Ruth Everest Lewis, 90, of Roseburg, a former Baker City resident, died Feb. 2, 2002, at a private home in Roseburg.
Her private family graveside service will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Morris Hills Cemetery at Boise under the direction of Alden-Waggoner Funeral Chapel.
Ruth Everest Lewis was born in 1911 at White Bird, Idaho. She was the first of the five children born to Ethel Bourland Everest and George A. Everest. The family soon moved to Grangeville, Idaho.
Ruth was educated in the Grangeville, Idaho, and Brownsville, N.Y., schools and then entered Blair Business College at Spokane, Wash. Her career as a legal secretary included work in county offices of Idaho County at Grangeville, state offices in Boise and federal offices in Washington, D.C., and in offices of corporations in Portland.
After her marriage on Sept. 29, 1945, to William F. “Bill” Lewis, an art education instructor in the Baker schools, Ruth worked for the school superintendent and also for an appraisal engineer.
Ruth and Bill loved to explore the West. During Bill’s summer vacations they took their young sons on car trips all over the Northwest, California, Montana, Canada and traveled by train to Texas. Throughout the years, Ruth was a constant champion of her younger brothers and sisters. She helped them through college and gave them encouragement and support in their lives.
On her husband’s retirement, they moved to Boise where Ruth Lewis became a scholar in genealogical research. She established her membership in the Society of the Mayflower Descendants (serving as governor of the Idaho Society from 1982 through 1984), the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames.
As a member of boards of these various organizations, Ruth developed an extensive genealogy and family history of both the Everest and the Bourland families, much treasured by her relatives.
When Ruth’s husband, William F. Lewis, died in 1991, she moved to Roseburg to be near her son, Wendell E. Lewis.
Survivors include two sons, Wendell and his wife, Patty, of Oakland, and William Loren Lewis of San Francisco; two grandsons, Chris Lewis and his wife, Kim, and Steven Lewis and his wife, Mandy; a granddaughter, Lacie; two great-granddaughters, Ashley and Nicole; a great-grandson, Brody; a sister, Helen E. Douglas of San Rafael, Calif., and several cousins, nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by a sister and two brothers.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the American Cancer Society for Breast Cancer Research.
Roseburg Funeral Alternatives is assisting the family with arrangements.
Used with permission from: Baker City Herald, Baker City, Oregon, February 8, 2002
Transcribed by: Belva Ticknor
