North Powder, Oregon
Willma Bates Taylor, 87, of Baker City and formerly of North Powder, died Sept. 10 at St. Elizabeth Health Care Center. Viewing is today from 4 to 8 p.m. at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel in Baker City. A graveside service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the North Powder Cemetery.
Wilma was born in the Dalton family home in North Powder on Aug. 2, 1919, to Robert and Harriet Dalton Jacobsen. She grew up and attended North Powder schools where she graduated with the class of 1937.
In 1941 she married Eugene R. Bates in Weiser, Idaho. The couple had a daughter, Sharon. The marriage later ended in divorce.
Wilma was chief operator of the North Powder telephone office between 1950 and 1955. She transferred to Baker when the telephone system went to dial. She lived in Baker, and married Ralph E. Taylor in 1960. The couple had two daughters, Robin and Susan.
Wilma and Ralph lived on the family farm until 1975 when they moved to North Powder. They built a home on the Dalton property where Wilma was born.
Due to ill health, in 1997 they moved back to Baker. Since May she has lived at St. Elizabeth Care Center.
She is survived by her three daughters and their husbands, Sharon and Jim Jeffries, Robin and Tim Green, and Susan and Deven Sackett; nine grandchildren; nine-great grandchildren; and other relatives. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ralph.
The Observer Online, Obituaries for the week ending Sept. 16, 2006, Published: September 19, 2006