Three of Lorane’s longtime residents and friends passed away recently and I want to recognize them.
I was remiss in failing to report Briggie Maley’s passing last May, two months short of his 100th birthday. He and his wife Toby moved to Lorane in 1946. He was a timber faller for Chambers Logging before hiring on with Murphy Logging.
He retired in 1982. Briggie was active in the Lorane I.O.O.F./Lorane Rebekahs for a number of years as well as the Lorane Christian Church. Both Briggie and Toby were avid golfers and they reluctantly sold their home in Lorane and moved to Cottage Grove in 2005 to be closer to medical providers and the golf courses they loved to play. Toby passed away in 2013 – they had been married for almost 72 years. They are survived by their children, Pat Adams, Linda Sturtevant, Mike Maley and Jaynie Wiser and grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grands. A Celebration of Life was held July 10 for Briggie.
Jack Graham and his wife Doris moved to North Hill Road, east of Lorane in 1963. Doris died in 2019, and Jack passed at the age of 91 on July 23 this year. I never got to know them well except for the occasional times they came into our store in the 1980s. A memorial service celebrating them was held this past weekend.
According to his obituary, Michael “Mike” Atkinson, who died July 18, 2021, “attended St. Francis High School, which is now Marist, then Oregon State University, where he graduated with a degree in Forestry. While enlisted in the Army, he married Grace Jungwirth in 1963. He was employed at Chickering Surveying, and then worked at Weyerhaeuser, retiring after 39 years.”
Sometime in the 1970s, Mike and Grace, along with his parents, Theron and Trudy, purchased a tree farm between Lorane and Crow on Territorial Highway. He and Grace had five children. They succeeded in growing not only beautiful trees on the farm, but great kids as well. Mike also donated time to St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Veneta, and he served on the Crow-Applegate-Lorane School Board with Jim in the late 1970s and ’80s. Over the years, he kept active and donated his time to organizations like Oregon Small Woodlands, Western Lane Forest Protection Organization, Oregon Tree Farm System, and others supporting family tree farm growth and forestry stewardship.
“He is preceded in death by Grace Atkinson (d 1997), and survived by his wife Constance, his children Richard and Martin Atkinson, Michele Stowell, Sara Nickel, and Anna Atkinson, and 13 grandchildren, his siblings, Sharon Hurst, Trudie Atkinson, Lorna Pletnikoff, Paul, and Tim Atkinson.”
Briggie, Jack and Michael raised their families and lived separate lives within the community of Lorane, but by doing so, they are etched into its fabric and history. Each will be missed. Our condolences to the families.
