Helen M. Alford, 77, of Amity, a former Baker City resident, died Feb. 14, 2008, at a Salem hospital.
Her funeral was Monday at the Chapel of Macy & Son in McMinnville. Pastor Jim Peterson officiated. Burial will be at the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland.
She was born on Nov. 5, 1930, at Enterprise to Eugene Albert Houck and Doris Francis Houck. She grew up in the Zumwalt area of Wallowa County.
In 1949, she married Glen Emory Alfred of Joseph. During their lives together they lived at Wallowa County, Baker City and the Willamette Valley.
She enjoyed family gatherings, playing pinochle and table games and sewing for her family. She loved being outdoors and often instigated family adventures from fishing the nearby lakes and streams to picking huckleberries on the mountainside, sharing a picnic in the park, sledding and building snowmen with the grandchildren. Helen loved singing “cowboy music” and yodeling with her sisters.
“She was our sunshine,” her family said.
Survivors include her son, David Alford of Albany; daughters, Janet Schultz of Hillsboro, Glenda Farmer of Salem and Susan Smith of Grover Beach, Va.; brother, Eugene Houck of Dallas, Ore.; sisters, Opal Fine of Vancouver, Wash., and Margaret Walter of Pasco, Wash.; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, February 19, 2008
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor