Baker City, Oregon
Robert “Joe” Barton, 62, a longtime Baker City resident, died Feb. 19, 2001, at his home.
There will be a Celebration of Life service at 3 p.m. Friday at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave. The Rev. Ernest Smith of the United Methodist Church will officiate. The family requests that the service be casual. Visitations will be until 8 o’clock tonight at the funeral home.
Mr. Barton was born on Dec. 11, 1938, at Union to Edgar and Dora Richards Barton. He was raised and educated at Union.
At the age of 14, he began working with his father in the woods in Eastern Oregon. He worked for 16 years in a sawmill at Lakeview and returned to Eastern Oregon in 1980.
He moved to Southeastern Alaska in 1989 where he lived for the next eight years. Six of those eight years were spent in logging. In 1995, he turned to carpentry and maintenance work until he returned to Eastern Oregon in 1997.
In April 1999, he became employed as a custodian for the Baker School District. He was full of life and loved life in general. He loved to be in the woods, to hunt mushrooms, pick huckleberries, cut firewood and hunt. He also loved spending time with his grandchildren.
The Eagles Lodge was his life for 35 years and he worked for many of its charities. He was the current president of the Baker Eagles Aerie 3456. He had many friends and never refused a helping hand. He was a simple man, loved by everyone who knew him and he had a great sense of humor. His motto was “Enjoy life. It is a short son of a gun.”
Survivors include his wife, JoAnn Barton of Baker City; sons and daughters-in-law, Lyle and Janice Barton of North Powder and Richard and Janine Barton of Catonsville, Md.; a stepdaughter and her husband, Merry and Keith Montgomery of Union; grandchildren, Cody and Scooter Barton of North Powder, Ashley, Jake and Taylor Barton of Catonsville, Md., and Rylee Montgomery of Union; a brother and sister-in-law, Edgar and Ellen Barton of La Grande; sisters and brothers-in-law, Virginia and Virgil Chandler and Jane and Richard Lang, all of Salem and Minnie and Elwyn Alexander of Missoula, Mont.; and numerous nieces and nephews, cousins and many friends.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Eagles Lodge Cancer Fund through Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, P.O. Box 726, Baker City, Ore. 97814.
Used with permission from: The Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, February 23, 2001
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor