Prairie City, Oregon
Barbara P. DeRoest, 85, of Prairie City, a former Baker City resident, died March 27, 2004, at her home on Pine Creek Road at Prairie City.
Her graveside memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mount Hope Cemetery. Bishop Tom Brock of the Baker City Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Mrs. Kim Eardley will officiate. There will be a reception afterward.
Barbara was born on Aug. 6, 1918, to John W. and Magdaline P. Hass Williams at Baker City at the old Baker hospital. She was raised at Sparta where she attended grade school; she then attended high school at Baker City.
After high school, Barbara moved to Portland to further her education. She attended one or two years of business college. While in Portland a good friend set her up on a blind date with Harry Bateman. Their relationship blossomed and the couple married shortly thereafter.
They moved to the San Diego area while Harry was in the U.S. Navy. Barbara gave birth to her first daughter, Diane, while living there. After five years, the marriage dissolved and a short time later Barbara moved to Baker City. There she met and married Hector DeRoest. They had two children: a daughter, Leanne, and a son, John.
Barbara worked as a secretary/receptionist for many years, working for the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in Baker City and for the Biswell doctor’s office, Dunlap & Tyler Insurance and for Osters CPA at Burns. She retired at the age of 62.
Barbara and Hector traveled frequently to Yuma, Ariz., with a travel trailer where they spent their winters. After Hector died in 1986, Barbara bought a home at Yuma and spent much of her time there. She only recently moved to Prairie City to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Ronald E. Taynton.
She was a former member of the Rebekah Lodge and was very active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She also enjoyed crafts, but her favorite thing to do above all else was dancing.
Survivors include her two daughters and one son, Diane Taynton and her husband, Ronald E., of Prairie City, Barbara Leanne Winegar and her husband, Hank, of Baker City, and John B. DeRoest and his wife, Annette, of Sumner, Wash.; 11 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren, with one more expected to be born in April.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 40 years, Hector DeRoest; her parents; one brother, Alton Williams; and one sister, Dorothy Tony.
Memorial contributions may be made to the John Day or Baker City LDS Church Relief Society through Driskill Memorial Chapel, 241 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, April 2, 2004
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor