Obituaries for the week of Jan. 13 to Jan. 17
Published 12:00 am Friday, January 17, 2003
Ethyl Thomas
Ethyl Beatrice Thomas, 83, of Island City, a former Baker City resident, died Jan. 12, 2003, at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise after a long illness.
At her request, there will be no service. Riverside Mortuary at Garden City, Idaho, was in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Thomas was born April 5, 1919, to Alva Amos and Georgia Beatrice Hudspeth Gardner in Baker City. She was a Baker High School graduate. She married Harry A. andquot;Sethandquot; Thomas on Nov. 11, 1953, at Sherwood.
The family lived in the La Grande area off and on for a number of years. She was a member of the Summerville Baptist Church and enjoyed crocheting, fancy work of all kinds, reading the Bible and camping.
Survivors include her husband of Island City; a daughter and son-in-law, Gayle and Don Emmons of La Grande; three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren; two sisters, Jo Dickinson of Baker City and Teen Hansel of La Grande; and other relatives.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, 1055 N. Curtis Road, Boise 83706.
Neva Cash
Neva Eliza Cash, 87, a former longtime Baker City resident, died Jan. 9, 2003, at the Keiser Permanente Hospital at Santa Clara, Calif.
Her funeral will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Gray’s West andamp; Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave. Pastor Lenny Spooner of the First Church of the Nazarene will officiate. Vault interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery.
Neva was born on June 22, 1915, in Arkansas to Thomas H. and Maud Mills Simms. She attended school at Little Rock, Ark., and graduated in 1933.
She married Alvin M. Cash on Sept. 7, 1940, at Vancouver, Wash. They owned and operated a dry-cleaning business in Portland until their retirement in 1971 when they moved to Baker City.
After Alvin’s death in 1988, Neva continued living in Baker City until 1994 when she moved to Salem. She moved to San Jose, Calif., in 1999 to be near family.
Neva loved traveling, making ceramics and doing embroidery work. She had traveled all over the world and around the United States.
Survivors include daughters, Carolyn Hansen of Santa Clara, Calif., and Barbara Cash of Salem; granddaughters, Renate Kammersgard of Santa Clara, Calif., and Sheryl Balthrop of Eugene; and six great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Alvin; and two sisters.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society or the American Heart Association through Gray’s West andamp; Co., P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Glen Jones
Glen Loren Jones, 72, a former North Powder resident, died Jan. 12, 2003, at Bremerton, Wash.
After graduating from North Powder High School, he moved to Port Orchard, Wash. He retired from the Bremerton Naval Shipyard after 35 years of service.
He loved to roller skate and in his spare time he taught young people to skate.
Survivors include his wife, Marie, of Port Orchard, Wash.; a sister, Phyllis Ramey, and her husband, Harce, of Arroyo Grande, Calif.; brothers, Chuck of Modesto, Calif., Ed and his wife, Jan, and Jim and his wife, Beverly, of Haines, Ralph and his wife, Evelyn, of Indiana and Lynn of Klamath Falls; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Margaret Gilkison Jones of North Powder.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Kidney Foundation.
Marie Thomas
Marie Christene Bennett Thomas, 91, of Halfway, died Jan. 9, 2003, at her home.
Marie requested that should she die during the winter months, a service be delayed until spring so that all of her family could travel on safe roads. And so in honoring her request, there will be a celebration of Marie’s life in the spring.
Marie was born on Aug. 12, 1911, at Baker City to Claude Eugene and Agnes Gertrude Miles Bennett. She was educated at St. Francis Academy and graduated in 1931. On June 12, 1932, she married Edgar LeRoy Bennett in Baker City. They had four children. Edgar drowned with his brother and father during a fishing accident on May 18, 1941.
Several years later, Marie met Robert Thomas. They were married in April of 1950. They had one son, Bob Thomas. Robert died on Aug. 23, 1985.
Marie enjoyed ranching and loved fishing and traveling. After Robert’s death, she liked to spend most of the winters in Arizona with daughters, Dorothy and Fran. In 1989 Dorothy took Marie and Marie’s youngest sister, Sister Nadine Bennett, to Claresholm, Ontario, Canada, where Marie visited the site of the old homestead where she spent some of her childhood.
During her life she worked in Baker City as a nurse’s aide at St. Elizabeth Hospital, at the sawmill, as a clerk at Montgomery Ward and as a bartender at the Clipper Club, where she met Robert. She was also a 51-year member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary.
Marie was preceded in death by her husbands, Edgar Bennett and Robert Thomas; her parents, Claude and Agnes; brothers, Curtiss, Franklin, Leslie and Donald; sisters, Edna, Lois, Fern and Nona; three grandsons, John Knighten and Johnny and Jimmy Yardley; and granddaughters, Kittatina Kay Yardley and Sandra Knighten.
Survivors include her daughters, Dorothy Brower of Halfway, Elizabeth DeNure, and her husband, Bob, of Grants Pass, and Frances Bennett of Springfield; sons, Randall Bennett, and his wife, Lela, of Eugene and Bob Thomas of Halfway; brother, Glen, and his wife, Vi Bennett, of Quincy, Wash.; a sister, Sister Nadine Bennett of Tacoma, Wash.; brothers-in-law, Joe, and his wife, Marian Epler, of Seattle, Wash., and Vernon and his wife, Arlene Thomas, of Halfway; grandsons, Gary, and his wife, Donna Tarter, of Scappoose, Paul and his wife, Terry Tarter, of Richland, Rod and his wife, Heather Tarter, of Halfway, Troy and his wife, Laura Yardley, of Lewiston, Idaho, Steve and Rachell Knighten of Canyonville, Lucas Thomas of Chahalis, Wash., and Jerome Clemons of Tucson, Ariz.; granddaughters, Lisa Higgins of Sand Gap, Ky., Ivy and Scott Voxland of Seattle, Wash., Annie Burnoos of Lewiston, Idaho, Jennifer and Fred Hadley of Lewiston, Idaho, and Michelle Thomas of Bend; 16 great-grandchildren and several stepgrandchildren and one great-great-grandson; and several cousins, nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Ladies VFW Auxiliary or to the Halfway/Oxbow Ambulance Service through Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 543, Halfway, OR 97834.
Judith Ritzmann
Judith Ellen Ritzmann, 56, of Baker City, died Jan. 9, 2003, at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise.
Survivors include her husband, Gordon Ritzmann of Baker City; daughter, Cynthia Carroll of Chaska, Minn.; and a son, Douglas Tejeda of Modesto, Calif.
Coles Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.