptist Church in which she was raised. She began a life-long role of supporting and participating in religious services, teaching Sunday School and leading Youth Group activities. For more than 50 years she made beautiful flower arrangements from flowers in her garden that she brought to church each Sunday to brighten the sanctuary and fellowship hall. She took the church youth to summer camp each summer at Camp Tehama and served as a counselor there. Erna jumped into the role of leader of a cub-scout group and a Brownie group for Oz and Gail to join and organized parents of children participating to support the youth group activities and fund raise to cover costs. Once her children entered high school Erna started to encourage them to participate in extra-curricular activities to broaden their perspectives such as Oz playing in a drum and bugle corps to perform while attending the Boy Scouts National Jamboree in Colorado Springs; chaperoning California Scholarship Federation trips to San Francisco Bay area, museums, colleges and research institutes; developing science fair projects for competing in school and regional science fairs. She encouraged Oz to apply for and participate in the American Field Service program to attend one summer of high school in Santiago, Chile between his junior and senior years at Orland High School. Along the way Erna started seriously pursuing her own love of flowers and gardening and she developed lovely gardens in the yards of each of the houses they occupied (5 different yards). This included planting ornamental and fruit trees, shrubs and perennial flowers in addition to selecting and nurturing annual flowers that were stunning to behold.

Along the way she became an expert on local, successful varieties of plants for the region and started arranging and entering flowers in the competitions each summer at the Glenn County and Butte County fairs. She joined and took leadership roles in the local gardening clubs in Orland and Chico. Erna took a 2 ½ year course to qualify as a Nationally Certified Flower Judge that likewise required winning a certain number of 1st place and Best of Show awards at flower shows each year. She maintained this qualification for more than 4 decades and regularly presented workshops and demonstrations of flower arranging for groups and as a member of a floral designer's guild in Sacramento that she joined.

Allies

Erna found allies amongst the parents of other young people similar in ages to Oz and Gail. She encouraged them to support the activities of the youth. She became good friends with parents of other cub scouts, girl scouts, boy scouts and high school students. Erna stimulated members of her church, gardening clubs and a Sacramento designers-guild, to participate and take leadership roles in these groups and support her as a leader of the groups. Many young people who participated in the youth group activities she supported and organized became her life-long friends and allies. Erna turned her husband, who grew up in a conservative and broken family inexperienced in participating in religious and charitable organizations, into a monetary supporter of their causes.

Challenges

Erna challenged the apathy and lack of vision of many of the members of the organizations she joined by leading them to develop meaningful, educational and service oriented programs. She accomplished great things like providing a sympathetic ear to youth questioning their parent's priorities, providing summer camp experiences for young people to gain appreciation of the natural world in a supportive, non-threatening religious atmosphere, showing 2nd graders in public school how to raise plants from seeds to blooming and providing beautiful flower arrangements for weddings, funerals and public gatherings of her woman friends, church, clubs and other organizations. Erna refused to allow her conservative husband to impose his conservative, paternalistic vision of husband-wife, parent-child relationships onto herself and their children and his attempts to dissuade them from following their passions and talents in their careers and future directions. Instead, she encouraged her children and their friends to pursue careers in topics about which they were passionate. Likewise, she refused to be constrained to the role of dutiful housewife devoting all her waking time to keeping a perfect house and entertainment center for her husband's business needs. Instead she became an active leader in her church, her gardening and flower arranging clubs, the Orland community, professional flower judging organizations serving county fairs throughout Northern California and 5 demonstrating and teaching flower design locally and at a Sacramento Designer's Guild. For close to 70 years commencing in the 1950s when Ed briefly served as City Clerk, Erna decorated Orland's City Hall and Police Station for Christmas with creatively decorated Christmas trees and entryway decorations.

Transformation

From a shy girl speaking with such a strong Southern drawl she was called Al, short for Alabama, in the Marines, Erna transformed herself into a Nationally Qualified Flower Judge, poised, organized leader of flower design workshops, gardening clubs and judging panels evaluating the flowers and floral arrangements submitted to most of the county fairs in Northen California for multiple decades. Erna Garton transformed herself through dint of hard work, inherent talent, great desire and persistence. Her accomplishments were recognized with various awards including the 1996 Helen S. Hill Award for Flower Arranger of the Year by the National Council of State Garden Clubs, the highest award presented nationally by the American organization at their national meeting in Dallas, Texas. She was designated a "Living Treasure" by the Butte District of Garden Clubs of America, she was recognized with a "True American Hero" award by the Glenn County Fair Board in 2000 and Citizen of the Year by the Orland Historical Society. She received numerous awards of merit from the City of Orland, local groups and California State Flower Clubs. In order to attain and maintain her rank as a Nationally Certified Flower Judge she had to win a minimum number of 1st place ribbons and Best of Show ribbons at yearly flower show competitions in Northern California, a status she maintained for 3 or more decades.

Legacy

Erna Garton's legacy consists of both material creations and lasting influences on her colleagues, allies, children, and grandchildren. All 5 of the beautiful yards and gardens that Erna created continue to glow as delightful environments to nurture people's lives with the joyous beauty of nature and cultivated gardens. In addition, she planted and maintained borders and flower beds in front of the Carnegie Library Building in 6 Orland dedicated to her husband, Ed Garton, that have brightened the lives of everyone entering that facility for more than a decade following his passing in 2007. Erna's son and daughter carry her influence on their character and life's accomplishments to this day and forever. Her daughter helped her husband, John Ficher (like Erna helped Ed in his accounting business) develop and operate a very successful dairy of over 2,000 cows in Tillamook, Oregon. Her son, Oz, continued his education through an AB in Biological Science at Stanford University and MS, PhD and Post-doctoral positions at University of California, Davis in Ecology before joining the faculty in Fish and Wildlife Science at University of Idaho where he has had a very successful career teaching hundreds of students and wildlife professionals the principles and methods of understanding and managing the dynamics of populations of birds, mammals and fish. At critical times in both of her children's early married lives she and her husband, Ed, provided them with free cars to use in their daily activities of attending college.

Her supportive model of parenting and grandparenting continues today through her children and grandchildren as they play it forward. Erna's judging flowers at County and State fairs influenced countless individuals, flower arrangers and flower judges to go beyond the simple mechanics of arranging flowers to enlarge their perspective of flower growing and arranging as an art form deserving of great respect and cultivation. Her suggestions and teaching demonstrations to other flower arrangers stimulated them to strive for ever superior expressions of the art. Her warmth and talent in developing lovely flower gardens and teaching flower arranging influenced 2 of her granddaughters to the point they became professional garden and flower arrangement designers. Erna supported her grandchildren in pursuing their education by providing half of the costs that their granddaughter's parents had to pay for her undergraduate degree program from Stanford University, making it feasible for her to attain that degree that would have been unattainable otherwise. Tellingly, that money came from money Erna inherited from a neighbor whom she'd befriended and cared for at the end of the neighbor's life. She used that inheritance to take a delightful tour of gardens and tourist attractions in Australia and to provide support for her children and grandchildren.

Erna's endless efforts to introduce elementary school students to the joys of raising and nurturing plants, her provision of beautiful flower arrangements for funerals, weddings and community events for free rather than charging standard fees as much as $10,000 per event, her mentoring of others as gardeners, flower arrangers and flower judges and her annual efforts, without compensation, to decorate Orland's City Hall and Police Station at Christmas appear almost unique in today's society where philanthropic organizations are withering for lack of participation. The love and respect shown to Erna by those who have known and have worked with her are truly a lasting legacy that few have achieved. Prepared 19 March 2024 by Oz Garton with helpful suggestions from Ginny Garton, Gail Ficher and Jodi McClory.