Baker City, Baker County, Oregon
Eleanore Dill Eastham, 89, of Baker City passed away Dec. 17, 2005, at the Reasoner Retreat Adult Foster Home in Richland, Ore.
In a private family service Eleanore’s cremated remains will be spread over the Blue Mountains.
Eleanore was born June 30, 1916, in Baker City, Ore., to Rufus Thornton and Essie Edna Davison Sturgill. Eleanore and her brother, George, and sister, Cecil, were all raised in Baker City. She attended school here and later married Bert Eastham also of Baker City.
Eleanore worked in Haines as a cook and waitress for the Circle K bar and grill for many years. The job she loved most was writing the senior column for The Record-Courier. She was very active in the column and took much pride in it, sometimes to a fault. She was a strong willed born leader and a take-charge kind of gal, which sometimes lead her to inadvertently step on others toes.
She was very creative and loved crafts. Her love for the ocean lead her to collecting seashells on the trips she took there with her family. From her seashells and her creativity she built a complete orchestra of shell musicians and shell instruments.
She is survived by her niece, Joyce Sagen of Vancouver, Wash.; nephew, Ronnie Tobin of Seattle, Wash.; and many great and great-great-nieces and nephews.
Eleanore was preceded in death by her husband, Bert Eastham; her parents, Rufus and Essie Sturgill; her brother, George Sturgill and her sister, Cecil Tobin.
Arrangements were made by Gray’s West & Company Pioneer Chapel of Baker City, Ore.
Used with permission from: The Record Courier, BakerCity, Oregon, January, 2006
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor