Verna Porter — a nurses union member and outspoken advocate for senior citizens — died of natural causes June 29, 2026 at age 91.
Born Feb. 11, 1935, in Velva, North Dakota, she grew up there and moved to Silverton, Oregon after marrying Ed Heppner in 1955. After that marriage ended, she married Robert S. Porter, a member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 40.
As a registered nurse, Verna Porter specialized in geriatric nursing and spent many years at Rose Villa, a nursing home in Portland.
A member of Oregon Nurses Association, Porter became an outspoken advocate for seniors. She was an officer of the ILWU Columbia River Pensioners and served as president of the Oregon chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans, a group formed in 2001 by the AFL-CIO to bring together retired union members. She was also active in the leadership of the Oregon State Council of Retired Citizens and United Seniors of Oregon. In 2005 she was a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging, and in 2011 she was appointed by then-governor John Kitzhaber to the Oregon Governor’s Commission on Senior Services. In 2007 she was named as chief petitioner on an SEIU-backed ballot initiative to require hospitals to charge uninsured patients no more than their best rate to insurers, but the campaign didn’t end up gathering the needed signatures. She also contributed regular reports and commentary about senior issues to the Northwest Labor Press.
