PAINTER, Norma Fay

Norma Fay Painter, 81, of Halfway, died April 25, 2001, at Caldwell, Idaho. Her funeral will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Pine Baptist Church at Halfway. Pastor Shawn Thatcher of Pine Baptist Church will officiate. Vault interment will be at the Pine Haven Cemetery at Halfway. Visitations will be until 7 oclock tonight at Tamis Pine Valley Funeral Home at Halfway and from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Pine Baptist Church in Halfway. Mrs. Painter was a granddaughter of pioneer settlers who moved to Halfway in 1889 from Franklin, Idaho. At that time there were only three houses on Main Street in Halfway. She was born on Feb. 16, 1920, at North Pine, the youngest of four, to Albert and Augusta Gussie Stalker Abernathy. Her grandparents, Wallace and Matilda Kelly Stalker, had a family home at Halfway and a ranch at North Pine, where the river runs into Pine Creek. These grandparents also ran the store on Main Street and had a house that was at one time located on the parking lot where the Old Pine Store is today. She later met and married Lee Chetwood. They had one son, Wayne Chetwood. She spent most of her early years on the North Pine, except for five years spent in the Marcola area. In 1951, she married Merrill Painter. She and her husband spent many years on their ranch in Pine Valley. Her lifelong hobby was needlework, for which she won many ribbons at the Baker County Fair. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Merrill, in 1990; and two brothers, Albert Bert and Chester Ted Abernathy. Memorial contributions may be made to the Halfway/Oxbow Ambulance Service through Tamis Pine Valley Funeral Home, P.O. Box 543, Halfway, OR 97834. bakercityherald.com 4 May 2001