Carroll Otis Small, 85, of La Grande, a former longtime Baker City resident, died Oct. 8, 2007, at the Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande.
His funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave. Interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. Pastor Jon Privett of the Baker City Church of the Nazarene will officiate. There will be a reception afterward at VFW Hall.
Visitations will be from noon to 8 p.m. Friday at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave.
Carroll was born May 30, 1922, at Norwood, Mass., to Carroll Eugene Small and Ruth Wilder Capen. His nickname as a child was “Buddie” and as the years progressed, he was called “Bud.” In 1928, Carroll and Ruth left Norwood, Mass., for Indianapolis with their three children.
Buddie was just 13 years old when he lost his mother, Ruth, to cancer. She was an accomplished pianist who graced the ivories at Carnegie Hall, and was a great loss to her children.
Bud, his sister and brother were products of the Great Depression and the years that followed. Bud first saw the beauty of the state he knew he would make his home in 1939 when he came to Oregon in the CCCs (Civilian Conservation Corps) and worked at the Wickiup Reservoir and another project building a canal at Redmond, while living at the camps at La Pine and Bend.
In 1940, he returned to Indianapolis and worked for the New York Central Railroad until 1943.
Bud married Inez Marie Anderson on Oct. 11, 1941, at Indianapolis. In 1943, he went to work at Bridge Port Brass and later in the fall of 1943, Bud and Inez worked at the Link Belt. Bud always said, “I am going back to Oregon one day!”
Bud’s father and stepmother moved to Baker City in December 1946 with two of Fannie’s children, Mary Ann (Moore) Wright, who married Dave Wright of Baker, and Henry Moore.
Bud and Inez followed his father to Oregon on May 26, 1947. He arrived by Greyhound bus with his wife, two children, Carroll Gene and Michael, and five suitcases on his birthday, May 30. After arriving in Baker and getting established, he took his family east to see relatives about every two to three years.
Bud spent the majority of his years employed at the mills in Baker and retired from Ellingson Lumber Co. in June 1981. During these years, he spent his free time taking care of his family, hunting, fishing, panning gold, picnics at Marble Creek, huckleberry picking in the Eagles, and keeping his garden every summer up until the late 1990s.
During Bud’s active years, he loved hunting and fishing, including deep-sea fishing on the Oregon Coast. His last years were spent in a nursing home in La Grande because of Alzheimer’s disease.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years as of Oct. 11, 2007; his sister, Lois Shirley Stone of Indianapolis; his brother, Frederick Palmer Small of Holbrook, Ariz.; his sons, Michael Duane Small of Spokane, Wash., Richard Allen Small of Jacksonville, Fla.; four grandchildren, Michael Eugene Small of Seattle, Wash., Michele Marie Small-McCowen of Spokane, Wash., Jason Allen Small-Mitchell of Portland and Cynthia Ann Niddrie of Norwich, Conn.; and five great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Virginia Lee “Ginny” Small; and a son, Carroll Gene Small.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association through Gray’s West & Co., 1500 Dewey Ave., Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, October 11, 2007
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor