Baker City, Baker County, Oregon
Helen Violet Mattes, 87, a longtime Baker City resident, died Jan. 20, 2003, at St. Elizabeth Health Services.
Her funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday at First Lutheran Church, 1734 Third St. Vault interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. There will be a reception afterward at the First Lutheran Church.
Visitations will be from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to noon Friday at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave.
Mrs. Mattes was born Sept. 13, 1915, at Ritter to Fred and Cecil Fedler. She attended grade school at Ritter and graduated from high school at Echo. She graduated from Eastern Oregon Normal School at La Grande in 1936. She taught Grades 1-8 in one-room schoolhouses at Granite and Lime before dedicating her life as a homemaker and mother.
On Sept. 15, 1940, she married Alfred Mattes in Baker City. They lived in Baker City where Al worked at the Democrat-Herald (now the Baker City Herald) for 25 years.
She was a long-standing, active member of the First Lutheran Church. She was an active volunteer with scouting, 4-H, and her church. She had a great knowledge of the outdoors and plants of the region, and had a passion for gardening. She had multiple hobbies, including many interesting collections.
Survivors include one daughter, Barbara Byrd, and her husband, Bob, of Irrigon; two sons, Jim Mattes and his wife, Jan, of La Grande, and Bill Mattes of Baker City; seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Alfred Mattes, in 1985; a grandson, Brian Byrd, in 1991, and a sister, Irene Burnette.
Memorial contributions may be made to the First Lutheran Church through Gray’s West & Co., P.O. Box 726, Baker City, OR 97814.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, January, 24, 2003
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor