Lyle Chester Ingram, 67, of Ensenada, Mexico, a former Baker City resident, died Jan. 4, 2007, at his home.
His funeral was in Mexico.
Lyle was born April 1, 1939, the eldest of three children born to Chester and Elaine Ingram.
Elaine later married William Leigh in 1947 and they added two more children to their family.
Lyle attended Baker schools and was a 1958 Baker High School graduate. A two-way starter for the Bulldogs football team, he was elected to the Intermountain Conference All-Star team in the fall of 1957 at the center position.
Months after his graduation, Lyle joined the U.S. Army. He served four years in the tank corps in the European Command before his honorable discharge in 1962.
He joined the Beaverton Fire Department and served for two years before working many years in a supervisory capacity with the Plaid Pantry chain and then later with Frito-Lay. During this time, Lyle was married to Bonnie Bell McGinnis. The couple had two sons: Michael Todd and Darren Vincent.
Lyle later met Sharon Dambrick and upon their marriage, he moved her daughter and his sons to Loveland, Colo., where they established their own snack delivery business. He and Sharon parted and he eventually moved to the Boise area where he began working part time in the snack distribution business again.
In 1993, he purchased his own distribution business in La Grande, which he operated for nearly 10 years before retiring in 2001. Since that time, Lyle spent his time on the Baja Coast of Mexico where he won the heart of and recently married Lupe Salas Ruiz.
Lyle took great pride in the people he considered a friend and measured his life by them, his family said. His schoolmates and teammates were special to him as were the Michael and Hennie Monteleone family, the Anderson family and his buddies, Thomas, Jaime, Roberto and Dickie.
Survivors include his wife, Lupe; his sons, Michael Ingram of Springdale, Ark., and Darren Ingram and his wife, Stacy, of Rogers, Ark.; a stepdaughter, Deanne Lucking of San Antonio, Texas; Lupe’s children and their spouses, Leonardo Salas, Claudia and Genaro, Yessenia Salas and Xochilt Ruiz, all of Ensenada, Mexico; his siblings, Mary Nalder and her husband, Lon, of Oxbow and Judy Lockwood and Bill Leigh and his wife, Cindy, of Baker City; many grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his brother, Lewy; and his niece, Diana Hulick.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, January 12, 2007
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor