Baker City, Oregon
Floyd William Mobley, 99, of Baker City, died June 12, 2003, in his home at Meadowbrook Place.
His graveside funeral will be Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Mount Hope Cemetery, with Pastor Jon Privett of the First Church of the Nazarene in Baker City officiating. A potluck picnic at Geiser Pollman Park will follow the ceremonies.
Floyd was born April 21, 1904, in Booneville, Ark., and lived there until the age of 3 when his parents, Pearlie and Lemuel Henry Mobley, brought the family by train to Hood River. They homesteaded in Benge, Wash., and later near Huntington.
Floyd had a hard time getting an education because when his parents needed help on the homestead he had to stay home from school. He did manage to get a sixth-grade education, and he had a photographic memory and easily remembered almost anything he read. The Bible was one of his favorite books to read, and he could quote entire chapters.
Floyd went to Colusa, Calif., in 1929, where he met Dorothy Totman Wilson, whom he married April 15, 1931. They had six children together. They moved back to Huntington in 1934.
Floyd was a logger and fell trees all over Oregon, and some in Washington. The family lived in many places in both Eastern and Western Oregon, as well as in Central Washington in the towns of Buena, Toppenish, White Swan and Wapato.
After his wife, Dorothy Mobley, died in 1970, Floyd moved to Baker City, where he lived out the rest of his life except for two years in Yakima, Wash. There was nothing Floyd loved as much as being out in the hills and woods. He loved to hike, and he climbed Mount Hood with some of his children when he was 67. Floyd knew hundreds of poems and loved to quote them to people. He also loved to sing. He sang church songs or funny little songs: “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” was one of his favorites.
Floyd is survived by his brother, Edwin Mobley of Union Gap, Wash.; three sons and daughters-in-law, David and Esther Mobley, Ralph and Dixie Mobley, and Earl and Judy Mobley; three daughters, Ruth Brown, Alice and Jim Wikstrom, and Beth Rairdan; 21 grandchildren, 49 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.
Floyd was preceded in death by his parents; his three sisters, Climey Rodellia Mobley, Margaret Josephine Mobley and Bessey Leor Mobley; two brothers, Jesse James Mobley and Joseph Phillip Mobley; and one grandson, Jason Jonathan Mobley.
Contributions in Floyd’s memory may be made to the charity of one’s choice in care of Gray’s West & Company Pioneer Chapel, P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, June 20, 2003
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor