Mary Melissa Almond
Jan. 26, 1911-March 9, 2013
Gresham resident Mary Melissa Almond died Saturday, March 9. She was 102.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 20, at Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 22801 S.E. Stark St., Gresham. Interment will follow at Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Portland.
Mary was born Jan. 26, 1911, in Manila, Utah, to Charles Frederick Olson and Celinda Jane Twitchell.
She married James Clayton Almond on Dec. 18, 1930. Mary worked as a teacher and raised two children.
She was preceded in death by her husband; brothers, Charles Huston Olson and John Kent Olson; and sisters, Margaret Davidson and Mable Field.
Mary is survived by her daughter, Dixie LaRue of Wilton, Calif.; son, James Clayton Almond Jr. of Elk Grove, Calif.; 18 grandchildren; 84 great-grandchildren; and 80 great-great-grandchildren.
Herbergers Elk Grove Funeral Chapel is handling arrangements.
June Joyce Davis
June 22, 1937-March 13, 2013
Eagle Creek resident June Joyce Davis died Wednesday, March 13, in Portland. She was 75.
A funeral service was held Monday, March 18, at Sandy Funeral Home.
June was born June 22, 1937, in Bismarck, N.D., to Katherine (Gress) and Virgil Jackson. The family moved to Oregon, settling in Boring, and June attended Boring Grade School and Sandy High School.
June married Richard Davis on Jan. 28, 1955. She was not only a mother to her own children, but to many other young friends and family members throughout her life. She was also very involved in the family scrap metal business.
Survivors include her son, Rex Davis of Sandy; daughters, Joan Davis of Prineville, Jodi Nichols of Ridgefield, Wash., and Lana Davis of Eagle Creek; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Sandy Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Paid obituaries
Richard Clare Malowney
January 26, 1925 – March 9, 2013
Richard Dick Malowney, the son of Thomas John Malowney and Mary Alice Triggs Malowney, was born in Wymore Nebraska, a railroad town and farming community south of Lincoln Nebraska. One would think growing up during the Great Depression would be hard on a person, but not Dick. He had a lust for life and found opportunities around every corner. He knew everyone in his home town from his days working at the Payless Drug Store, where Dick would wait on customers wearing a white shirt, tie and bib overalls while earning ten cents an hour.
Dick graduated from Wymore High School in 1943 and joined the US Army Air Corp. He loved flying and was assigned to a B-17 Bomber crew as a Radioman/Navigator, Pvt. 1st Class. Known by his call sign of TJs Boy, his crew served the war effort by couriering classified and secret documents, crisscrossing the US and some Atlantic and Caribbean islands including Cuba. Friends and neighbors at the Payless Drug Store rolled out a roll of wallpaper on the counter and everyone in town signed it, sending him best wishes for a safe return home. His time in the Air Transportation Corp was one of the great adventures of his life and he fondly retold stories to his two sons and grandchildren.
After the conclusion of the war, Dick returned to civilian life residing in Lincoln Nebraska as a Quality Assurance Inspector for General Electric (GE), testing telephone equipment. It was at GE that he met the love of his life, Mary Lou Starkel. Dick & Mary Lou had a wonderful romance and were married on February 22nd, 1947. In 1949 with $200 dollars to their names, they pulled up stakes, packed up an old Oldsmobile and moved to Portland Oregon to join the remainder of Mary Lous family who had moved there a few years earlier. Mary Lou was pregnant with their first child Michael, who was born in 1950.
With a wife and child to support, Dick worked a short time on the railroad and for Heinz Foods before taking an assistant manager position with Western Auto Supply in North Portland, followed by managing a store in Portlands Hollywood District. In 1953 Dick and Mary Lou moved to Gresham where they eventually became owners of the local Western Auto store, in turn making Gresham their home for the rest of their lives. John, their second of two children was subsequently born in 1955.
In 1953 Gresham was a very small rural town and the Western Auto store was a very special place, a hardware store extraordinaire. The store was large by 1950s standards while the building still stands at 301 N Roberts Street. Townsfolk and farmers could find all the necessities at Western Auto, from tires and batteries to sporting goods, bicycles to lawn and garden tractors, wood stoves to major appliances. Dick became a master salesman. TVs were the newest thing in the 1950s, and Dick would lend neighbors a television for a week, just to try it out and of course made every sale.
Many times customers would come into his store seeking advice on how to plumb or electrify their homes and/or new additions they were building. Dick would draw a schematic diagram on the back of a large brown paper bag illustrating all of the necessary wiring, junction boxes, plug-ins and fixtures, all the while walking the customer through the store and filling the brown bag with everything needed to complete the job. Dick loved working with electricity.
Over the years Dick, Mary Lou and the boys watched Gresham grow while establishing countless friendships. In approximately 1976, Dick and Mary Lou sold the store and embarked upon a long well deserved vacation before returning to Gresham where Dick began his 2nd, 3rd and 4th careers. Richard was a Maintenance Engineer at Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, a Revenue Agent for the State of Oregons State Accident Insurance Fund (SAIF), while finally joining Mary Lou as a Realtor.
Dick and Mary Lou loved big band music and loved to dance. They were active members of the Gresham Elks Club and the Country Cut-Ups Square Dancers. Their beautiful East-hill home located on NW 4th Street was a popular gathering place, where many Independence Day and family celebrations took place.
Dick was a loving caregiver for Mary Lou who was terminally ill for a number of years until her life ended in 1994. Dick lived his remaining years in good spirits and was a good father and friend to all who knew him. He returned to Wymore Nebraska many times for various High School Class Reunions and to maintain close relationships with classmates, who for the most part have preceded him in death. Richard was preceded in death by his younger sister Phyllis and older brother Thomas. Dick Malowney is survived by his youngest son John, Mike and daughter in-law Connie, grandchildren Sean, Corey, Andrea & Daniel, and two, soon to be three, great grandchildren.
Military Honors will be at 3:00 pm, Monday, March 25 at Willamette National Cemetery, 11800 SE Mount Scott Blvd. Portland.
The family suggests contributions for Dementia research through the Alzheimers Association.