Obituary of Lorey Mae House

Lorey Mae Bachand House was born November 5, 1917 in Wachula, Florida, and died February 28, 2018 in Belleview, Florida. She was 100 years old. Lorey was born to Agnes Bachand of Avon Park and Omer Bachand of Quebec City, Canada. Lorey and her sister Hazel grew up during the Great Depression in central Florida. Lorey was raised by her beloved foster parent, Mother Cox, her dear grandmother, Vinnie Jackson, and her mother Agnes. A shy and imaginative child, Lorey excelled academically, enjoyed writing stories and poetry, and graduated as salutatorian of her high school. She was awarded by her community a scholarship to Florida State University in Tallahassee. At FSU her world was enlarged by her studies and the inspiration of visiting poets like Edna St. Vincent Millay and others. She graduated with a teaching certificate in 1937 and taught school in Florida. In 1939, she accepted a job with the newly founded Collier County on the edge of the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands. In Everglades City, she met with pioneers, fishermen, and industrialists alike, and most importantly found the love of her life in James Ernie House, oldest son of a pioneer family from Chokoloskee Island. They married in 1942. After the war, Lorey and Ernie worked and lived in Miami, and had two children, Lorey Annette and James Omer. Lorey was a dedicated homemaker, loving mother and wife. Her husband, Ernie, was a loved and respected small businessman in Miami. Lorey went back to teaching and acquired a further degree at the University of Miami. She was a teacher at Cushman Academy in Miami Beach for 10 years. Upon moving to Marion County in 1975, she taught 4th grade at Bellevue Santos Elementary. In her work she was admired for her grace and gentleness. Lorey enjoyed traveling and fishing with her husband and children. In retirement, she took up oil painting and beautifully captured Florida landscapes and floral displays prized by her family. She never lost her love of the Everglades, the Smoky Mountains, and reading a good book or inspired poem. Lorey became a born-again Christian in her late teens. She has long been a member the First Baptist Church of Belleview, pastored earlier by Damon Walker who coincidently was also the pastor of her father Omer in 1954. She loved her church family, her neighborhood family, and of course her own family. Each morning before dawn, she sat in her easy chair reading her devotions and praying to God for all those she knew to need his support. Strengthened by Christ and a rich prayer life, Lorey sought to stay close to God, and tried to provide love and devotion to her friends and family. After her husband, Ernie, passed away on 1991, she continued to thrive in Belleview with a little help and attention from her dearest neighbors, her church family, her devoted daughter Lorey and son-in-law, Bill Phillips, and her sister-in-law, Ila House. In time she traveled to France and England with her son, Jim, and his wife, Dana, to touch her distant heritage and walk the romantic English countryside; she traveled out West to see the grandeur of the land; and often traveled to the Northeast and Appalachian Mountains with Lorey and Bill to see the brilliant Fall leaves. To go anywhere else, she often said, would be pointless as she planned to "fly over all the great vistas of earth in heaven". She is survived by: her daughter and son-in-law, Lorey Phillips and William Phillips; her son and daughter-in-law, James House and Dana Jones-House; grandchildren, Jon Phillips, Stephanie Brown, and Anna Gibson; and great-grandchildren, Nicole Brown, Steven Brown, Lauren Brown, Julian Phillips, William Gibson, Benjamin Gibson, and Samuel Gibson.