Esther Luciel Jeffords Lewis, 79, died Oct. 16, 2007, at the Wallowa Valley Care Center at Enterprise.
Her memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at the Wallowa Christian Church.
Esther was born at home in Baker City on May 28, 1928, the first child of Wendell Richard and Myrtle Esther Wickam Jeffords. The family was completed with the addition of another daughter, Muriel, and two sons, Ray and Vearl.
Esther attended Churchill Elementary School and was a 1947 Baker High School graduate. She then worked at the Baker Hotel as a waitress until she moved with her parents to Wallowa in 1950.
Esther married Robert Vance “Bob” Lewis on Jan. 27, 1951, at Jerome, Idaho, while visiting her sister there. A year later, a daughter, Carmen, was born. Two sons, Vearl and Bobb, were born in the next two years.
Esther took a job in the laundry at the Wallowa Memorial Hospital when her children were in high school.
She planted trees for several years for Boise Cascade and developed a lasting friendship with her co-workers. Esther then cooked for the Wallowa senior citizen meal site and drove school bus at Wallowa for Mofitt Brothers. She retired in 2000.
She and Bob enjoyed going to the coast in their travel trailer or camping with the Wapiti Chapter of the Good Sam Club. She liked to attend her son’s and grandchildren’s sports events and was an avid Trail Blazers fan.
Survivors include her husband, Bob Lewis; daughter and son-in-law, Carmen and Rodney Wickam; son and daughter-in-law, Bobb and Kayleen Lewis; a brother and sister-in-law, Ray and Janet Jeffords; and a brother, Jack Taylor; 11 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Wendell and Myrtle Jeffords; her sister, Muriel L. Jeffords Taylor; and her baby brothers, Vearl Roy Jeffords.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, October 22, 2007
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor
