HENDERSON, Virginia Elmina

Virginia Henderson Baker City, 1919-2014 Virginia Elmina Henderson, 94, of Baker City died March 2, 2014, at Elkhorn Adult Foster Home. Visitations will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Anthony Catholic Church in North Powder. Interment will be at the North Powder Cemetery with a reception afterward at the Wolf Creek Grange in North Powder. Virginia was born on April 4, 1919, on a farm near North Powder to Joseph Aloysius and Mattie Smith Nice Henderson, a descendent of an early pioneer family. She attended school at Wolf Creek Elementary, going to North Powder for high school and later taking some work at Baker Business College. She married Leonard Lewis Henderson on Feb. 17, 1936, at La Grande. They lived on a small place on Wolf Creek all of their married lives. It was a part of Virginia’s great-grandparents’ original homestead. While their children were in school, Virginia was active in all school affairs in which she could help. She also served on the Union County Extension Committee and the Union County Democratic Central Committee. She was a charter member of the Blue Mountain Chapter of the Oregon School Food Service. She was a member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and had been a member of the Wolf Creek Grange since 1933. She was employed at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Baker City for seven years and had several other vocations afterward. From the hospital she went to the North Powder Schools where she was employed for 19 years as both second cook and head cook. She retired in 1984. Later in life she moved to Baker City and resided at Grandview Manor for six years. She had lived at Elkhorn Adult Foster Home for the last five years. Survivors include her sons, Rodney, and his wife, Gloria Henderson, of Kalispell, Mont., Theron, and his wife, Lois Henderson, of Billings, Mont.; and Roger Bruce Henderson of North Powder; a daughter, Junia, and her husband, Charles Burdon, of Yamhill; 12 grandchildren, two stepgrandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and six stepgrandchildren, two great-great-grandchildren; and one niece and two nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Leonard, in 1997; her parents; two sons, Darnold Kent Henderson and Leonard Loren Henderson; a brother, Charles Nice; and sister, Elsie Taylor. Memorial contributions may be made to the Wolf Creek Grange through Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel, 1500 Dewey Ave., Baker City, OR 97814. bakercityherald.com 5 March 2014