Final Services Held For Grace Conley
Grace Conley passed away Friday evening, July 5, 1974 at Wallowa Memorial Hospital following a short illness. She had lived at the Wallowa County Nursing Home for several years.
She was born Aug. 8, 1875 near Danville, Penn., daughter of William C. and Rebecca Wilson. In October of 1805 she came with her family to Oregon where her parents homesteaded near Paradise. On Oct. 31, 1896 she was married at Paradise to J.C. Conley who died on June 29, 1939.
She had been a member of the Methodist Church, later becoming a charter member of the Enterprise Community Church when the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches were united. She was one of the 28 charter members of Wallowa Valley Chapter 50, Order of Eastern Star, which was instituted on March 22, 1897. She was a member of Neighbors of Woodcraft, and of the Grace Conley Circle of the Enterprise Community Church.
Memorial services were conducted by the Bollman Funeral Home on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the Enterprise Community Church with the Rev. Edward J. Morrison officiating. Gail Swart was organist and Clifford Collingsworth sang “How Great Thou Art.” The congregation sang “Abide With Me.” Casket bearers, all nephews, were Willard Wilson, Wayne Wilson, Kermit Wilson, M. Keith Wilson, Howard Wilson and Don Gaily. Interment was in the Enterprise Cemetery.
It is with a special feeling of sorrow that we bid goodbye to Aunt Grace Conley. And in spite of the sorrow which the family and all her friends feel at her passing, we must admit to a feeling of awe that our lives crossed paths with Aunt Grace.
Having lived for just about a month short of 99 years, Aunt Grace saw changes in the world during her lifetime that would stagger the imagination. When she came to Wallowa County 88 years ago it was in a wagon drawn by a team of horses. She was, of course, highly intrigued by the advent of the space age and travel to the moon. We happened to be on hand a few years back when she crossed the travel barriers between the 19th and 20th centuries to take a pleasure ride in a helicopter.
But, during her lifetime Aunt Grace crossed many of the barriers of time. Her life as a youth in Wallowa County was spent in the Paradise Country north of Enterprise. Perhaps her lot was not unusual for the times, but early settlers endured a lot of circumstances as run-of-the-mill everyday happenings which the present day generation would not endure. She could weave a fascinating tale of her early life and the hardships of the early settlers but invariably concluded, “we really didn’t have it so rough though.”
Seldom does one find a personality who has such complete endearment from the community as did Aunt Grace. When we first met Aunt Grace we found that nearly everyone in the community referred to her as Aunt Grace. At first it was confusing to untangle the web of those to whom she was actually an aunt and those who just referred to her as Aunt Grace. With the passage of time it became unimportant. Blood lines aside, she was everyone’s Aunt Grace and her demise is a sorrowful occasion to all.
But, sorrow aside; we are pleased that fate and God have seen fit to select this time and this place for our lives to cross paths. Throughout the eons of time we could not have purposely selected a finer person to know.
Goodbye Aunt Grace
Wallowa County Chieftain, Wallowa County, Oregon Thursday July 11, 1974
Contributed by: Side family of Janine M. Bork