Obituaries for May 18, 2009

Nadene Schultz

Nadene M. Schultz, 88, of Clarkston, Wash., a former Baker City resident, died May 12, 2009, at her home of stomach cancer.

At her request, there will be no service.

She was born on July 5, 1920, at Enterprise to Oscar and Myrtle Poulson Davis.

She married Joe A. Dunn in 1939, they divorced, and she then married Herb Hanson in 1946. They were divorced several years later.

She then married Russell “Dutch” Schultz and was married to him until his death in April 2001. The couple celebrated 50 years of marriage.

In her many years in business, she operated a tavern at Enterprise and a nightclub in Baker City. She was a homemaker at Halfway and also a member of the Order of Eastern Star.

During her time as an owner and operator of many businesses, from a restaurant at Diamond Spring, Calif., to a motel at Newport, Wash., Nadene made many friends and acquaintances throughout the Northwest. She will be missed by many, her family said.

Survivors include her children, Jerry and Wanda Dunn of Mattawa, Wash., Robert and Sandra Schultz of Clarkston, Wash., and Marlene Partei of Reno, Nev. She had five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Russell L. Schultz.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to Lewis-Clark Animal Shelter, 6 Shelter Road, Lewiston, ID 83501.

Betty Mattocks

Betty Ruth Shropshire Mattocks, 80, died May 12, 2009, at San Luis Obispo, Calif., where she had lived since 1951.

She was born in Ashland, Kan., on Feb. 2, 1929, to Robert David Shropshire and Hazel Viola Fox Shropshire, the fifth of six children: Byrdie Opal, John Otis, Mildred Louise, Bonnie Lee, who died at birth, and Kenneth Ray. The family lived on a farm northeast of Mount Jesus on the road to Lexington. 

Toward the end of World War II, the family moved to Baker to be near Betty’s sister, Opal Shropshire Dielman and her two children (Opal’s husband, Ray, was in the military). After the war, the family returned to Kansas, while Betty remained in Baker City, where she graduated from Baker High School in 1947.

After graduation, Betty moved to the Los Angeles area, where two siblings, John Shropshire and Mildred Louise Shropshire Shanks, lived. In 1950, Betty was briefly married to Gene Martinez. Two years later she married Howard Bello, a marriage of 21 years that ended with Howard’s death in 1973. In 1976, Betty married George S. Mattocks, a life-long resident of San Luis Obispo, Calif.

She worked in a dental clinic in Los Angeles, but after a few years settled in San Luis Obispo, where she worked 12 years as secretary for the AAA Auto Club of Southern California. From about 1964 until 1981 she was secretary for the Laborers International Union of North America, Local #1464, where she met her husband, George, who was the union’s secretary-treasurer.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents and all five siblings. 

She is survived by her husband, George S. Mattocks of San Luis Obispo, Calif.; nephews and nieces Gary Dielman of Baker City, Sharon Dielman Moser of Bellevue, Wash., Curtis Shropshire of Clayton, Calif., and Cindy Dielman Carlson of Gresham.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the Clark County Historical Society/Pioneer-Krier Museum in Ashland, Kan.

Della Litteral

Della (Boyer) Litteral, 83, died May 14, 2009, with her children at her bedside.

Della Rilla (Boyer) Litteral was born on Aug. 19, 1925, the eighteenth child to James and Arilla (Park) Boyer in Telluride, San Miguel County, Colo.

 She grew up in the glorious mountains of Colorado, and attended schools in Telluride while helping on the family farm. With as many brothers and sisters, all needed to lend a hand to their mother.

At 17 she came to Oregon with her mother to help pick fruit for her brother in Hood River. From Hood River she moved to Homewhere she and her mother cooked for a county road crew. During the time she was cooking she fell in love and married Leonard Litteral who was working for the road crew.

She then moved to Baker City and worked for Sylvan’s laundry until the birth of her first child.  She lived in Baker City for the next 60 years. Through her years in Baker she attended The New Beginnings Church and served as song leader, Sunday School secretary and church event organizer. She was a very hard working woman and cared deeply for her family.  She cared for her ailing mother for 15 years and was also the caregiver for her husband for many years until his death.

Several years after her husband’s death she moved to Yakima, Wash., into the “cutest mobile home surrounded by a picket fence and flowers” and to be closer to her daughter.

She had the luxuries she never had before. She was excited about being able to turn the heat up on the furnace without getting up to a cold house and building a fire. The dishwasher and microwave were her next challenges. She didn’t want to use them at first — she said it was a lazy man’s way. After a few weeks of coaxing she didn’t know what she had been missing throughout the years.

Gardening, flowers, embroidery and collecting many heart-shaped and footprint rocks she could find were her favorite things to do. Her house was filled with her treasures of deer, butterflies and angels.

The mountains were her special place with pine trees and nature itself.

She attended the Christian Life Center Church where she met and had many new cherished friends. Church and her love for the Lord was her life and she witnessed to everyone she would meet.

She will be sorely missed by friends and family for her “cunning wit and joyous personality.”

She is survived by her  sister, Laura Archambeau of Aurora, Colo.; daughter, Shirley Fairbanks (Mike) of Selah, Wash.; son, Marshall Litteral (Cora) of La Grande; grandsons, Tim Modine (Cheryl) of Roy, Wash., Kurt Modine (friend Vicki) of Tri-Cities, Wash.; step-daughter, Lorraine Zemmer (Brian) of Haines; three great-grandchildren, Ashley, Christopher and Ali; and one very special niece, Connie Williams (Floyd) of Baker City.