Myrna Marie Dowse

Published 12:21 am Thursday, April 7, 2016

April 24, 1921 – March 31, 2016

Myrna Marie Dowse went to be in the loving arms of her Heavenly Father on Thursday, March 31, 2016 after a brief illness.

She was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, April 24, 1921 to William Rae and Mary Ione (O’Field) McHaley. She was the second of four children, all of whom preceded her in death.

She attended school in Grand Island, Nebraska and graduated from high school in 1939. She started nursing training but decided that was not her calling and ended up moving to Southern California the next year where she worked for Glass Containers.

Shortly after moving to Southern California she met the love of her life, Robert E. Dowse, on a blind date. The married on September 3, 1942 and spent the next forty-four years together until he passed in 1986.

After leaving military service in 1945, they moved to Central Oregon where they farmed in the Cloverdale area. In 1948 they moved back to Southern California where Robert worked in the oil fields for about six years. At that time they relocated back to Terrebonne and, once again, began farming. Myrna was a stay at home mom until the children were in high school and then she began working at Hoedecker’s potato warehouse. In her later years, until her retirement, she worked at Bend Mill Work.

She was quite active during her retirement years. She would go on vacations with her women friends and she delivered Meals on Wheels for several years. She also was heavily involved with the Rebecca’s, and the Terrebonne Grange. She loved to bake and was quite well known for her wonderful chocolate chip cookies and her marvelous to die for angel food cakes. It was not all that uncommon to see her taking her baked goods to her neighbors and various activities she was involved in. In fact, up until about the last couple of years, she would take her cookies and angel food cake to the county fair where she earned anywhere from first place to grand champion on them.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert, in 1986 and her three sisters, Martha, Nancy and Beverly. She is survived by her three children, Rhea E. Dowse (Janie) of Redmond, Charles “Ron” Dowse (Roberta) of John Day, and Georganna Dowse-Pfnister (Paul) of Keizer, OR. Her grandchildren are Rod Dowse (Tonya) of Yreka, CA, and Traci Nance of Redmond, OR; step-grandchildren Joey Paolino (Lisa) of Spokane, WA and Steve Paolino of Dallas, TX; Ken Dowse, Portland, OR, Crystal Dowse, Stayton, OR, Anne Robertson, Grants Pass, OR, Georgianne Campbell (Scott), Hermiston, OR and David Pfnister (Carissa), Clarkston, WA. She also has a wonderful heritage of nineteen great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Redmond Senior Center or the Shepherd’s Table at the Redmond City Center Church.

Visitation will be held on Wed., April 6, at Autumn Funerals, Redmond, 1:00-5:00pm.

Memorial service will be held on Thur., April 7, at 2:00pm, at City Center Four Square Church, 549 SW 8th St., Redmond.