Edith Forno
Published: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:17 p.m.
Edith Forno, a resident of Sonoma County for more than eight decades, died Sunday of cancer. She was 89.
Born June 18, 1919, in Spokane, Wash., to Anna and John Carlson, the family moved south to Skillman Lane in Petaluma when Edith was an infant.
John Carlson became a chicken rancher and Edith Forno and her siblings enrolled at Cinnabar Elementary School.
She was elected senior class secretary at Petaluma High School. After graduation, she went to San Francisco, where she took business classes and did clerical work.
While at an ice cream shop in Petaluma, Edith Forno met a young soldier, Herman Swenson, who was stationed at Fort Ord and was passing through Sonoma County.
“She met my dad in some ice cream parlor in Petaluma,” said Forno’s daughter, Linda Cranor of Napa. “They were married 25 years.”
Forno raised three children in Petaluma, tended her garden and baked countless desserts, Cranor said.
She and her best friend, Dorothy Carlson, would share snips of their best flowers to trade between yards.
“They didn’t go to the nursery and buy stuff and plunk it in the ground,” she said.
“She loved her flowers,” she said. “My brother raised sheep and when we were young the sheep would get out and it would never fail, they would get out when the roses were ready to bloom.”
“She gardened all year long, but the garden was the prettiest in spring with daffodils and camellias,” she said.
After Forno and Swenson divorced, Edith worked in the Petaluma High School administration office. She later began volunteering at Sack’s Hospice of Petaluma.
“She was very devoted to the cause of hospice so she loved volunteering and finding the good stuff and marking it for the cost,” she said.
Eventually Forno met a fellow big band dancer, Larry Forno. They fell in love and were married for 36 years, Cranor said.
“Her marriage to Larry was like a honeymoon for 36 years,” she said.
The pair would dance together every Friday night and spend weekends with family or driving to Bodega Bay in search of a great meal.
“My mom was a person on a mission for fresh fish,” Crano said.
The couple also would take weekend jaunts in their recreation vehicle with local friends.
Forno was a member of the United Methodist Church of Petaluma, the California School Employees Association and a lifetime member of the PTA.
In addition to Cranor, Forno is survived by her son, Gordon Swenson of Petaluma, and daughter Shari McAsey of Redwood Valley; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Her husband, Larry, died two weeks ago.
Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Petaluma, 416 Payran St., Petaluma 94952. Private graveside services for immediate family have been planned.
-- Kerry Benefield
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