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Andy was born in
Portland, OR May 30, 1928, an only child and a true Oregonian. His
family traveled quite a lot as Father’s work sent them first to Oklahoma
City, OK when Andy was five years old. Next on to San Jose, CA where he
finished grade school and Junior and Senior High Schools. During these
years in California the family bought a ten acre farm with a prune
orchard. Andy picked prunes and worked in a prune dehydrator. At
sixteen when he could drive legally, he hauled prunes for a Sunsweet
Plant.
Andy’s Father
originally was born in Reedville and he wanted to come home. He bought
a farm south of Hillsboro in 1944, right after the war. Andy went to
pacific University for two years and helped his Dad with the farm
raising strawberries, squash, beans, and peas for the cannery.
In 1953, Andy was
drafted into the Army and was discharged in 1955. During that time he
met up with and spent time with old neighbors Dan Hering and Don
Pearson.
When he came home he
met Marge Hofer. They were married in 1957. Interestingly, when he
asked Margie to marry him, just before Christmas, he gave her a ring.
She never did say yes, but she grabbed him and hugged and kissed him, so
he assumed she meant YES.
When they married he
had no job, no home, nothing, but somehow everything fell into place.
Right away he got a job at Birds Eye Cannery hauling waste and worked
there for eighteen years. From there he moved on to farming. He owned
his Father’s farm and bought the Dixon Hill Farm. Beyond farming, he
was a builder and raised nursery stock, flowers and ornamental shrubs.
Margie was born in
Petersburg, NE December 30, 1925. She was born into a large family of
eight children, all of whom live in the near vicinity here. Add to
Marge and Andy’s own six children results in a huge, bonded, fun,
extended family. Andy is the happiest, biggest frog in the puddle of
course.
Marge attended
school in Nebraska and the family moved to Oregon in 1942. Margie has
worked before and after marriage at a Box Factory in Portland during the
war, at Jantzen’s Knitting Mills for three or four years, at Birds Eye
Cannery, and for Oregon Roses for ten years, plus doing a lot of farm
work including a little tractor driving, working in beans and
strawberries and raising flowers commercially.
Pierson’s have six
children:
1.
Ellie Sutter – a
Minister
2.
Jim Pierson – PGE
3.
Dave Pierson – Yard
Maintenance
4.
Andres Pierson – Farm
Mechanic
5.
Ken Pierson – Yard
Maintenance & Farming
6.
Angie Cornell – Manger
of an Eye Clinic
Andy has pursued
some pretty aggressive hobbies: Mountain Climbing. He climbed Mount
Hood three times. Snow Skiing; he started out with a pair of leather
boots, hickory skis, and leather, bear claws bindings. Once you were
buckled in you couldn’t get out. The first day, it took him half a day
to get to the top of the rope tow. Then his friend said we’re going to
the top of the chair lift. That was the beginning!
He loved fishing at
the coast and below Celilo Falls before the dam was put in. He loves
hunting; elk, deer, and moose. He is a pilot, owned his own plane,
belonged to the Oregon Flying Farmers and flew to Mexico, Calgary
Canada, New Jersey, New York, etc. He flew from 1967 to about 1980.
Marge’s hobbies were
raising children, cooking, and baking, which she loves, and working in
the flowers. She learned to fly their plane and she loves to travel.
For the last ten
years they have been RV’ers going to California and Arizona in the
winters. They have spent time at Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Yuma
and Tucson, San Diego and Catalina Island. The last several years they
and some of Marge’s siblings have gone to Bull Head City, AZ. In the
summer they are at home on the farm off Dixon Hill Road.
At Mt. Olive Church,
Andy has been an Elder and all around good fellow, which works fine for
Margie, too!
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