Baker City, Oregon
Eula I. Grissom, 82, a longtime Baker City resident, died July 26, 2004, at her home.
Her funeral will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Coles Funeral Home, 1950 Place St. Pastor Ray Wilson of the New Bridge Church of the Nazarene will officiate. Vault interment will be at Eagle Valley Cemetery in Richland.
Eula was born to George and Jasmine Hoffman on Nov. 5, 1921, at Council, Idaho. When she was 2, her parents returned to Eagle Valley.
Here she was able to have her horse that she so very much loved to race. As a child she loved being outdoors and at all costs tried to avoid doing her chores. She loved Eagle Valley and returned as often as she could.
She was raised at Sparta until high school. She attended high school at Chiloquin where she met and married Howard Beymer. They were married in January of 1938 and lived in the Klamath Falls area where their first son, Ole, was born.
In the early spring of 1939, a flip of a coin took them on the adventure of a lifetime. They went north and that was no easy task in those days.
While in Alaska, she and Howard owned and operated several flying services. She loved the mountains and the beauty of the north land. She would fly whenever the opportunity would present itself. She was always wanting to see more of the beautiful country.
She loved the natives and enjoyed learning their customs and history. While in Alaska, she made several lifelong friends. She always traveled with her camera and documented as much of the Alaska territory as possible.
The couple had two more sons, Dick and Arnie, and their first daughter, Janiece, while living in Alaska.
As much as she loved the beauty of the north, the time came to return to the states. The family moved to Nevada for a short time where her second daughter, Shariece, was born.
It soon became clear that she wanted to return to Eagle Valley and her family. She lived in Richland and Halfway for a short time and then moved to Baker City in 1959. Except for a short move back to Nevada in 1969, she had lived in Baker City ever since. Nearly every Sunday, however, she tried to drive to Richland to visit her family. They were all so important to her.
In 1964, she married Roy Grissom. Together they owned and operated several local restaurants. Every chance she got, she returned to the hills around the Sparta area. She never tired of telling her family stories of her childhood in Eagle Valley and was always willing and ready to “go to the mountains and have a picnic.” In her family, she was famous for the huge picnics she always prepared.
Eula loved lots of company. Her niece, Sharon, never disappointed her in that department. They had coffee several mornings a week and Eula always looked forward to that special time.
Sharon got her involved with shuffleboard again after many years of not playing. It is rumored that she never lost her touch. She thoroughly enjoyed that time out with friends.
She loved to prepare big meals and always had enough to feed twice as many as was around the table. She loved her flower gardens and tended them faithfully.
She never hesitated to share her plants with anyone. At one point she had so many iris, she took an entire pickup load to the hills and spent a day planting them. She returned the next spring and the hills were alive with colors from her yard. As you drive around town, rest assured that many of the flowers you see, started at Eula’s house.
She raised a vegetable garden as well and while it wasn’t nearly as big as when she was raising a family, it was always there. She loved to grow the vegetables and share them with her family and friends when they came to visit. She canned all that was left over and then shared that with grandkids and other family members who came from out of town.
Eula was always the first one to offer a bed or a meal to someone in need. Over the years, she opened her home to many nieces, nephews and others when they needed a place for a while. She was a very generous woman.
Survivors include three sons and daughters-in-law, Ole and Judy Beymer, Dick and Janet Beymer, and Arnie and Teresa Beymer; two daughters and sons-in-law, Janiece and Bill Graham and Shariece and Jim Hoffman; 18 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren, five great-great-grandchildren; a brother, Bill Hoffman; a sister, Peggy Haynes; numerous nieces, nephews and friends, including her lifelong friend, Catherine.
She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Jasmine Hoffman; a brother, John Hoffman; husband, Roy Grissom; and granddaughter, Lucretia Beymer.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, July 30, 2004
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor