Nellie Frances Gray, 91, formerly of Union County, died Tuesday, May 25, 1993, of natural causes in Spanaway, Wash.
A funeral service will be held Wednesday at Unger Funeral Chapel in Silverton. Interment will follow in Belle Passi Mausoleum in Woodburn.
Mrs. Gray was born Sept. 25, 1901, in Lenox County, Iowa, to George Washington and Alice Mae Wiley Lemon. The family moved to Lynden, Wash., when she was very young. Her father died there when she was six, and her mother moved the family to Union, where she received her education. She married Ernest Merrell Gray on May 28, 1921, at the home of Dillie and the late Eugene Millering of La Grande.
She was appointed post-mistress of Alicel in November 1933 and resigned in August 1939. She and her husband farmed for many years in Lower Cove, and owned and operated laundries in Salem and Vancouver, Wash. In 1956 they moved to Santa Clara, Calif., where she worked at Santa Clara University until she retired in 1968. In 1971 they returned to Woodburn, where they lived until her husband’s death on Dec. 31, 1987.
Survivors include her daughters Muriel Ellis of Boise and Darlene O’Mohundro of Silverton; sister Flossie Green of Bend; grandsons T. J. Calvin of Priest River, Idaho and Nathan Calvin of Boise, Idaho; granddaughters Frances King of Silverton, Erna Jacobsen of Roy, Wash., and Julie Magill of Mount Angel; twelve great grandchildren; nine great-great grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband, those who died earlier include five brothers, four sisters and a great grandson.
The Observer
La Grande, Oregon
Thursday, May 27, 1993
Page 11