July 12, 1929 – May 30, 2019
Melba Yvonne Harrison: Daughter of Charles Anderson (Summitt Mississippi) and Ada Bias Anderson (Branch Louisiana). Born 7/12/1929 Bakersfield Ca one of thirteen children. She passed away May 30, 2019.
Graduated Bakersfield High School where she participated in choir with one of her 8 sisters. She married Olen Robert Harrison January 22, 1949. From that union there was only one child (Michael) born in 1950. In 1956 the family moved to Menlo Park later moving to Palo Alto where Olen knew the grass greener having attended elementary (Addison) and high school (Palo Alto). She worked for Pacific Bell as a switchboard operator until moving in January of 1961 to Stanford Research Institute. She was employed there for 33 years ending her employment as a supervising receptionist.
Melba shed her light on visitors worldwide and 5 SRI presidents she claimed to have “trained them all well”. There was nothing more important than family, friends and a good cause. She opened her home to shelter many nieces and friends as they became stable over the years. Donating time energy and legal tender to the presidency of our 44th president, the MLK memorial, hospitalized veterans and her favorite. Publishers Clearing House. She read 5 newspapers daily until her memory started to fade. She’d asterisk all articles deemed important for the day.
Melba was an avid sports enthusiast, loving the Giants from the Alou brothers, (Felipe, Mateo, & Jesus), the Oakland A’s Bash Brothers (Mark McGuire,& Jose Canseco), The Oakland Raiders Soul Patrol (Willie Brown, Jack Tatum, George Atkinson), and Warriors before We Believe to the Splash Brothers (Klay Thompson & Steph Curry). On game days she could be seen about town wearing her teams colors matching hat, shirt and shoes. She even played on a city championship coed softball team. She was particularly proud of her child Michael and grandchildren, Michael (Ditto) Harrison and Jamal (Lewis) Harrison, great-grandchildren, Isaiah Olivia, Anyiah, Drew and Lelah.
Memorial services will be held 11 AM, Saturday June 15th at Alta Mesa Funeral Home, 695 Arastadero Road, Palo Alto CA 94306.