William (Bill) Womack, son of John William and Martha Thompson, left Wallowa around 1910 to take up a homestead near Wilder, Idaho. There he married Nellie Mae Pack.
Nellie Mae Pack 1889-1934, a daughter of John Henry Pack and Lucy Ann Maria (Carter) Pack, lived in Wallowa from 1898 to 1903. She, with her family came from Beckley, West Virginia, by train, as far as Idaho, then accompanied by the Oscar Bidler family, traveled by wagon train to the Wallowa Valley. John Pack lived on a farm on Whiskey Creek, and Nellie, her brothers and sisters, attended what was then the Willow Springs School. Later the family moved to Roswell, Idaho.
On 1 January 1912, William Womack and Nellie Pack were married and lived on his homestead until 1 July 1919 when he moved back to Wallowa to his father’s (John W. Womack) homestead, living there until 1941. They had five children:
- Marley Osborne 1912-1952. He married Bertha Nona Winters in 1937. They lived near Wallowa. Marley served several years as City Marshal and worked at the Boman Hicks Mill. They had three children. Janice (Smith) lives in Vancouver, Washington, Joyce (Beeman) lives near La Grande. A son Vernon was drowned at the age of 13.
- Wilma Lucille 1914-. She married Alvin Hawkins. Their home is on Diamond Prairie. They had two daughters. Judith Ann (Hauser) has three children and lives in Baker, Oregon. Carolyn Mae (Trams) lives in Miles City, Montana, and has two children.
- William John (Bill) 1925-1943. He served in the Navy in World War II from March 1943, to November 1943. He lost his life when his ship, the Liscomb Bay, was sunk near the Gilbert Islands.
- Robert Frank (Bob) 1926-. In 1948, he married Bethel Irene Larkin, daughter of Wayman and Laura Conley Larkin. They live on Diamond Prairie and Bob is a saw filer for Boise Cascade in Elgin, Oregon. They had four children. Kathy (Johnson) lives in Wallowa and has a daughter. Sandra (Le Tourneaux) lives in Sheridan, Oregon, and has two sons. Linda (Susie) (Borgerding) lives on a cattle ranch in Imnaha, Oregon, and ha a son. A son, Steven, was killed in a car wreck in 1972.
- Wanda Irene 1928-. In 1946, she was married to Roy Ecker, shortly after his discharge from the Navy. They lived several years in Idaho and Illinois and then moved to Longview, Washington, Roy worked as a Hospital Manager. He died in 1971. They had three children. William (Bill) lives in Nampa, Idaho, and has a son. Marsha (Gillihan) lives in Vancouver, Washington, and has two sons. Wanda married Albert Bruner in 1980.
William Womack and Nellie (Pack) Womack are both buried in the Wallowa Cemetery.
[box]Source: History of Wallowa County. Wallowa County Museum Board, 1983. This information was sent to Gary Jaensch by Sue Wells of Elgin, Oregon[/box]
