Thelma Rae Lachenmaier went to be with her Lord and Savior on December 31, 2014, less than a month shy of her 95th birthday. Thelma was blessed with a long life, rich in love and full of adventure. Thelma was born in Stockton, California, January 23, 1920 to Forrest and Lalla (Watts) Eproson, the youngest of three children. She lived her early years in the tiny Mother Lode town of Milton in Calaveras County where her father worked on a gold dredger. As part of an early California family, her childhood experiences read like one of the final pages from the history of the Wild West. In Milton, where one grandfather was the constable and the other the Methodist minister, she attended a one-room schoolhouse. These early years left an indelible imprint on Thelma as it was in this tiny community that she learned the value of family and faith, and the lessons of hard work and sacrifice. The family later moved to Lodi and she graduated from Lodi Union High School in 1938. Following graduation she attended Humphreys Business College and worked as a bookkeeper until her marriage to the love of her life, William R. (Bill) Lachenmaier. Following a two-year stint of duty in the South Pacific during WWII, he returned stateside and they wed in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Christmas Day 1943. For the remaining war years, they moved among postings in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Virginia. In 1945, the couple moved to Shafter and followed in the farming footsteps of the Lachenmaiers, growing the famous Shafter long white potatoes along with cotton and other crops. Thelma began attending the Shafter Mennonite Brethren Church in 1949 and became a member in 1953. She was active for many years in the Ladies Fellowship, as a Sunday school teacher, and as a volunteer pink girl at Kern Crest Manor (now Carrington). She loved needlepoint projects and making cross-stitch quilts and, although happy in these domestic pursuits, she also learned to fly a private plane, toted a gun and a fishing rod, and spent innumerable vacations hunting, fishing, camping and boating without complaint. She also enjoyed travels with friends and family throughout the US and Canada as well as to far flung parts of the globe including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Evelyn Eproson Bohn and brother Forrest Olan Eproson, as well as her husband of 63 years, William R. Lachenmaier. She is survived by a daughter, Jan Lachenmaier of Santa Barbara, California, nephew Bart Bohn and wife Suna of Fresno, niece Randy (Eproson) Whiting and husband Steve of Lodi, sister-in-law Leona Lachenmaier, niece Lana (Lachenmaier) Ryan and husband Jim, and nephew Bruce Lachenmaier, all of Bakersfield. She is also survived by the Andy Russell family who enriched her life with her cherished adopted grandchildren, Cody and Lexi Russell. The family would like to extend special thanks to the staff of Carrington for their 5+ years of loving care. A graveside service will be held Wednesday, January 7 at 10am at Shafter Memorial Park followed by a memorial service at 11am at Shafter Mennonite Brethren Church. Arrangements are under the direction of Peters Funeral Home, Shafter.