Baker City, Oregon
Joseph Ondris, 84, a longtime Baker City resident, died May 29, 2001, after suffering a heart attack.
His memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 2005 Valley Ave. His body was cremated in Boise.
Mr. Ondris was born on Sept. 16, 1916, in West Virginia and was raised at Phillips, Wis., near the home of Ellingson Timber.
He began his logging career in the Civilian Conservation Corps camps in Wisconsin during the Depression and the days of cross-cut saws. Prior to his service as a drill instructor in World War II, he worked at the GM locomotive factory in Chicago.
His first trip west was to a logging camp at Pierce, Idaho, in 1936. At the time, Pierce was still a wild West town replete with wooden sidewalks and a marshal with two six-shooters.
After World War II, he moved to Seneca where he began a 30-year career falling timber. He worked at Izee, Bates and Pondosa. He also logged in the redwoods in northern California and at Ketchikan, Alaska. He had lived in Baker City for 55 years.
Survivors include his daughter, Linda Pucel, and her husband, Bob; three sisters, Frances Sauter, Irene Burgaglio and Carol Comer; brothers, Charles, Michael and Steven Ondris; grandchildren, Robert Penny, Dana and Qiana; and great-grandchildren, Lorin, Ryan, Ellen and Leo.
Used with permission from: The Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, June 8, 2001
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor