>Baker City Herald | Baker County Oregon's News Leader

Judith Young Marr, Fannie Blank, ‘Bill’ Mann

Judith Young Marr

Judith Ann Young Marr, 71, of Baker City, died Nov. 7, 2008, at her home surrounded by her family.

Her memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Haines United Methodist Church. The Rev. Sally Wiens will officiate.

Judith Ann McCanse was born on Sept. 30, 1937, about four miles west of North Powder. She was married in 1955 to Wayne Young and again in 1984 to Dick Marr.

Except for a few years at Moscow, Idaho, where her first husband, Wayne, attended the University of Idaho, she lived her entire life on ranches between North Powder and Baker City until 1995 when she and her second husband, Dick Marr, moved into Baker City.

She was the second youngest of eight children born to her parents, Delbert Arthur McCanse, and Ophelia Bernice West.

Judy attended North Powder schools, graduating in 1955. During her senior year in 1954 she met her first husband, David Wayne Young. He was a local boy in his first year at the University of Idaho after two tours of duty in the army of occupation in Germany.

They were married in August 1955 and moved to Moscow, where they lived until 1963, when they moved back to the Haines-North Powder area. The couple had three children: Grant, Mark and Bonnie.

Wayne died unexpectedly in 1982. In 1984, Judy married Richard Marr, an old family friend. The couple spent the next 11 years on the ranch, but elected to give up the farm and move to Baker City in 1995. They continued their adventure by developing and selling three homes on a large piece of property on the west side of town.

Dick died in January of 2005, and Judy continued to live in Baker City. She was a light and a rock to her family and friends.

“She was a bubbly, happy person who radiated her positive outlook on life to all who knew her, passing the incredible gift of knowing when things were good, to her children, who dearly loved her,” family members said.

She was a friend of cats and horses, fierce enemy of ranch dogs digging in her flower beds and a cowhand supreme who also drove truck and fixed the most excellent lunches possible for the harvest crew, they said. With her photographs, Judy captured her love of the great open spaces. She developed her photography into a small business later in life, and her prints grace the walls of St. Elizabeth Health Services and other area businesses and homes.

Her friends say she was first to greet a new face and make them feel welcome; first to speak a kind word or express her sympathy; first to find something good in any situation; and last to give up on anything.

“She bent in the wind, but like the willow, remained standing until now,” family members said. “She will be greatly missed.”

She was preceded in death by several brothers and sisters and both husbands.

Survivors include her children, Grant, Mark and Bonnie; and, her “bonus children,” Candace Wade, Carol Phillips and Richard Marr Jr., from her second marriage to Dick.

The family asks that in her memory, those who knew her take time in their daily lives to appreciate some little or great thing and to acknowledge “when things are good.”

Memorial contributions may be made to the Haines United Methodist Church, Crossroads Arts Center, or Christian Children’s Fund through Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave., Baker City, OR 97814.

Fannie Blank

Fannie May Blank, 95,  died Nov. 10, 2008, at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Pendleton.

Her funeral will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Richland Christian Church. Interment will be at the Eagle Valley Cemetery in Richland.  Friends are invited to join the family for a reception at the Richland Christian Church after the interment.

Fannie May Blank was born in a little settlement at Gate City (Yuma), Va., on May 15, 1913, to Hugh Maxson Coston and Josiphine Elizabeth Moore Winigar Coston.

Fannie moved from Virginia when she was 2 to Brownlee on the Snake River. They later moved to Robbinette where she attended school through the eighth grade.

She began working with her mother who cooked and cleaned for two bachelors, John Sass and John Scnauw. The two men ran a huge ranch. Many meals consisted of feeding 10 men or more at a time.

Fanny met Elmer Blank on the Sass and Scnauw Ranch in Richland. They later married on Aug. 31, 1931. They were married 55 years.

Fanny and Elmer raised four children on a ranch along the Powder River in Richland: a son, Alvin, and daughter, Shirley Marie, and Maxson and Joan, the children of Fannie’s sister, Ethel. Fannie and Elmer took the children in and raised them as their own after Ethel’s death.

Fannie loved riding horses, spending time in the mountains, picking huckleberries and attending family gatherings at the Grange. She also enjoyed her religious conventions in Oregon and Idaho and home Bible studies. She was baptized in the Snake River during a Parma Idaho Convention in 1944.

After they sold the ranch, Fannie and Elmer moved to North Pine Creek and lived in the little schoolhouse on North Pine while building their home at Richland in 1965. Fannie said, “all the tough times and all the hard times escape from memory because I enjoyed the life I was living.”

Survivors include her children, Shirley Marie, and her husband, Milton Barron, son, Alvin Elmer Blank, nephew, Maxson Henry, and niece, Joan Seevers; 11 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and 19 great-great grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Elmer, who died in July 1988; three sisters, Ethyl Irene Henry, Myrtle Wells and Maggie Wells; a brother, Charlie Winiger; a daughter-in-law, Bonnie Blank; a great-grandson; and a granddaughter-in-law.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Richland Christian Church or the Richland EMTs/Ambulance Fund through Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 543, Halfway, OR 97834.

‘Bill’ Mann

William F. “Bill” Mann, 95, of Pasco, Wash., a former Baker City resident, died Nov. 10, 2008.

His graveside funeral will be at 3 p.m. Friday at Desert Lawn Memorial Park at Kennewick, Wash. Visitations will be from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday at Hillcrest Bruce Lee Memorial Chapel, 2804 W. Lewis St., in Pasco, Wash.

William was born on April 25, 1913, at Baker City to Edward and Stella Mann. He was married to Opal Graven (the mother of his children) and to Josie Mann.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945. He lived at Pasco for 51 years. He worked as a truckdriver and rancher, retiring in 1975. His hobbies were fishing, camping in the high mountains and raising cattle.

Survivors include his son, Clayton Mann, and his wife, Roberta; daughter, Billie MacNaughton; sister-in-law, Millie; six grandchildren, Terri, Deb, Ron, Dana, Bernice and Clayton; several great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews; two stepchildren, Roberta “Birdie” Daniels and her husband, Jack, and Bill Stultz; several stepgrandchildren and stepgreat- and great-great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his first wife, Opal; his second wife, Josie; two sisters and two brothers.

To sign the online guest book, visit www.HillcrestBruceLee.com.