Sena Shelley Sitton
April 7, 1884 - January 9, 1959
"In His Steps"
"Sena Shelley Sitton is referred to in her father's will as Signe, but that is the only known place where her name is spelled that way. [Her grandmother was Sena Mays, who married Michael Shelley.] Within living memory, Sena Sitton was always known as Aunt Sena. She was the last of Nathan Koontz Sitton's children. Her mother was Mary Shelley (Laughlin) Sitton. She was born 7 April 1884 and never married.
Sena received her schooling at No. 8 near her home on the Sitton Donation Land Claim on Panther Creek near McMinnville, Oregon.
She worked in her half-brother, Leslie Laughlin's, grocery store in McMinnville along with her sister, Jennie. Then, later, she operated the Dry Goods Store for Mr. C. W. Eustace in Carlton. After that she spent several years working for Charles Tyler, the Postmaster, at the Yamhill Post Office. Then, Mr. C. E. Eustace again employed her in his Yamhill General Merchandise Store.
Sena was a very "outgoing" person and would try just about anything. She rode horses when young, then later had her own car before it was fashionable for women to drive.
She was very heavy from childhood, weighing 250 pounds when 12 years old. She carried a lot of weight most of her life, and her family understood that this was caused by a glandular imbalance. She had an operation for goitre that caused her voice to change but never her pleasant disposition. She no longer could sing the way she liked, but she sang anyway from the heart. She never learned to play the piano like Jennie, but enjoyed teaching Bible classes for many years in Yamhill.
She loved the water and helped watch her nephews, Bob and Wayne Kuykendall, when they were in the river, as Jennie, their mother, was afraid of water.
Her sister, Jennie's, boys were almost like her own, and one season she took them along with Charles Kuykendall's two boys, who were just a little younger than Bob and Wayne, to Moro, Oregon, to visit relatives. They drove over the Columbia River Highway and, on the return trip, took the route on the Washington side of the Columbia River -- many curves, but beautiful scenery. Upon arriving back at Yamhill they stopped at Chester Walker's place (an uncle) before going to their farm. The steering wheel turned "round and round" in her hands, completely disconnected. What a blessing that the failure of the steering wheel was not on the curves of the Columbia!
Sena loved to sew, so helped out in many ways and even made little dresses for Jennie's grandchildren in later years.
The later part of her life -- while living with Lawrence and Jennie -- she did most of the baking of bread, cakes and cookies, and lots of the cooking. Jennie was much more spry on her feet, even though she was two years older than her sister, Sena. Jennie went outside and picked berries and helped in the garden, things that Sena had enjoyed in earlier years.
Sena was a marvelous story teller. Everyone in the family was treated to her stories about "Pa" and the early days. She had a good sense of history and genealogy and tried to link the future generations with their past. Thanks to her the younger Sitton descendants heard stories like the one about Nathan Koontz Sitton carrying a bag of grass seed with him often, because he always scattered seed wherever they had burned a big stack of brush. Or, his saying that it was harder for him to bathe after he had a stroke which left him partially paralyzed than it used to be for him to drive to the mill in Oregon City in pioneer times before there were roads and bridges.
Sena Sitton moved into the home of her sister and brother-in-law, Jennie and Lawrence Kuykendall, in Yamhill when Jennie was having great difficulty with her first pregnancy in 1919 and she continued to live with them as part of a wonderful, happy family for 40 years. Finally, on 6 January 1959, death separated her from the sister she had been so close to all her life. She is buried in the I.O.O.F. Pike Cemetery, just west of Yamhill, Oregon, along with Jennie and Lawrence who joined her there a few years later." Sources: Family records of Bob and Shirley Kuykendall [quoted in its entirety from: The Sons & Daughters of N. K. Sitton, Oregon Pioneer of 1843 by Veronica C. E. Sitton (Mrs. Gordon R. Sitton), Corvallis, Oregon, 20 July 1980, Second Edition 1984.]
Ladies Sunday School Class,
taught for many years by Sena Sitton,
pictured on the front lawn of Maple Crest Farm
