Hope Musser, the wife of former San Bernardino County Flood Control Board Member/ San Bernardino County Farm Bureau President Alvin Musser, the mother-in-law of former San Bernardino County Supervisor Jon Mikels and the mother of former Needles Councilwoman Ruth Musser Lopez, has died.
Musser, 98, passed away peacefully at her home in Upland on July 31, 12 years after her husband of 61 years, J. Alvin Musser, passed in 2007.
Born in Abilene, Kansas in 1921 to Lawrence and Grace Frey, Hope had six siblings: Nobel Frey, Helen Eyster, Pauline Sider, James Frey, William (“Bill”) Frey and Alice Kroeker.  She is survived by her sisters, Miriam Frey and Carolyn Wiley.
At the age of 19 in 1940, she left her family dairy-farm where she was a milker, taking a Greyhound bus to Upland. She briefly stayed with her cousin Maynard Engle and his wife, Irene Musser Engle.  There she met Alvin, Irene’s brother, the herdsman and co-owner of Shady Grove Dairy.  Her first employment position was caregiver and house keeper for a Claremont family, but Alvin soon talked her into serving in that same position for his three children, Richard, Elizabeth and Marilyn. That situation changed when Alvin and Hope married in 1946 on New Year’s Day in Las Vegas.  The family grew to nine children, who were raised amid the groves and vineyards surrounding the Shady Grove Dairy that was then on 7th Street and Grove Avenue in Upland.
With Alvin, she raised their children, Richard, Elizabeth, Marilyn, Marjorie, Gordon, Grace, Michael, Ruth and Timothy. Alvin and Hope’s progeny grew to 26 grandchildren,  48 great grandchildren and three great great grandchildren.
Hope served as a Sunday school teacher and kitchen manager at the Upland Brethren in Christ Church for many years.  She was a PTA  member and a Girl Scout leader assisting in the Ontario-Montclair School District.  In her later years, she owned her own apartment business and enjoyed world-wide travels with her husband to Australia and New Zealand, Alaska, Hawaii and Europe and fishing trips in the Sierras with her family.
Visitation and viewing will be held at Stone Funeral Home 355 E. 9th Street, Upland, CA from 5-8 pm on August 15, 2019.  Interment and a brief service will be held at the North View Chapel located in the Bellevue Mausoleum, 1240 W G St, Ontario, on August 16, 2019 at 1:30 p.m., followed by the “Celebration of Hope” at 3:00 p.m. at the Upland Brethren in Christ Church, 845 W. Arrow Hwy, Upland.  A dinner reception will be held at the church’s Fellowship Hall beginning at 4:30 p.m. Family and friends are invited to attend and share stories.
Though Hope loved flowers, in lieu, the family suggests contributions to Pacific Lifeline Mission in Upland.