Myra Porter

On Monday December 16, 2019, Myra Jean Porter of Tustin, CA passed away surrounded by her children and granddaughter, lots of old pictures, stories, love, and Elvis on the CD player. Cancer may have won this latest battle, but it never beat her. Right to the end she remained loving and unselfish - more concerned about the people around her than herself.

Myra was born May 7, 1944 in Dayton, TN to Lawarnce and Ruby (Swafford) Dunn. Known to her family as “Jean,” she was their first child, and a few years later she got a little brother, Larry, affectionately known as “Junior.” She grew up moving between Tennessee and Southern California as her dad was in the Navy. Mr and Mrs Dunn ran a tight ship, but somewhere in there, certainly without their knowledge nor approval, their beautiful, innocent daughter discovered Elvis Presley, and a life-long obsession was born. Myra married Jerry Phillips right out of high school in 1962 and she often said it was largely to escape her parents’ strict home. It didn’t last long and she was soon back under mom and dad’s roof.

In 1965, Myra met Mark Porter while beating him handily at bowling, a dominance that persisted throughout their relationship. They married in 1966 and had two children, Eric and Kimberly. Settling in Huntington Beach, CA, Myra embraced the thing that she was clearly created to do in this world – be a mom. She poured her unselfish, conscientious, unconditional love into her children and, though the perfect overeasy fried egg or moist pork chop often eluded her, those children lacked nothing.

With the kids in school, Myra returned to work as an administrative assistant/office manager in the construction industry. Her attention to detail and commitment to quality made her invaluable throughout her 40+ year career at Brinderson and SS Mechanical.

In 1991, Myra became a grandmother when Courtney was born and her finely-tuned mothering skills elevated to an entirely new level. Eric and Kim spent much of their lives (usually joking but sometimes not) competing for the favorite child position. This competition became irrelevant with the arrival of Courtney.

In recent years, Myra became a bit more adventurous. She travelled, bicycled, hiked, ballroom danced and bird-watched with her friend Tim. She visited all 21 California Spanish Missions and 49 of the 61 National Parks – two of those just a week before she passed. She also shamelessly embraced her love of all things purple – purple couch, purple dishes, purple bath gel and hand lotion, purple laundry soap, purple tissue boxes, purple pajamas, purple Elvis Christmas ornaments. It was her defining color.

Myra is preceded in death by her mother Ruby, father Lawarnce, brother Larry and ex-husband Mark. She is survived by her son Eric, daughter Kim, granddaughter Courtney, nieces and nephews, and her Tennessee family.

A memorial service will be held on December 28th, 2019, 2 pm at Saddleback Chapel - 220 E Main Street Tustin CA 92780. www.saddlebackchapel.com

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