Vivian Adelaide Girard, a long-time resident of Hoquiam, died Sunday, March 1, 1998 at her home from natural causes. She was 80. She was born May 3, 1917, in Roche Harbor, WA, to William Beecher and Lucile (Crawford) Smith. She graduated from Friday Harbor High School in 1938.
In 1939, she came to Grays Harbor at the insistence of her cousin, Medard Emard. She got a job as a nursing assistant at the Girard Rest Home in Hoquiam where she met her future husband. Merle LeRoy Girard. They were married November 22, 1940 in Hoquiam. After his death in 1967, she returned to work as a nursing assistant at Harbor Health Care in Aberdeen. She retired in 1982 from Grays Harbor Convalescent Center in Aberdeen. She was a member of the Hoquiam Eagles Auxiliary for over fifty years.
Survivors include two daughters, Jacquelyn Ryan of the family home in Hoquiam and Deborah Myre of Vashon, WA.; her sister, Esther Amanda Girard of Olympia; three grandchildren, Gerald Ryan of Aberdeen, Paul Ryan of Nurtingen, Germany and Catherine Hebert of Aberdeen. She is also survived by four great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband and two sons, Gerald Merle in 1953 and William Peter in 1951.