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1920–2013
Norrine Vale Rambaud McMichael
French Heritage, American Spirit
Her father came from France. Her mother was born in California to French immigrants from the Alps. She was born in Bakersfield during the Roaring Twenties, came of age during the Great Depression, married during World War II, and raised her family during the post-war boom. Norrine Vale Rambaud McMichael lived through nearly a century of American transformation, carrying her deep French heritage like a quiet strength through it all.
This is her story, as told to her daughter Valerie (McMichael) Fish—a story of family bakeries and Depression-era hardship, of young love and wartime marriages, of geological expeditions and raising a family. It's the story of how a French-American girl from Bakersfield became the matriarch of a family that would span the twentieth century and beyond.
French Heritage from the Alps
Norrine's connection to France ran deep—three of her four grandparents were born in France, making her heritage overwhelmingly French. Both of her mother's parents emigrated from the Hautes-Alpes region of southeastern France to California in the late 19th century.
The Martin and Escalier Families
Joseph Martin Martin (1863–1955) was born in Laye, Hautes-Alpes, a small Alpine commune in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. He immigrated to California, where he lived to be 92 years old, dying in Bakersfield in 1955—when Norrine was already 35 and raising her own family.
Anastasie Valerie Escalier (1871–1961) was also born in the Hautes-Alpes region of France. She married Joseph Martin, and together they made the journey to California, eventually settling in Kern County. She lived an extraordinary 90 years, passing away in 1961 when Norrine was 40.
Their daughter, Agusta T. Martin (1892–1937), was born in California—the first generation of this French Alpine family to be born on American soil. She married Jean P. A. Rambaud, who had emigrated from France in 1880, further strengthening the family's French cultural bonds.
The Hautes-Alpes region in the 1860s and 1870s was a place of economic hardship. Life in the Alpine valleys was difficult—cold winters, limited agricultural opportunities beyond sheep and goat herding, and poor access to markets. Like many from the French Alps during this period, Joseph and Anastasie sought better opportunities in California, joining migration chains established during and after the Gold Rush years.
By the 1880s, California's agricultural boom—particularly in the Central Valley—attracted French immigrants with farming backgrounds. The fertile lands and Mediterranean-like climate of Kern County would have seemed promising to families from the harsh Alpine environment. The French community in California was well-established by this time, with immigrants from the Pyrenees, the Alps, and other regions creating networks that helped newcomers settle and prosper.
Norrine grew up surrounded by this French heritage—her father's baking traditions brought directly from France, her mother raised by French-speaking parents from the Alps, and the cultural memories of two very different mountain regions: the Hautes-Alpes of southeastern France and the baking regions Jean came from. This deep French connection shaped her identity even as she became thoroughly American, living through the dramatic transformations of twentieth-century California.
The Rambaud Bakery
The Rambaud family ran a bakery in Bakersfield, California—a business that sustained them through the hardest years of the Depression but ultimately became a casualty of those same desperate times. Norrine's father, Jean Rambaud, brought his French baking traditions to California's Central Valley, creating a business that fed the community even as the country struggled.
When Norrine was just nine years old, her father died of "Baker's Lung"—emphysema from years of inhaling flour dust. Her mother continued running the bakery, and young Norrine learned to drive at thirteen with a special seat so she could reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel. She drove the bakery's delivery truck, taking bread to customers throughout Bakersfield while her friends were still learning their multiplication tables.
"Men would knock on the back door of the bakery asking for food, and Momma would always find a small job for them before giving them something, to help them keep their dignity, she said. But the Dustbowl had brought thousands more to the San Joaquin Valley with hopes of work. The situation seemed so desperate sometimes..."
— From Norrine's memories, as recorded by Valerie Fish
Norrine at 13, with the bakery delivery truck she learned to drive to help the family business
By 1936, the bakery was facing bankruptcy. The Coast Dakota Flour Company, their largest creditor, arranged for a family from Seattle—the McMichaels—to come take over operations in hopes of working off the debt. If they succeeded, the business would be theirs. It was during this transition that sixteen-year-old Norrine first met eighteen-year-old Lawrence Bradley McMichael.
First Meeting: Fall 1936
"I'd like to see you go out with a young man like that some day," her mother said as they drove back to Grandma and Grandpa Martin's house on Brundage Lane.
The last thing sixteen-year-old Norrine wanted was to go out with the boy whose family was moving into her home with her furniture. The world she had known was slipping away bit by bit—her father gone, the bakery failing, her mother sick with an illness no doctor could diagnose.
But her mother saw something in this young man from Seattle. Brad had already completed two years at the University of Washington before taking time off to help his parents with this bold Depression-era venture. "He seems like such a nice young man," her mother said.
The Rambaud family gathered outdoors
It was November 1936, just days after Norrine's sixteenth birthday. Her mother would soon leave for the Sansome Clinic in Santa Barbara—"the very best hospital," she said, though they both knew the truth was more desperate than that. Norrine had become her mother's legal ward, placed under Aunt Helen's guardianship. At an age when most girls were thinking about school dances and first dates, Norrine was navigating bankruptcy, illness, and the end of life as she'd known it.
She just wanted to be sixteen and carefree. But life had other plans. And somehow, in the midst of all that loss and uncertainty, a young geologist-to-be from Seattle would become her future.
Sequim Bay Summer: 1944
By the summer of 1944, Norrine and Brad had been married for several years and had a young son, Ridge. Brad had just graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor's degree in Geology—following the advice of Norrine's Uncle Lonnie, who had told him: "If I were a young man just starting out right now, I'd get my degree in Geology and be an exploration geologist."
Chevron had recruited Brad straight out of school, assigning him to map the uncharted wilderness of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. But they also delivered unwelcome news: he'd need a Master's degree to advance. Brad was overwhelmed at the prospect of another year of intense academic work combined with a 40-hour work week.
"His work at Boeing was also his war contribution; being on the safety inspection team made him and his crew the final team to give approval for operation and flight of the new B-29 bomber. In the quieter hours in between inspections he studied for school."
"Drive up this road here and take the left fork about three miles along," he said as his finger traced the tiny lines on the aged topographical map. "I'll meet you where the road ends at 5 o'clock tomorrow evening."
She looked across her dinner plate at the map laid in the center of the white Formica table and leaned forward on her elbows to look more closely at where he was pointing. "Okay," she answered as she leaned back in her chair and took another bite of macaroni & cheese. "We'll be there waiting for you, Honey."
Young Norrine—the girl who would become a geologist's wife
That summer, Norrine would drive to remote wilderness roads at precisely 5 PM to meet Brad as he hiked out from his day's geological mapping. Then they'd drive back to where he'd started that morning to pick up his car, returning to their summer home at the Juan de Fuca Cottages near Sequim Bay. "It was a fun and cozy little spot, but not very fancy," the family story goes.
Through it all—the war work, the graduate studies, the geological mapping, caring for young Ridge—Norrine's optimistic spirit kept them going. "We went home to Norrine with the news and was buoyed by her optimistic spirit, knowing that they could make it through somehow."
The Geologist's Life
Norrine as a young woman
Uncle Lonnie had been right about the future of geology. "The way I see it, the world is just going to be using more and more oil; there's going to be a greater demand for it, and the geologists are the guys that go out and look for it," he had told Brad that evening in Bakersfield.
"They get to be outside a lot, hiking through the hills and wilderness areas looking for evidence of oil deposits. It's not one of those jobs that ties a guy to a desk."
Brad built a successful career as an exploration geologist with Chevron, following that dream of outdoor work and respected profession. And through it all, Norrine was there—driving to remote pickup points, raising their family, keeping the home fires burning while he mapped the wilderness and searched for oil beneath the earth.
The young girl who drove a bakery delivery truck at thirteen had become the woman who navigated wilderness roads to meet her geologist husband. The French baker's daughter had married into a life of geological expeditions and oil field camps. And somehow, through Depression and war and constant movement, she maintained that optimistic spirit that had drawn Brad to her in the first place.
French Heritage, American Life
Norrine Vale Rambaud McMichael lived from 1920 to 2013—ninety-three years that spanned nearly a century of American history. She carried her French heritage through the Great Depression, World War II, the post-war boom, and into the twenty-first century.
From her father Jean Rambaud came the French traditions, the baking heritage, the immigrant's determination to build something in a new land. From her mother came strength in adversity and the grace to help others even in desperate times. And from her own life came the optimism and resilience that sustained a family through geology expeditions, multiple moves, and the constant challenges of mid-century American life.
Her story, preserved here through her daughter Valerie's writing, reminds us that family history isn't just about genealogical lines and dates. It's about bakery trucks driven by thirteen-year-olds, about Depression-era kindness to desperate men, about wilderness maps spread on Formica tables, about the optimism that helps families make it through somehow.
Family Connections
Explore Norrine's Family Tree
Discover the Rambaud French heritage and connections through four generations
View Interactive Tree
Jean Rambaud Biography
Read about Norrine's father and the French immigrant story
Read His Story
L.B. "Brad" McMichael
Read about Norrine's husband, the UW rower who discovered North Sea oil
Read His Story
Genealogical Note: Norrine Vale Rambaud McMichael (1920-2013) was the paternal grandmother of Noel McMichael, site curator. She married Lawrence Bradley McMichael, bringing French heritage into the McMichael family line. Her father Jean Rambaud immigrated from France, establishing the family bakery in Bakersfield, California.
About This Biography
This biography is based on Family Stories Told by Norrine McMichael, written by her daughter Valerie (McMichael) Fish, Noel's aunt. The original manuscript preserves Norrine's memories and stories in her own voice, offering an intimate portrait of Depression-era California, wartime America, and post-war family life.
The narrative style preserves the storytelling approach of the original work, allowing Norrine's voice and memories to shine through. Photos are from the family collection, documenting the bakery, the family, and key moments from Norrine's life.
Genealogical Research Sources
Information about Norrine's French heritage and the Martin and Escalier families is documented in the family genealogical database compiled from Ancestry.com records. Key facts verified include:
- Joseph Martin Martin (1863–1955): Birth in Laye, Hautes-Alpes, France confirmed by French civil records
- Anastasie Valerie Escalier (1871–1961): Birth in Hautes-Alpes, France; married Joseph Martin
- Agusta T. Martin (1892–1937): Birth in California, USA; daughter of Joseph and Anastasie
- Jean P. A. Rambaud (1880–1930): Birth in France; married Agusta Martin
Historical context about French Alpine immigration to California during the 1860s-1880s is supported by scholarly sources from the Bibliothèque nationale de France and migration studies documenting the economic hardships in the Hautes-Alpes region that drove emigration during this period.
Special thanks to Valerie Fish for preserving these family stories and memories for future generations.