Dec. 25, 1940 – Nov. 23, 2022
Audrey Menegat, a long-time resident of Creswell, Ore. passed away on Nov. 23, 2022 at the age of 81.
Audrey was born in Myrtle Point, Ore. to parents Andrew and Anna (VanZyl) Waterman. She and her brother grew up where the county road ended – literally – on what is now the family’s Century farm near Bancroft, Ore.
Early in life, when she wasn’t way up Myrtle Creek, Audrey was at the Bridge Grange or 4H, or at the Coos County fair showing beef cows and baking award winning cornbread.
She graduated from Bridge School and then four years later, in 1958, from Myrtle Point High School, where she played alto saxophone and met the love of her life.
John Menegat courted her for the better part of their high school careers and, upon his return from the Navy, they were married on June 10, 1961 and remained so until Audrey’s passing, 61 years later.
Also in 1961, Audrey graduated from the Sacred Heart School of Nursing in Eugene, Ore. Professionally, she never left nursing, starting her career at Sacred Heart Hospital, in various departments and then the emergency room.
She left the hospital in 1976, and subsequently worked for several doctors’ offices, and then as a Creswell School District nurse for about 10 years, retiring in 1992.
Audrey was a caring mother of two; a tough as nails emergency room nurse, a committed wife that kept husband John on the straight and narrow and family matriarch. For years she cared for a big garden.
And later in life, no neighbor was unfamiliar with seeing her on her tractor, mowing some part of her yards, fields or forests.
Audrey was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her brother Stanly (Linda) of Myrtle Point, her husband of 61 years, John Menegat, her children Greg and Tracy (Mark), and her five grandchildren, Alyssa, Nathaniel, Sam, Jared, and Zachary whom she adored; they added years to her life.
No memorial service is planned at this time.
