Ruth C Makinson, 88, of Corvallis, a former Baker City resident, died March 3, 2003, at Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis.
Her memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 29, at McHenry Funeral Home, 206 N.W. Fifth St., in downtown Corvallis. Pastor Ralph Holcomb will officiate. Private interment will be at Pine Haven Cemetery in Halfway.
Ruth Makinson was born April 26, 1914, at Dallas, Ore., the daughter of Mabel Guy Parrish and Elbert L. Parrish. She received her education at Dallas, graduating from Dallas High School. She married Joe Martin in 1931 while still in high school and they had a son, Guy Martin.
She attended Oregon State College at Corvallis where she received her bachelor’s degree in education. Ruth married Cloyd B “Doc” Makinson on Aug. 29, 1941, at Payette, Idaho. Doc Makinson was born at Halfway.
She taught school at Condon. Her husband enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942 and she went with him to Maryland while he was in the Army.
He was discharged in November 1945 and they moved to Eugene in 1946. Their sons Warren, Clyde and Allen were born in Eugene.
Ruth’s husband Cloyd Makinson was a high school vo-ag instructor, teaching from 1946 until 1960 in Eugene. He then worked as a Grange insurance agent from 1960 until his retirement in 1980.
Ruth was a housewife, taught at the Eugene Business College, was a substitute teacher in Eugene, and a secretary in the Communication Department at the University of Oregon for the student-operated radio station.
The Makinsons moved to Baker City in 1980 after they retired. Ruth then moved to Corvallis in 1991, after the death of her husband, Cloyd.
Mrs. Makinson was a member of the First Christian Church at Eugene and Baker City, Four Oaks Grange at Eugene for 30 years, a lifetime member of the Missouri Flat Grange in Baker City, and a council member of the Baker City Senior Center.
Ruth traced her heritage back to Wales, England and the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. Ruth’s Parrish grandfather, the Rev. Edward Parrish, traveled to Oregon in 1849 on the Oregon Trail and homesteaded at Jefferson. His son, Jessie Bussey Parrish, also was an Oregon Trail pioneer who homesteaded near Sodaville south of Lebanon.
She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother.
Survivors include her sons and daughters-in-law, Warren E. and Martha Cervantes of Lafayette, Calif., Clyde L. and Gretchen Makinson of Richland, Wash., Allen J. and May Makinson of Shed, and Guy W. and Esther Martin of Salem; grandsons, Phillip, Aaron, Erik, Kevin, Samuel and Isaac Makinson; granddaughters Cassie Martin Curell, Mary Martin Garrot and Violet Martin Hunt; and five great-grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Pine Valley Museum at Halfway or the Baker County Senior Center through McHenry Funeral Home, 206 N.W. Fifth St., Corvallis, OR 97330.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, March 24, 2003
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor