Tacoma Washington

Swayze, Wesley – Obituary

Wesley Swayze, 66, for some years a resident of Tacoma and living on South L Street, did Saturday [August 9, 1930] at Hamilton, Canada, where he had gone on a visit. He leaves a daughter, Mrs. Flora Duffy of Tacoma and a daughter, Mrs. Karl Smith of Muroc, Cal.; sons, Dee of Portland, Roy of San Diego and Hubert of Alaska, and four grandchildren. Mr. Swayze was a floor man in a garage in Tacoma for some time, and was a member of the IOOF in Hamilton. His body will reach the Lynn mortuary Monday and the funeral services will … Read more

Barlow, Leonard Jay – Obituary

Elgin, Union County, Oregon Retired Lumberman, Passes Leonard Jay Barlow of Elgin, age 61, and a retired lumberman died at a local hospital Aug. 28. Funeral services where held Aug. 30 at 2 p.m. at the Christian Church in Elgin with Rev. Ed Liggett officiating. Interment was at the Island City Cemetery. Crippen and Daniels Chapel had charge of arrangements. Mr. Barlow was born in Tacoma, Wn., on Oct . 24, 1904 and had been a resident of Elgin for 30 years. He was a member of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union No. 2780, and the Baptist Church. Survivors … Read more

Rogers, Norma Ellen – Obituary

Elgin, Oregon Norma Ellen (Erickson) Rogers, 85, died March 25 at her home in Elgin. A memorial service will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Elgin Church of the Nazarene, 11th and Birch. Arrangements are under the direction of Daniels Chapel of the Valley. Mrs. Rogers was born Jan. 17, 1922, to Lawrence and Emma I. (Bickford) Hawes in La Grande. She graduated from La Grande High School and in 1941 married Manuel Erickson in Idaho. The marriage ended in divorce, and in 1947 she married Ernest Rogers in La Grande. He preceded her in death in 1992. Mrs. … Read more

Fix, Stella F. Hall – Obituary

Mrs. Stella F. Fix, 93, of 112 S. 36th St., Tacoma, died in a local hospital Wednesday [February 12]. She was born in Battle Ground, and had lived in this area all her life. She is survived by a son-in-law, Fred Ferritti of Tacoma; and a cousin, Bill Burt of Portland. Services are announced by Orting Funeral Home. [Interment Orting Cemetery] Tacoma News Tribune, February 14, 1969 Contributed by: Shelli Steedman

Wiester, Emily Irene Street Mrs. – Obituary

Baker City, Oregon Emily Irene Wiester, 88, of Issaquah, Wash., a former Baker City resident, died Feb. 24, 2003, at her home. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Madeleine Sophie Roman Catholic Church in Bellevue, Wash. Irene was born on Jan. 26, 1915, in Prineville to Mary and Edward Street. Her parents moved to California shortly after she was born. Irene attended the University of Washington at Seattle as a freshman. There she met Harold Wiester. After graduation from the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in dietetics, she returned … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William P. Newby

Enterprising and industrious in all his ways, the subject of this sketch is one of the men that have added materially to the wealth of Wallowa County, developing here, in an excellent manner, the resources with which the county abounds so fully, meanwhile manifesting that continuity of purpose and determination which brook no defeat and stop not at any obstacle, while his moral qualities of genuine worth and high order have shone without intermission, giving him the approbation, esteem, and confidence of all who may have the pleasure of his acquaintance. William Newby was born in Iowa on July 29, … Read more

Lockwood, F. E. – Obituary

Enterprise, Oregon F.E. “Gene” Lockwood of Enterprise died June 15, 2007. He was 85. Mr. Lockwood was born near Florence July 7, 1922. His public school years were spent in Tacoma, Wash. After serving in WW II, he used his GI Bill to further his education, receiving a degree in Industrial Management. He retired from the Boeing Company in Seattle after 34 years. He and his wife moved to Enterprise in 2004. Survivors include his wife Shirley of 58 years; daughters Susan and Warren McCasland of Puyallup, Wash. and Gayle and Larry Gibson of Enterprise; grandchildren Geoffrey Linton and Victoria … Read more

Fix, Earl George – Obituary

Earl George Fix, 50, of 1417 So. 44th St., died Friday [March 25] en route to a local hospital. He was born in Steilacoom and had lived in Tacoma for 23 years. He was a carpenter and a member of Carpenters’ Union No. 470. In addition to his wife Alice R., he is survived by a daughter, Linda Jane; three sons, Leslie W., Randal R. and Dennis W., all of the home, and his mother, Mrs. Olive A. Fix, Sumner. Services will be held Monday at 1 p.m. in the C. C. Melinger memorial Funeral Church, Charles Summers officiating. Burial … Read more

Zelten, Walter Jr. – Obituary

Walt was born in Akron, OH on Feb. 5, 1930 to Bessie and Walt Zelten Sr. and passed away on May 26, 1997. Along with his family at age 12, he moved to the Tacoma area in the summer of 1942. He completed his elementary education in Akron, and attended Gault Jr. High and Lincoln High School here in Tacoma. After school, he was stationed in Korea with the Army during that war. He was a lifetime member with the Ray C. Roberts VFW Post #969. Contributed by: Shelli Steedman

Bleakman, Owen Neal – Obituary

Owen Neal Bleakman, 88, a longtime Baker City resident, died May 3, 2005, at St. Elizabeth Health Services. There will be no burial service. Inurnment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Gray’s West & Company Pioneer Chapel. Owen was born Aug. 9, 1916, at Hardman to Bertrum Percy Bleakman and Hatty May Emery. He attended schools in Hardman and Heppner. When Owen was 18, he moved to Bates, where he worked at the Bates mill as a carpenter helper for one year. While in Bates, he met his wife-to-be, Katherine Taylor. They were married … Read more

Coggan, Emma L. Mrs. – Obituary

Union, Union County, Oregon Died at Tacoma A telegram received on last Tuesday from Tacoma announced the death of Miss Emma L. Coggan, a young lady well known to many in this county. The news of her demise was sorrowfully received by many friends here in Union. Eastern Oregon Republican, Thursday October 24, 1889

Leid, Anna Emma Penner Bernhardt Hansen – Obituary

Former Dayton resident Anna Emma Leid, 96, died November 18, 1993 at Our Lady of Lourdes Health Center. The graveside service will be 11 a.m. Monday at the family plot in Dayton City Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice through the funeral home. Mrs. Leid was born February 6, 1897 in Tacoma to Henry and Emma Hagen Penner. She married James Hansen on October 8, 1924, they were later divorced. On October 20, 1936 she married Robert Leid. He died January 11, 1971. She lived for many years in Dayton; and the last … Read more

Biography of Gen. Morton Mathew McCarver

GEN. MORTON MATHEW McCARVER. THE FOUNDER OF BURLINGTON, IOWA, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA AND TACOMA, WASHINGTON,- General McCarver was born near Lexington Kentucky, January 14, 1807. Of an independent, roving spirit, determination, courage and enterprise that knew no bounds, he quit his home at the age of eighteen years and went to Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and not finding anything congenial to his tastes returned and settled in 1830 at Galena, Illinois, where he was married to a Miss Mary Ann Jennings. He served in the Black Hawk war, and after the surrender of the great chief of the Sacs and Foxes, … Read more

Hallock, Ahlma Rose MacDonald – Obituary

Ahlma R. MacDonald, 99, a resident of Tacoma the past 64 years, died Monday [January 7, 1985]. Mrs. MacDonald was born in Heppner, Ore. She was a retired librarian who had worked in Portland and New York City. She was a former member of the Ladies Musical Club, pro America, Tacoma County & Golf Club and Tacoma Lawn Tennis Club. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Herrick (Beatrice) Allen of Tacoma, and two grandchildren. Buckley-King Downtown is in charge. Tacoma News Tribune, January 9, 1985 Contributed by: Shelli Steedman

Saunders Phyllis Jane – Obituary

Cove, Oregon Phyllis Jane Saunders, 80, of Cove, died Aug. 12 at her home of natural causes. A funeral service will be Thursday at 2 p.m. at Loveland Funeral Chapel, 1508 Fourth St., La Grande. Phyllis was born Sept. 9, 1926, to Clyde and Virgie (Bell) Robinson in Tacoma, Wash., one of eight children. She was raised and educated all over the Northwest. Her father worked for Pacific Fruit and traveled throughout the Northwest, so she attended several schools. She eloped with Grant Saunders on Oct. 23, 1944, to Weiser, Idaho. After Grant returned from the Air Force and got … Read more

Biography of Henry Drum

HENRY DRUM. – Among the progressive, intelligent and enterprising business men who are lending their energy and strength to the constant and rapid development of the great resources of the State of Washington, no name stands higher, or is more widely known and deservedly popular, than that of Henry Drum. No more conspicuous example of the results of careful attention to business, probity of character and steadfastness of purpose, can be cited than the brilliant career of Tacoma’s ex-mayor. It is to this class of young, keen and active workers that the great Northwest is to-day indebted for its magnificent … Read more

Biography of Robert Wingate

ROBERT WINGATE. – Among the many enterprising and successful representative men to whom the city of Tacoma owes so much for her present advanced position among Pacific cities, and for the assurance of future success, Robert Wingate deserves an exalted place. He is a Scotsman by birth, but is thoroughly identified with the land of his adoption, and is warmly attached to her popular institutions. He was born near Glasgow, Scotland, on the 17th of March, 1840. He received a thorough common-school education at the Western Academy in Glasgow. His father was a coal expert, a mining engineer, and the … Read more

Biography of David Lister

DAVID LISTER. – David Lister of Tacoma, Washington, belongs to that class of men who have done so much for the material prosperity of our country by being the first to go into new places and build up new industries. He was born in England in 1821, and came to New York in 1847. He worked for steamboat companies in that city until 1854, when he went to Philadelphia and connected himself with the Delaware Canal Company, where he remained ten years. He then went to Pestico, Wisconsin, a town located among the pineries on Green Bay. In that place … Read more

Kovach, Florian Michael – Obituary

Dr. Florian Michael “Jeff” Kovach, 87, of La Grande, died Oct. 12 at a local care center. A celebration of life will be planned for sometime in the spring. The announcement will be published later. He was born on July 3, 1920, to Michael and Elizabeth (Farkas) Kovach in Tacoma, Wash. He graduated from Washington State University with a degree in veterinary medicine and served with the Air Force in Korea. In 1946 he moved to the Grande Ronde Valley as the county’s first professional veterinarian and opened the Animal Health Center on Island City strip. On Aug. 30, 1948, … Read more

Biography of Rev. John F. Devore, D. D.

REV. JOHN F. DEVORE, D.D. – Doctor Devore was a native of Kentucky, being born near Lexington, December 7, 1817. He was of French descent, as the name indicates, and owed very much to the pious example of religious parents, who urged him with their last words to be “faithful to his God.” The “Life of Bramwell” fell into his hands at an early date, was read with great relish, and had much to do in molding the shape of his after life. Entering the ministry, he joined the Rock river conference in 1842, Bishop Roberts presiding. He was ordained … Read more