La Grande, Oregon
Barbara June Nielsen Murry, 75, of La Grande and formerly of Pilot Rock, died Nov. 9 at Grande Ronde Hospital.
Family and friends may call from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at Daniels Chapel of the Valley. A celebration of life service will be held on Thursday at 1 p.m. at Daniels Chapel.
Ms. Murry was born June 16, 1931, at Pilot Rock to Hans C. and Mable E. Galbreath Nielsen. Ms. Murry grew up on a ranch up East Birch Creek and attended schools in Pilot Rock to half her sophomore year until her parents moved to Portland where she completed her schooling at Franklin High School.
On Jan. 28, 1950, she married Stanley Fitzpatrick from Lansing, Mich. Ms. Murry worked for the General Telephone Co. in Grand Lodge, Mich., for four years and then worked for Oldsmobile-building Oldsmobiles until the Korean War and they quit making cars and made parts for airplanes.
Ms. Murry divorced in 1955 and in 1957 moved back to Oregon where she worked for Esco (Electric Steel Foundry) in Portland. On Dec. 13, 1957, she married Howard Hansen and moved to White City and worked for 3M. She and her husband built a log home themselves. They had one daughter, Theresa.
In 1969 she married Earl L. Murry, a logger and PRCA cowboy, traveling all over rodeoing. They moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, in 1975, working on road construction and logging. They lived on a log float camp that was the largest camp of its kind in the world. It consisted of large logs held together by wire rope, floating off shore on the ocean. The camp had 40 trailer houses a school, playground and two large homes. The only way into camp or out was by boat or bush plane. She loved to fish out her back door.
After returning to Oregon in 1985 she and her husband bought trucks and long hauled the lower 48, then moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, and hauled on the pipeline to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
At 56, Ms. Murry went back to school to work in the travel industry.
Ms. Murry moved to La Grande in 1991 where she has lived since.
Ms. Murry enjoyed fishing, hunting, traveling and taking the back roads.
Her parents, brother Dr. Lawrence E. Nielsen, a niece Virginia Price and her daughter Nicole Price, nephew Clayton Nielsen and all three husbands preceded her in death.
She is survived by daughter Theresa Marie Hansen of La Grande, brother Frank Nielsen of Union, sister Beverly de Young of Grants Pass, and several nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association in care of Daniels Chapel of the Valley.
The Observer, Obituaries For The Week Ending Nov. 11, 2006, Published: November 11, 2006