Baker City, Oregon
Matilda M. ‘Tillie’ Mullen, 85, of Baker City, died Nov. 16, 2000, at her home at Meadowbrook.
Her funeral was last Saturday at the Columbia Heights Assembly of God Church at Hunter, Wash. Burial was at Greenwood Park Cemetery at Hunter, Wash.
Mrs. Mullen was born May 15, 1915, at Bend to Joseph and Josephine Rutzer. She spent her early life near Rufus and Sam’s Valley near Rogue River.
After marrying Charles Wiltse in 1931, she and her family lived in the Kettle Falls and Hunter, Wash., communities for many years. In 1945, she married Henry Mattison and helped him farm in the Fruitland, Wash., area.
Together they left farming and bought the rural store/service station/post office complex at Fruitland in 1970. After her husband died in 1973, she continued to operate the complex until she retired.
She married Geary Mullen in 1977 and moved back to Hunter, Wash. He died in 1990. After a stroke in 1991, and several months of rehabilitation, she moved to Baker City.
Mrs. Mullen foremost was a wife and mother who was truly loved by her children and grandchildren. She also served as a mother figure to many other young people and was highly respected in the communities in which she lived.
At various times in her life, she held jobs as a creamery worker, rural mail carrier, school cook, postmistress and store owner/clerk. She actively supported the communities in which she lived.
Survivors include her sons and daughters-in-law, Charles and Myrna Wiltse of Baker City and Robert and Nancy Wiltse of Pullman, Wash.; stepchildren, Sanford Logan of Pacifica, Calif., and Tracy Sharp of Abilene, Texas; 10 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; a sister-in-law, Goldie Rutzer of Long Beach, Wash., and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her daughter, Jeannie Carpenter; a granddaughter, Connie Carpenter; a grandson, Donnie Wiltse; a sister, Josephine Johnson; and a brother, Otto Rutzer.
Used with permission from: The Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, November 24, 2000
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor
