Clara L. Finstad, 99, of Port Lavaca, Texas, a former Baker City resident, died May 24, 1997, in Texas.
Her funeral will be Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel. Pastor Dennis Hickman of the First Lutheran Church will officiate. Burial will follow in Mount Hope Cemetery. Viewing will be until 8 p.m. tonight at Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel.
Mrs. Finstad was born to Jacob E. and Emily ( Hammack ) Womack July 10, 1897, in Lostine. She had been a lifelong Oregon resident except for the past few years when she lived with her daughter in Port Lavaca. She moved from Baker city in 1984.
She enjoyed church work and was a member of the Dorcas Society. She also was past president and a very active member of the Auxiliary of Veterans of World War 1.
She was preceded in death by two husbands, James F. Wood and Hans Finstad; a son, Leland J. Wood; a daughter, Marjorie Wood Jaensch; her parents and three sisters.
Survivors include her daughter Lavonne Burgess of Port Lavaca; and grandchildren Gary Jaensch, David Jaensch, Donna Rhine, Kathryn Alford, Ronald Burgess, Landon Wood, Jordan Wood, Wendy Buchheit and Tracy Anderson.
Her Husband James F. Wood is buried in the Lostine cemetery. Her husband Hans Finstad lived in Wallowa and was called to duty in WW1, he is listed in one of Orvetta Harmon’s as one of The Wallowa County boys called.
Her father Jacob E. (really C) Womack’s family were early settlers of Wallowa county. Her mother, Emily was of a large Hammack family that were early settlers in Summerville, Or. and the early settlers of the Lostine area. They have sketches in the book History of Union and Wallowa Counties 1902. Her sisters were Leola, born in Summerville, her sister Gladys who was born in Lostine and her sister Mina who was born in Lostine. Mina had lived in Wallowa county all her life, Her first husband was Ira Litchfield, the father of Jim Litchfield who lives in Wallowa, and his sister Esther Carper of Enterprise. Mina’s second husband was Eugene Johnson, Eugene or Gene as he was called ranched near Wallowa and on Alder Slope. You might remember him as Chief of Police of Enterprise and later as a Judge in Enterprise.
