MERCED SUN-STAR, August 28, 2004
Thelma Zimmerman Garlet
July 29, 1917 -- Aug. 24, 2004
Mrs. Thelma Zimmerman Garlet, a descendant of the pioneer Ashworth and Gordon families, died August 24, 2004 in Merced.
She was the oldest surviving child of the late Charles and Nora Gordon Zimmerman. Mrs. Garlet was born July 29, 1917 at the Gordon homestead on Slaughterhouse Road. She attended Bear Creek Elementary School and Mariposa County High School. As a child she was seriously injured when her clothes caught fire as she was assisting her father, a blacksmith. After the fire was extinguished her burns were treated with grated potatoes. This injury caused her to miss a year of school and to make it up while in high school she moved to town to live with the late Eileen and Louis Milburn and work as a nanny for their children Louis and Lloyd.
After her high school graduation she went to work at Bear Creek Lodge in Midpines where she met her future husband, Fred F. Finch, who was employed at the sawmill behind the lodge. On her 18th birthday they eloped to Carson City. This was her first trip out of the county.
The Finch's had a family of five, two girls and three boys, but that did not detour her from working out of the home. She was employed as a nurse's aide at Mercy Hospital in Merced and later at John C. Fremont Hospital in Mariposa. She often worked the night shift in Merced and would pull over to the side of the road to sleep on her way home. Mariposa's original California Highway Patrol officers, "Chic" Ellingham and "Bub" Johnstone would often check on her on their route.
After her husband opened a sawmill she took on new duties as a lumber truck driver and seriously considered becoming a mechanic when one of the wheels on the truck rolled past her as she was on her way to Chowchilla with a load of lumber and three of her small children one day.
The Finch's also operated a dairy on what is now the Forsythe Ranch at the base of Guadalupe Mountian. This gave her the opportunity to partake in her favorite pastime, horseback riding. As she had when she was a child she often saddled up to go find a lost calf on Zimmerman Mountain.
In 1959 she married the late Roy Garlet. She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law Ronald and Barbara of Mariposa, son and daughter-in-law David and Nona of Mariposa, daughter and son-in-law Donna and Sonny Johnson of Modesto, and daughter and sonin-law Dolores and Jerry Hunter of Mariposa; 19 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren, and four great-great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews; two brothers Charles (Buzz) of Sacramento and Tommy of Merced and sisters Ruby Campbell of Nebraska and Nora "Deanie" Wallace of Merced.
Mrs. Garlet was preceded in death by a son Fred, two grandchildren, and a brother John Zimmerman and two sisters Eleanor Zimmerman and LaVerne Swolgaard.
At her request Mrs. Garlet was cremated. A family memorial service will be held later this year. In lieu of flowers the family has requested donations be made to the John C. Fremont Hospital Mariposa, Calif. All arrangements are under the direction of Mariposa Funeral Home.