LaVaughn Gould

At her request, no public services will be held for LaVaughn Gould, 92, of Coos Bay.

LaVaughn was born July 19, 1926 in Nampa, Idaho to Earl and Clariese Stiff. She peacefully passed away in her sleep April 5, 2019 from congestive heart failure.

LaVaughn was the oldest of five children. She grew up in Baker, Ore. It was there she met Robert “Bob” Gould, a young U.S. Navy flight instructor from Burns, Ore. who was home on leave. They married in Baker April 19, 1944.

After the war, Bob and LaVaughn moved back to Baker, then on to Portland. By then, they had two sons, Rowan and Roger. While living in Portland, then Milwaukie, Ore., LaVaughn began working as a medical lab technician, eventually working into the specialty of cytology.

The family moved to Coos Bay in June 1960, when Bob took a job as a salesman at Tower Ford. LaVaughn soon began working at McAuley Hospital as a cytologist. When McAuley closed, she moved to McGowan Lab, with whom she worked until retiring in 1992.

In 1969, Bob and LaVaughn bought property on North Tenmile Lake, next door to McKay’s market owner Chuck McKay. Next to Chuck, on the other side, were Bob and LaVaughn’s good friends, Milt and Maxine Schmidt. Two doors down the other way was Gordon and Elaine Joelson’s cabin.

And then the good times began. The lake became the place to go for Bob and LaVaughn’s friends and family. Every Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, the place was packed with people, including friends and family of the Schmidts, the Joelsons, and Chuck and Sherida. LaVaughn is credited with being the founder of the famous lawn dart tournament. If you motored your boat by their property on one of these holidays, you would see scores of people flinging those red, yellow or blue darts at the targets, with never a casualty, while sipping on a London Fog.

LaVaughn sold the lake property a few years after Bob died in 1989. She bought a beautiful home on the Illinois River outside Cave Junction, where she lived until moving back to Coos Bay/North Bend in 2014.

LaVaughn is survived by her sons, Dr. Rowan Gould and his wife, Dee of Kingston, Wash., and Roger Gould and his wife, Denise of Coos Bay; grandchildren, Alyson Graves and husband, Chris of Denver, Colo., Adam Gould of Coos Bay, Erin Gould and husband, Gilad Gozlan of Ashland, Curtis Gould and wife, Laura of Seattle, Wash., and Erica Gould of San Francisco; as well as five great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Bob, in 1989; and her special friend, Harold Harrop, in 2007.

Arrangements are under the care of Coos Bay Chapel, 541-267-3131.

Friends and family are encouraged to sign the online guestbook at www.coosbayareafunerals.com

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