Pamela Ann Olbrantz

Pamela Olbrantz went home to be with the Lord on Monday, August 28, 2023. She passed away at her home in West Salem, Oregon, leaving behind the people she loved most in the world—her husband John, her son Aaron, and her daughter Sarah. Pam died of complications associated with her 40-year battle with multiple sclerosis.

Pamela Ann (née Southas) Olbrantz was born on December 14, 1951 to Spero T. and Anna E. Southas in Bellingham, Washington. She grew up in Bellingham where she attended Sunnyland Elementary School, Shuksan Middle School, and Bellingham High School, graduating from the latter in 1970. As a child growing up in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, Pam had very fond memories of spending her summers taking horseback riding lessons at Children’s Happy Acres near Ferndale, Washington, dance classes with Betty Allsop at the Bettina School of Dance in Bellingham, attending summer camps at the Firs at Lake Whatcom, and roller skating lessons at the Bellingham Armory. In high school, Pam was a proud member of the Bellingham High School Marching Band.

Pam attended Seattle Pacific University, where she studied speech communications. She also attended the University of Washington and Western Washington University, where she studied business education. In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Pam worked at Seattle Pacific University and for several accounting firms in Seattle as an office manager, as well as at the Bellevue Art Museum. In 1978, Pam met the love of her life, John Olbrantz, at a lecture that he was giving on Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb. Pam was about ready to move to Scotland and forget about men and relationships when these two met and fell immediately in love. After a whirlwind romance, they were married on April 12, 1980 in what may have been the original “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” in Bellingham.

Pam had always wanted to be a wife and mother. In 1982, she gave birth to her son Aaron Michael, and in 1987, her daughter Sarah Jessica. As John moved from job to job up and down the West Coast, Pam followed and always created a warm and inviting home for him and their children. She was a gourmet cook and wonderful hostess, entertaining John’s colleagues from work and elsewhere, her extended Greek family and their mutual friends, and her children’s classmates and friends. Her parties and dinners were legendary. Pam always said that she felt blessed that she was able to raise her two children before her MS transitioned from relapsing remitting to secondary progressive in 2006.

When her children were young, Pam was actively involved in PTA and Cub Scouts. She served as PTA President at Roosevelt Elementary School in Bellingham, where she was honored with a Golden Acorn Award as an exemplary volunteer, and she served as her son Aaron’s Den Leader in Cub Scouts. In addition, she taught Sunday school and Greek dancing at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Bellingham, and also helped with the annual Greek festival and bake sale. When she wasn’t volunteering, she was busy taking her children from cello and voice lessons to horseback riding lessons, basketball practices, golf lessons, and play rehearsals.

In 1994, Pam parlayed her gourmet cooking skills and passion for Greek food and culture into a successful catering business. With one of her best friends, Voula Parks, they founded “A Taste of Greece,” a Greek food catering business in Bellingham. Every Saturday for three years, they set up their food booth at the Bellingham Farmers Market (with help from husbands John and Tim) and tantalized hungry marketgoers with their spanakopita, tiropita, Greek salads, skordalia, tzatziki, and a host of Greek pastries, including baklava and kourabiedes. In addition, they were popular caterers in Bellingham in the mid-1990s. Pam continued her involvement with Roosevelt Elementary School and commitment to education as a teacher’s aide there from 1996 to 1998.

Pam loved to travel, and one of her favorite destinations was Disneyland in California. It was her “happy place,” and she made 12 trips there during her lifetime. In fact, during the early 2000s, Pam traveled there almost every year with her daughter Sarah, who shared her mother’s love of the “happiest place on earth.” In addition, before MS robbed Pam of her ability to stand, walk, and bear weight, she and John made numerous trips to the East Coast, where they visited important historical sites associated with the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and American history. Pam was a voracious reader who loved historical novels, mysteries, and biographies. She enjoyed board games and gambling, and adored pop singers, David Bowie and Neil Diamond.

Pam was preceded in death by her parents. She is survived by her beloved husband John; her son Aaron of West Salem; her daughter Sarah (wife Ellen Velasquez) of Seattle; her brother Tom (wife Virginia) Southas of Bellevue; and numerous family members and friends, who will miss her terribly. She will always be remembered for her big blue eyes, raven black hair, beautiful cheekbones, and million-dollar smile, as well as her warmth, kindness, compassion, integrity, humor, and fierce devotion to her family and friends.

John would personally like to thank the many people who helped care for Pam over the past 18 years as her health declined: Dr. Edward Kim at Oregon Health & Science University; Dr. J. Mark Mhoon of Salem; the nurses, CNAs, and therapists at Salem Transitional Care (Pam’s home away from home); and the nurses and staff at Amedisys Home Health Care, First Call Home Health, Willamette Vital Health, Signature Hospice, and Serenity Hospice.

The family suggests that donations in Pam’s honor be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of America, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the World Wildlife Fund, or a non-profit of your choice. Pam was a wonderful wife and mother, and although she is gone from our midst, she will live on in our hearts, in our minds, and in our souls forever. May her memory be eternal!

A Trisagion Prayer Service will be held at Westford Funeral Home in Bellingham on Thursday, September 21 at 7:00 p.m., with a Funeral Service held at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Bellingham on Friday, September 22 at 10:00 a.m. Committal will follow at Bayview Cemetery, followed by a luncheon at the McIntyre Parish Hall at St. Sophia’s.