Irene Anderson Stafford, age 85, died Dec. 20 on Bainbridge Island.

She was born April 26, 1918 in Portland, Ore. to Axel and Ethel Anderson.

She studied piano and voice as a child and participated in a children’s orchestra. With her father and sister Phyllis, she had a weekly musical show in Portland.

Valedictorian of her Grant High School graduating class in 1936, she turned down a music scholarship to Willamette University to attend classes at Oregon State University, where she was a Tri-Delt sorority member.

Following graduation, she went to work as an X-ray technician in Astronia, Ore., where she met Charles R. Stafford, a newspaper reporter fresh from University of Oregon. They married in 1942.

After World War II, they settled in the Northwest to raise four children. In Seattle, they were active in the Scouts, as well as church activities at St. Marks Episcopal Cathedral, where they led the junior high youth group.

In Tacoma, they were active members of Christ Episcopal Church and the Tacoma Yacht Club. She served as a field representative for the American Cancer Society.

For the past three years, she lived at Messenger House on Bainbridge Island.

She was preceded in death by her parents and sister. Her husband died in 1991.

She is survived by her children Richard (Bonnie) Stafford of Bainbridge Island, Christina Stafford, C. Morris (Mary) Stafford of University Place, and Trudy (William) Pomeroy; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Services will be held 4 p.m. Dec. 28 at Christ Episcopal Church, 310 North K Street, Tacoma.

Arrangements are under the direction of Gaffney Cassedy Allen and Buckley King Funeral Home, Tacoma.