Haines, Oregon
Dan Garrison Elkins, 84, a former longtime Haines resident, died of a stroke on May 10, 2001, at Yakima, Wash., where he had moved to be near his family.
Inurnment will be at 2 p.m. June 16 at the Haines Cemetery. There will be a family gathering at Pilcher Creek Reservoir, his favorite fishing hole, afterward.
Mr. Elkins was born on April 27, 1917, at Plainview, Texas, to Arthur Thomas and Ethel Bowman Elkins. He spent his younger years moving between Texas, California and Arizona where he developed a love for the desert and a taste for jackrabbit stew.
He loved traveling and had many interesting jobs along the way, including working in the lettuce sheds, loading railroad cars with gravel bound for Grand Coulee Dam, roofing buildings for the 1939 Treasure Island World’s Fair in San Francisco, mining for gold and building a water reservoir in Arizona while in the Civilian Conservation Corps.
While serving in the Army Signal Corps during World War II from 1942 to 1945. His tour of duty took him to Australia, New Guinea, Japan and the Philippines. He was a former member of the Carpenter’s Union and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He enjoyed fishing anytime, anywhere and hunting. As his sight failed, his books on tape gave him many hours of enjoyment.
He met his future wife, Diane Hazelbaker Weeks, when he hired her and her boys to harvest a hay crop. They were married on Dec. 29, 1966, at Reno, Nev., and made their home at Haines where he became “Dad” to the first of 42 foster children. To touch so many lives takes a special man and he is deeply missed, his family said.
Survivors include his wife, Diane, of Yakima, Wash.; sons, Steven Weeks of Kooskia, Idaho, and Larry Weeks and his wife, Dee, of Lewiston, Idaho; daughters, Dawna and her husband, Jerry Glenn, of Yakima, Wash., and Barbie Heilman of Baker City; his first wife, Mabel Clarkson, and their daughter, Donna Davis of Medford; sisters, Jimmie Ruth McCrae and his special twin sister, Beth Sample, both of California; and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his siblings, T.B., Charlie, Stella and Edith.
Used with permission from: The Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, May 28, 2001
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor