Irene Esther Capelli Tallman, 87, a former Baker City resident, died July 1, 2008, with her daughter at her beside at their Reno, Nev., home.
The rosary will be said at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Winnemucca, Nev. Mass will be celebrated at 10:20 a.m. There will be a graveside service at the Winnemucca Cemetery with a reception-luncheon afterward by St. Paul’s Altar Society in St. Paul Parish Hall.
A longtime resident of Humboldt County, Nev., Mrs. Tallman was born on June 18, 1921, at Cavagnago, Switzerland. Her father, Mattei Capelli immigrated to Quincy, Calif., in 1921 to work at the Bressagni Swiss dairy along with his father-in-law, Pacifico Segni.
Five years later, in 1926, when she was 5 years old, she and her mother, Ida Segni Capelli, immigrated to Quincy, Calif., to join her father and grandfather.
After her father’s death, Irene and her mother joined brother-in-law, Frank Capelli, in homesteading in the Black Rock Desert, Leonard and Deer Creek Ranches in upper Humboldt County. It was there surrounded by the wide expanses of land and the mountains of northern Nevada that Irene “learned the ways of cattle and learned to sit a horse,” her family said.
Attending Humboldt County High School at Winnemucca, Irene met the love of her life, John B. Tallman, whose family was also in the dairy business. John Tallman was her John Wayne. They were married on Oct. 6, 1946, at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Carson City, Nev.
After their marriage, the Tallmans established the Willow Creek Ranch north of Orovada where they ran a large cattle operation. In 1955 John Tallman broke his back breaking a colt, which required Irene to help feed cattle from a wooden buckboard pulled by a team of horses. The team bolted and overturned the buckboard and pinning Irene under the hay wagon where she suffered a broken back and joined her husband at Humboldt County Hospital.
In the mid 1950s, John and Irene Tallman purchased the Scott Lumber Co. For 44 years it became a Winnemucca institution as Tallman Lumber Co. For a few years they joined their children in Baker City in a cattle operation. They returned to Winnemucca to live permanently in 1995.
Mrs. Tallman was preceded in death by her husband of nearly 61 years; her son, Robert Mathew Tallman, and his wife, Kristen, of Weatherford, Texas; her daughter, Maryanne Tallman of Reno; her granddaughter, Nicole Tallman Pennell, and her husband, Daniel; and her great-grandchildren, Canyon John Robert Pennell and Cashly Cole Pennell all of Texas; and numerous cousins in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and Lombardi, Italy.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions to the St. Mary’s Hospice of Northern Nevada, in care of St. Mary’s Foundation, 520 W. Sixth St., Reno, NV 89503-4423, www.saintmarysreno.com. Friends and family are invited to send a condolence message in the “Remembrance Registry Guestbook” at this Web site: www.waltonfuneralhome.com.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, July 4, 2008
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor