Obituaries for April 21, 2009

‘Dan’ Couzens

Daniel R. “Dan” Couzens, 50, of Umatilla, a former Baker City resident, died April 11, 2009, at his home.

There will be a celebration of life service at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Oregon National Guard Armory in Hermiston with a potluck luncheon afterward.

He was born on March 4, 1959, at Baker City to Charles and Clarane Urie Couzens. Dan was raised and educated at Baker City and was a 1978 Baker High School graduate.

He joined the Oregon National Guard at the age of 17. He married Linda Mitchell on July 8, 1978, at Baker City and worked for Baker Builder Supply for 13 years before going to work full time for the Oregon National Guard in 1990.

He had worked at Baker City and La Grande before transferring to Hermiston in 1997. Dan was transferred back to La Grande in 2002 where he served as a sergeant first class in charge of personnel, although he and his family continued to live at Umatilla.

Dan served a tour in Iraq from June 2004 through November 2005 and held the rank of master sergeant. He enjoyed motorcycles, woodworking, building projects, fishing and music.

Survivors include his wife, Linda Couzens of Umatilla; daughters, Kiya Kalb, and her husband, Marty, of Hermiston, Keysha Couzens of Hermiston; father, Charles Couzens of Baker City; mother, Clarane Sundin and her husband, Peter, of Baker City; sisters, Davon Thompson of Crouch, Idaho, and Rebecca Mitchell of Baker City.

Burns Mortuary of Hermiston is in care of arrangements.

Barbara Barton

Barbara Barton, 84, a former longtime Halfway resident, died April 18, 2009, at her home near Baker City.

At her request, there will be no service. There will be a private vault interment at Pine Haven Cemetery in Halfway.

She was born to Lovell and Velma Gover on June 21, 1924, at their home place in Pine Valley. Barbara’s family goes back to her great-grandfather, Aquilar Farmer Estes, who came from Missouri to become an early pioneer of Pine Valley and Cornucopia.

Her grandmother, Barbara (know as Lorene) married Aquilar’s son, George Estes, who was killed in a snow slide at the Queen of the West mine at Cornucopia.

She was educated in the Halfway schools and was raised on her parents’ ranch with her half brother Junior. She became an accomplished rider and cattlewoman. She had the distinction of being the first Baker County Fair Queen in 1938.

Barbara married Howard Barton, a bomber pilot instructor at Liberal Army Airfield in Liberal, Kan., in 1944. They returned home to Halfway in 1945 after the war and Barbara worked at the Idaho Power Co. office for the next 41 years.

In 1948 Barbara and Howard formed a partnership with her parents which was the beginning of a very successful Gover and Barton Angus Co.

When the company sold in 1988 it was the second oldest and fourth largest Angus ranch in Oregon. They selected replacement heifers from their own herd and chose elite herd sires to build one of the outstanding Angus herds in America over a 40-year period.

Choosing not to show their cattle, their progeny, nevertheless, won champion, grand champion and many other honors throughout the years. They never hired a herdsmen and did the records and cattle management themselves.

Barbara often mentioned how Wes and Joy Barnhart were indispensable when working their cattle. As a teenager, Tim DelCurto started helping with the haying operation. As the years passed he became more involved with all activities and was so helpful he was considered a member of the family.

Barbara had a passion for the cattle and spent endless hours caring for them. After spending a full workday at the office, Barbara would slip into her blue jeans and walk the spring range checking the cows and small calves.

When asked why she spent so much time with the cattle she would reply, “This is a form of recreation for me.”

Barbara always had a great love for Pine Valley. Her cousins, Lynda Thomas Bird and Cheryl Thomas, recall that during their grade school and high school years she would give them a ride to school as she was on her way to work.

Every morning she would comment on how beautiful the Granites were. It was with a sad heart that the partners agreed to sell the property in Halfway and move to Baker City in 1988.

She continued her interest in cattle and delighted in following the Thomas Angus and Harrell Herford programs. During her years of declining health, she continued to face life with a positive attitude and a pleasant smile. She made the comment many times “I am as tough as an old boot!”

Survivors include an aunt, Arlene Thomas of Halfway; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and close friends, Jerry and Vi Clay, who provided loving care in recent years.

She was preceded in death by her father, Lovell in 1960; her half brother, Lovell Jr., in 1981; her mother, Velma, in 1990; and her beloved husband, “Bart,” in 2001.

Memorial contributions may be made to Pine Haven Cemetery Association through Coles Funeral Home, 1950 Place St., Baker City, OR 97814.

Charlotte Green

Charlotte Crystal Canfield Green, 91, died April 15, 2009, at her daughter’s home in Baker City

Her cremains will be buried next to her husband Philip’s in the Green family plot on Vashon Island.

Charlotte was born in Seattle, Wash., on July 15, 1917, to Emma Meyer Canfield and Virgil David Dewitt Canfield. She grew up on the small island of Vashon, Wash., where she met her cherished sweetheart, Philip, when she was 15.

They married in June 1936, and attended the University of Washington in Seattle together. She majored in home economics and he majored in social work and together they were practice partners for the University tennis team.

They spent 69 years of happy marriage until his death in 2005. Together, they provided love and guidance to their five children, Cheryl, Aletha, David, Heather and Hollyn.

As a mother and woman, Charlotte was, above all, supremely generous, family members said. Her children never lacked for her full attention.

Each evening, dinner represented the knowledge of balanced nutrition plus the lifelong skill of good cooking. Holidays were a fantastic feast, with preparation starting days ahead.

Threaded throughout her family life, Charlotte was wonderfully creative. The holiday home was festooned with seasonal displays. Every few years, the walls of the house were re-papered in soft boat scenes, or palm fronds or other exotic designs, not due to wear and tear but due to a happy embrace of new light and color.

Likely, Charlotte’s greatest expression of talent was through her sewing. She made beautiful suits from Vogue patterns reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy’s wardrobe, a woman she greatly admired, that she would wear to social events in Washington, D.C., where Philip was in government, and to diplomatic affairs when they traveled together on business to Copenhagen and Cairo and South America.

She became a local celebrity when she personally tailored for her two eldest daughters‚ weddings held just a week apart in August 1961. The brides, the mother of the bride, and the full entourage of bridesmaids were resplendent in Charlotte’s dramatic creations.

Any memory of Charlotte’s home includes books and books and books. Charlotte was a devoted reader throughout most of her 91 years. Even during the early years of television, the family would encircle the novelty of Bonanza or Walt Disney’s World of Color, while Charlotte huddled in the kitchen engrossed in a novel.

Family trips to the local library were more common than to the grocery store. Charlotte’s prodigious reading habit made her an easy winner in any Scrabble or crossword contest.

These memories are not static, but a living legacy of contribution to her family and community, her family said. Charlotte’s lessons of generosity, expressed in the family circle or through leadership of United Way campaigns, were absorbed by her children and are expressed today through careers in service work.

Likewise, Charlotte’s spontaneous creativity and passion for learning imprinted a lifelong example that nourishes her children’s, grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s minds.

“Charlotte Canfield Green — your wit and wisdom and grace are a loss that will not be replaced,” her family said. “But your gifts to us all continue each day.”

She was preceded in death by her brothers, Donald and Herb; her husband, Philip; and her daughter, Cheryl Friedman.

Survivors include one brother, Basil Eugene; her son-in-law William Friedman; son Philip David and his wife, Debbie; daughters Aletha, Heather and her husband, Calvin, and Hollyn and her husband, Mainus Sultan; grandsons, Warren Green, Brendan Flowe and Gordon Bonebrake; granddaughters, Sylvia Bonebrake Bowers, Jennifer Bonebrake Harting and Kajori Sultan; and great-grandchildren, Charlotte, Franklin, Lena and Stella Bowers and Frank and Emma Harting.

She was lovingly cared for the last year and a half by Charles Nalley, a certified nursing assistant, of Baker City.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Baker County Library through Coles Funeral Home, 1950 Place St., Baker City, OR 97814.