Baker City, Oregon
Hildreth Lindley, 83, a longtime Baker City resident, died May 6, 2002, at St. Elizabeth Health Services.
The rosary will be said at 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral, First and Church streets. Her funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the cathedral. The Rev. Rob Irwin of the church will officiate. Vault interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. There will be a reception afterward in the church basement.
Visitations will be until 5 o’clock tonight at Gray’s West & Co., 1500 Dewey Ave.
Hildreth C. Lindley was born on Dec. 24, 1918, to Charles H. and Edna Love Colton, the fifth child in a family of eight. She attended Fairview School near the Colton ranch north of Baker City. One of her early teachers was her older sister, Helen Colton Pearson. She completed the third and fourth grades in a single year, graduating from St. Francis Academy in 1935 at the age of 16.
She attended Marylhurst College where she obtained her teacher training. She transferred to Eastern Oregon Normal School (now Eastern Oregon University) in La Grande, graduating in 1938. Her first teaching job was at Vale Elementary School where she taught from September 1938 until May 1940.
She married Farrell E. Lindley, who was a music teacher at Vale, on May 18, 1940. She and her husband moved to Pendleton where Farrell was teaching and she was home with her first child until June of 1942. She and Farrell then moved to North Powder to try their hand at ranching on property they purchased from Exom Lindley in June 1942.
In the fall of 1944, due to the acute shortage of teachers, both she and Farrell returned to Vale where they taught until 1946. In 1950 they sold the North Powder ranch and acquired a place near Vale where they operated a dairy and raised crops.
In the late summer of 1952, her husband was diagnosed with cancer. He died on Dec. 27, 1952.
Hildreth by then had four young children to care for. Within a few months, she obtained a job with the Baker School District. She taught at Haines for a year, and then was assigned to Brooklyn Elementary School where she taught for many years. She retired from teaching in 1982.
She was mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend to many in Baker County, having lived in the county most of her life. Many of her former students and co-workers could be counted among her friends. She was affectionately known as “Tiny” to her siblings and childhood friends.
She was a lifelong member of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, the altar society and sang for many years in the church choir. She will be remembered for her gentle and loving ways and her desire to impart the importance of a good education to her children and grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Farrell; her grandson, Jacob Boyd; granddaughter, Michelle Lindley; and brothers, Charles M. and Walter “Bud” Colton; and an infant sister, Shirley May.
Survivors include her sons and daughters-in-law, John and Mary Ann of Salem, Larry and Ronda of Eugene and Dave and Sue of Baker City; a daughter and son-in-law, Ann and Stan Boyd of Eagle, Idaho; sisters, Helen Pearson, Viola Gaddis, LaVelle Long and Patricia Culley, all of Baker City; eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren who loved her very much; and several nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, Covenant House or a charity of one’s choice through Gray’s West & Co., P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, May 10, 2002
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor
