Baker City, Oregon
Albert Lee Hudson, 89, a Baker City native, died Aug. 18, 2006, at the home of his daughter in Wilder, Idaho.
A celebration of life service was held Saturday at Coles Funeral Home in Baker City.
Albert was born July 15, 1917, in a little clapboard ranch house on Missouri Flat to Nadine and J.E. (Ned) Hudson. He was the second of two children.
Endowed with a bright mind and a serious nature, it was no surprise that he was commended for being able to repeat from memory the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, the 23rd Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer and the books of the Bible at age 4.
As a boy, he worked on his Grandma Hudson’s dairy and did milk deliveries, earning $3 a week. When reminiscing recently he said, “That was big money in those days. I bought most of my own clothes and bought my very first bicycle. I was pretty independent and I liked that!”
He took his schoolwork seriously and since he had to share a bedroom in the little house, when he got in junior high school he decided he needed a place of his own. He laid claim to the old granary shed beside the ranch house and made it his, complete with a pot-bellied stove, his Grandma Hudson’s roll top desk and his own self-made darkroom to develop pictures. He loved it.
Albert graduated from Baker High School in 1934. He was delighted to be able to attend Walla Walla College, where he majored in theology. A battle with rheumatic fever put an end to his student days at Walla Walla, but he loved to learn and continued challenging his mind with various studies all his life.
While working on the bridge crew out of John Day, Albert met and married Wreatha Cole in 1938. After short stays in Kansas and Texas, they came back to the valley they loved and lived in Baker City for 50-plus years.
After working with his father in Baker City at Hudson Printing Company for a number of years, he took ownership of that shop in 1957 and remained in the business until his daughter and grandson, Lyndell and Tony Anderson, took over the business in December 1995.
Albert inherited the “inventor” gene and was often busy inventing various gadgets to help make some job easier. In 1954 he built his own camera for burning plates for the printing press using a German lens that was top of the line at that time. The camera remained in use for 38 years until modern technology made updating necessary. How he hated to see that camera go!
In the late 1950s he bought 40 acres in the mountains above Haines on Rock Creek. To make building a cabin more economical, he tackled the job of tearing down a house next door to Baker City Hall. Using the salvaged materials, he then built a little cabin perched on the mountainside overlooking Rock Creek. Many happy times were spent there and his kids and grandkids use the cabin as a welcome retreat to this day.
Albert was a lifelong member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although he tried on several hats in the vocation arena, it was his desire to understand Adventist theology that drove him. He studied and researched extensively and over the years he wrote and then published a number of papers and booklets. He was dedicated, devoted and faithful to his beliefs.
Albert is survived by his wife, Wreatha Hudson of Wilder, Idaho; his son, Larry Hudson of College Place, Wash.; his daughter and son-in-law, LaVelle and Dick Ernest of Wilder, Idaho; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Lyndell.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, September 1, 2006
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor