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Marie Sara 'Sarah' was the daughter of Fabien Jerome (later known as Regimbal) (1853-1928) and Salome LaBerge (1857-1938) of St-Louis-de-Gonzague, Qc.

Born in Ste-Justine-de-Newton, Quebec in 1875, she migrated to the United States in 1882 with her parents, two brothers and one sister. In Crookston Minnesota at the age of 19, and the oldest of a burgeoning family of ten, Sara Jerome married Hilaire Fortier of St-Malachie Quebec, who was also a Canadian transplant to Crookston. The date was January 13, 1895.

Their first child was my grandfather, Avilla Hilaire Fortier (1895-1987) born in Gentilly, Minnesota. He and his sister Georgianna (1897-1966) moved with their parents to Moxee City, Washington on November 13, 1897.

They, along with several other French-Canadian families, left Crookston and traveled westward by rail in emigrant railroad cars carrying them, their furniture and cattle.

It was an expenses subsidized promotion by the Northern Pacific Railroad and Kittitas and Yakima Irrigation Company to encourage settlement in the Yakima Valley.

The family bought land near Moxee City and there, and in Yakima, Sara had 8 more children: Amanda Marie (1899-1987), Rosario Alphonse (1900-1976), Rosalie Marie (1902-1950), Odilon E 'Dill' (1904-1962), Genevieve Marie (1906-1950), Jane Marie (1907-1993), Augustine Antoinette (1909-1973), and Helen Julia (1913-1980).

Sadly, Sarah passed away from complications of pneumonia one month after the birth of Helen on February 8, 1913. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery, Yakima. Her husband Hilaire joined her there in 1928.

In 1933, the grave of their grandson was placed just a few feet from theirs. The son of Rosalie, Richard William Lizotte, aged 6 years, 6 months, drowned in an irrigation canal.