Lenore "Bobbie" Saunders

Lenore “Bobbie” Saunders 96, passed away Sunday, September 30, 2018. Beloved mother, stepmother, sister, aunt and friend, Bobbie shared her smile, sweet graciousness and warmth unceasingly. Her love of life, courageous, curious and adventurous spirit took her from Minnesota to the halls of Washington DC’s Capitol Hill as a teenager, later on to Los Angeles then Wichita to co-found and manage Saunders, Inc., a highly successful aviation manufacturing business. She loved to travel, play bridge, golf, and she gobbled up mysteries as tho they were gummy bears. She was an astute political observer, loved following current events, a fierce Scrabble player and never saw a crossword puzzle she couldnt ace. Preceded in death by her parents, Mickle and Ruth Bang, and brother, Melbern Bang. Survivors include daughter, Janet Fisher of Seattle, WA; stepdaughter, Pamela Lansden of Los Angeles, CA; sister, Peggy Smith of Sacramento, CA, and many beloved nieces and nephews. A Celebration of Life will be held at Rolling Hills Country Club on Wednesday, October 24 at 10:30 am. Memorial established with Kansas Humane Society, 3313 N. Hillside, Wichita, KS 67219. Downing & Lahey Mortuary West. Share tributes online at www.dlwichita.com THE LIFE STORY OF Lenore B. “Bobbie” Saunders Born on January 25, 1922 in Crookston, Minnesota to parents Ruth Alice and Michael (pronounced like nickel with an “m”) “Mike” Bang.  Both parents spent their early lives in Ada, Minnesota, a small town about 30 miles from Crookston.  Ruth taught for 2 years in country schools (all 12 grades) in Ada after graduating teacher training while Mike taught briefly because the school was near his uncle’s house and as a favor because they needed another teacher.  They met and married in Ada (in Ruth’s home) and then moved to Crookston. Mike worked in a nice men’s clothing store in Crookston and was a partner in the business.  During WWI Mike was a member (commander?) of the Home Guard … which later became the National Guard.  He later rose to the rank of Captain of Company M and 205th infantry and in command of the Guard in the Crookston/Ada area.  He remained part-time in the Guard until the Company was called up to active duty in 1941 and moved with Ruth and Lenore’s sister to California, never to return to Minnesota.  He served in numerous units and retired from the service as a Lt. Colonel. Ruth was a stay-at-home mom very active in her Lutheran church.  She was also very interested in crafts such as knitting and fancy needle stitching. Lenore (as she was known at this time) had a brother, Melbern, and sister, Elaine “Peggy”.  Merlbern, who Lenore called “Bud” and his friends called “Mike”, was four years older, and Peggy, three and ½ years younger. Bud and Lenore were very close, because while Lenore was two years younger, she started school earlier (having been born before 2/1 of her birth year) than others her age, and she and Bud were only a three, rather than four, years apart.  Both “skipped” a class and were younger than others in their classes.  Peggy was younger enough that both Bud and Lenore so they related more to each other than the younger Peggy. Bud was also a great “older brother”, caring and attentive.  He bought her a violin after she broke hers in a fit of anger and her strict mother said she couldn’t have another. Another time, Lenore went to a dance to which her mother was opposed.  When she expressed interest in attending, her father over-ruled her mother’s opposition with the understanding that Bud would be there to assure Lenore’s moral conduct (her mother’s main concern was the sinful dancing that could occur).  Indeed, one of the men known for over imbibing in alcohol (in a dry county no less) asked Lenore to dance, Bud intervened and asked the man to leave…which he did. Theirs was a musical family.  Everyone except the brother played piano; sister Peggy played flute; Lenore played violin, snare drum in the drum and bugle corps and the high school band; brother played the bugle and French horn; father played all brass instruments except the trombone.  At various times, Lenore and Father sang in the church choir and Father sang in the group called the Northwest Men’s Singers….he had a beautiful base voice.  In high school, Lenore sang in choir and glee club and played in the band and the orchestra. She took up the drums so she could play in the band and sit next to her boyfriend, Curtis, who was in the band. Lenore excelled at her studies and was a very good student.  She passed the Gregg Shorthand test at the very good speed of 60 words per minute and was the first high school student to pass that test.  She also won a pin for taking 100 words per minute.  Her skill, as it turned out, was newsworthy and she was mentioned in the Minneapolis/St. Paul paper. Congressman R. T. Butler, the U.S. Representative in Washington, D.C., saw the article and asked her father if he would approve of her going to D.C. to work for him. Her father said that the congressman should ask Lenore and he would support whatever she decided.  She accepted and started the summer of 1938, then moved to D.C. in December of 1938 one month before her 17th birthday.  While in D.C., she lived just off Connecticut Avenue at a YWCA-sponsored rooming house.  Later, she lived with her roommate Ruth Barker in an apartment on Mass Avenue. When the congressman decided not to run for re-election at the end of his term, Lenore changed jobs and went to work for the Department  of Agriculture in August 1939.  On June 30, 1941, she transferred to Los Angeles with the Department of Agriculture.  On December 1, 1942 until December 1, 1945, she worked for Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles. She started as a secretary in the scheduling department, rising to the position of secretary to the general manager/chief engineer. While in Los Angeles, she lived at the Evangeline Residence (a hotel for women sponsored by the Salvation Army).  Later, she moved with her roommate, June Hendrickson, to an apartment in the Bonnie Lee Apartments on Hobart.  She then lived with a girl from Hughes named Peggy Crowe and two other young women.  She then moved to an apartment in Westwood Village, sharing the apartment with a young woman who also worked at Hughes. While at Hughes, Lenore changed her name to “Bobbie” because during coffee breaks when they had coffee and donuts with the engineers and others in the secretarial staff, she complained that she wasn’t having any fun because all the boys her age had gone to war. One of the engineers told her his wife was a professional numerologist to whom Lenore should give her exact date and time of her birth. When she did, the result showed that her name was wrong; she should have a name six letters long with four letters. In a list of such names provided by the numerologist, Lenore choose to be Bobbie Bang and the Bonnie Lee Apartments.  Shortly after that, she met a young, ambitious, handsome engineer at Hughes who had recently been hired by the Hughes Company.  His name was Richard E. “Dick” Saunders. After dating for approximately one year, they made good on their decision to marry when WWII ended.  That process occurred in stages, as it turned out. Dick left immediately in October, 1945, to accept a job at the Beech Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas. as a design engineer.  However, after WWII ended, all of Hughes’ contracts were cancelled and the company had to restructure, laying off hundreds of staff and engineers.  The responsibility largely fell to Bobbie and her boss to implement the changes, leaving her with a commitment she felt she couldn’t leave. So, later in December of 1945, she took the train to Wichita. They married on December 15, 1945  at the Presbyterian Church by a Lutheran minister with two attendants and two guests…who were Dick’s boss and his wife and Dick’s rooming mate and his wife. Dick talked to an engineering secretary and told her of his recent marriage to a wonderful secretary formerly from Hughes.  She told him that the General Manager at Beech wanted to hire someone to help with the workload in his office. The prospective boss, Jack Gaty, said if Bobbie could pass muster with Personnel, and pass the required skill tests, she would be hired. Well!  Bobbie felt her qualifications should speak for themselves, with her having worked for the Hughes Chief Engineer prior to coming to Wichita.  She was also only married for less than 2 weeks, and not quite ready to go back to work. She refused to take tests. Mr. Gaty responded that he would try her out and if she could do the job, he would keep her. She began work in January of 1946. Shortly after beginning work, the senior secretary resigned and Bobbie, having more than proven her skills, was permanently hired as the secretary to the General Manager at Beech. After a month, they got their first dog, McGregor. Bobbie and Dick remained at Beech until Dick had a falling out with the General Manager over production design specifications and he resigned in February of 1948. Bobbie stayed with Beech and in their apartment while Dick went to Chicago to work with an engineering clearinghouse to find a job.  Once Dick decided to go with McDonnell in St. Louis, Bobbie put McGregor in a kennel, she called the movers to take the furniture and she moved temporarily in with her friend, Virgie, who lived in downtown Wichita by the Innes department store. Dick then returned to Wichita, and he and Bobbie and McGregor drove to St. Louis and stopped at a hotel for the night, not knowing that the hotel was a “rent by the hour” establishment.  They stayed overnight, none-the-less, until they moved to a temporary apartment provided by McDonnell. They lived and worked in St. Louis at McDonnell for several years, and when it was time, they decided in to move back to Wichita to start their own aircraft engineering and manufacturing business in the early 1950s.  They named it Saunders Castings, Inc., and located it after it grew and became more successful on Maize Road and Highway 54 on the west side of Wichita. Daughter, Janet Adele was born in 1954 and became a focus of her life as the very busy mom of a growing and active daughter, and a full-time manager of an expanding business.  Bobbie also enjoyed having Pamela Lansden, her step-daughter from Dick’s previous marriage, visit them in Wichita.  Pam joined activities on numerous occasions over the years and Bobbie was very proud to recite Pamela’s many accomplishments as a prominent journalist. Bobbie was an active parent and happily engaged in Janet’s childhood and membership in Bluebirds and Campfire Girls, and care of their beloved pets, Boots the cat, and Lightening the beautiful Collie dog. Not long after the business became successful, Dick and Bobbie found land in Glenwood, New Mexico, where they would vacation during summers and build a new southwestern house.  The family had many fun times being hobby ranchers in the area they named Dos Burros after the two burros they inherited. This was something new to her as a city girl, but not unlike her life in the small town of Crookston, MN, where she grew up. In 1965 she fell in a skiing accident at Loveland Pass, CO, and broke her leg.  Unfortunately, she also suffered from phlebitis and nearly died. She did recover with much patience and hard work in what would be the first of other serious illnesses she would recover from. In 1967, she and Janet’s dad divorced and she transitioned out of Saunders Castings, Inc. She then became administrative assistant to the head of Associated Grocers and worked there for several years. During that time, she moved from The Dell neighborhood in West Wichita and moved in 1969 to her final home on Fairway Ave. North, close to her beloved Rolling Hills Country Club community in which she had been a member since the early 1960s. Bobbie had many hobbies including bowling, golfing at Rolling Hills, bridge for over 40 years with her bridge group, book club and weekly get-togethers with her women friends at Rolling Hills.  She also loved to travel. In 1972, Janet went away to university at Kansas State University and Bobbie had more free time to travel. She took trips to Europe, California, Nevada and the South with her friends, and visited Janet at school, and also Washington, DC, Los Angeles, El Paso, Boulder, Anchorage, and Seattle where Janet moved with her career. She also took several trips and cruises to Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and many US destinations with Janet, her sister, Peggy, and her family and her step-daughter, Pam. Bobbie fully retired after Janet graduated and enjoyed many years of pursuing her hobbies, visiting with friends, religiously watching Jeopardy at 4 pm each day, and spending her mornings doing every crossword in the several papers she received. She enjoyed relatively good health until her late 80s, when she experienced a heart attack. Thereafter, she encountered a number of serious health challenges but overcame them all without complaint and with a sturdy determination to continue to fully live her life with contentedness and a sweet spirit, which she displayed until her final days.