Agnes Priscilla (Benson) Wilder, named for her maternal aunt but known by her middle name, died Feb. 12, 2018, at the memory care facility in Oakland, Calif. that was her home for the last three years. She was 93.

She was born at home Oct. 23, 1924, near Crows Landing, Calif. to Carl and Sophia K. (Lindstrom) Benson, Swedish immigrants who came to the U.S. with relatives as young adults.

Priscilla’s father was an architect and carpenter who built several houses in Modesto and Turlock before acquiring land as part payment for a commission and settling as a dairy farmer. He died unexpectedly following fairly routine surgery in 1955.

Priscilla’s mother, Sophia K. Lindstrom, came with her parents to the U.S. to Minnesota, where the parents were farmers. Despite a marked Swedish accent, she worked as a school teacher, in Conecah County, Ala., in 1915. She met Carl Benson through Lutheran church correspondence and they settled in California.

Priscilla had one brother, Carl E. Benson, one year older. The two youngsters spoke only Swedish until Carl started school and the family reverted to English.

Priscilla grew up on the family dairy and fruit farm, attending Mountain View School on Crows Landing Road and Turlock High School. She attended University of California at Berkeley during the war years, earning a degree in business administration, living in a fraternity house emptied of all the young men who had been called up.

While working as a librarian in San Francisco, she went to a baseball game her roommate talked her into and met Dick Wilder. He was a returned G.I. from Santa Cruz, Calif., studying at Berkeley. They married in 1947, before he finished his degree in chemical engineering at UC Berkeley.

Priscilla and Dick lived the next 36 years in California, raising five children. They lived in Berkeley (Anna born), Pittsburg (Christine born), Oakland (Jim born), San Mateo (Richard and Gene born), Redondo Beach, Torrance, Concord (all kids graduated from high school), Modesto, and back to Oakland. In later years, Priscilla often traveled with Dick on business trips to Europe, Tunisia, Mexico and Asia.

In 1987, Dick Wilder suffered complications from heart bypass surgery, so they decided to retire, to Montesano, Wash. Dick had been born in Montesano, where his grandparents had pioneered in the 1800s, but hadn’t lived there since age five. Their oldest daughter, born and raised in California, was coincidentally settled in Montesano.

So Priscilla and Dick started their new phase of retired life, visiting with grandchildren and family in California, Seattle and Montesano. They traveled in an RV, rented houses for vacation in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Mexico and took many cruises. Priscilla was active in Children’s Orthopedic Guild and Friends of the W.H. Abel Memorial/Timberland Library. Dick Wilder died of complications of kidney dialysis and heart failure in 2004.

In 2014, Priscilla began to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Despite robust physical good health, her memory started to fail her. She lived for a while with assisted living at Channel Point Village in Hoquiam where her oldest daughter Anna could visit her every day, but soon moved to Oakland, Calif., to a memory care facility where her second daughter Christine could visit her every day.

Priscilla was a laid-back, easy-going person who always seemed to get things done. She was an inveterate walker and reader. She was known to always answer with a cheerful “Sure!” to any plan for an outing or project.

Priscilla is survived by her brother Carl E. (Edith) Benson in Schell City, Mo. as well as his six children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; her own children Anna (Steve) Harbell of Montesano, Christine WilderAbrams of Oakland, Jim (Peg Curtin) Wilder of Seattle, Gene (Dawn) Wilder of Browns Valley, Calif.; three grandsons and three granddaughters; three great-grandsons and three great-granddaughters. A son, Richard Fred Wilder Jr. died of complications of juvenile diabetes in 1994.

Interment was with Dick at Wynooche Cemetery. An informal family reunion is planned on March 24, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the home of Anna and Steve Harbell.