Lostine, Wallowa County, Oregon
Funeral services were held Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Lostine Christian church for Mary Elizabeth Hearing, Wallowa County pioneer, who died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Otto Dolkey near Medford, May 29, 1929. Rev. Arthur Harriman of Wallowa conducted the services. A quartet, Mrs. Orval McArtor, Mrs. Roy Haun, Roy Haun and Chas. Bridwell, sang appropriate hymns, with Mrs. S.L. Magill at the piano. Interment was in the Lostine cemetery.
Mary Elizabeth Conner was born in Sigourney, Iowa, July 28, 1846, and crossed the plains to Portland, Oregon in 1853 at the age of seven years. She was united in marriage to George Hearing in 1865. To this union were born eleven children, seven of whom are still living.
The children surviving the aged mother are Mrs. Alice Bayne of Bend, Oregon; Mrs. James Leeper, Mrs. Otto Dolkey in Medford, Oregon; Mrs. George Childers, Mrs. Oliver Wood of Lostine; George Hearing of Minam, and M.V. Hearing of Wallowa. All of them were present to pay their last respects to the memory of their mother.
Mrs. Hearing was one among the early pioneers, having come to Wallowa county in 1884. She lived on a homestead, experiencing all the hardships of an unsettled land. She lived at different locations in the valley continuously for 41 years. Her husband preceded her in death April 27, 1918, and since that time she made her home with a daughter, Mrs. Otto Dolkey at Medford.
“Grandma Hearing”, as she was familiarly known was loved and respected by every one who knew her having always a kind and loving word to those in sorrow.
She became a member of the Christian church at Wallowa in January, 1921, and remained faithful in death. She leaves to mourn her loss seven children, 23 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren, besides many other relatives and friends.
Enterprise Record Chieftain, Thursday, 6 June 1929
Contributed by: Robert Bull