Wasco-Statewide County OR Archives Obituaries.....Spatz, Ellen Christine (Otterson) April 16, 2005 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 8, 2006, 12:19 am The Dalles Chronicle, April 19, 2005 Writer and native Oregonian Ellen Christine (Otterson) Spatz, 90, died April 16, 2005, at the local hospital in The Dalles. She was born July 10, 1914, in Portland to Alfred and Bertha (Corrodi) Otterson, one of seven siblings, four of whom survived to adulthood. She graduated from Portland’s Jefferson High School in 1932, and worked through the Great Depression as a bookkeeper at Lipman Wolfe Department Store. Through the 1940s she worked on the staff of the Northeast Portland YMCA. She began mountain climbing during this period, scaling Mt. Hood every summer over a period of many years, as well as Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens. She later moved to the country, serving with the U.S. Forest Service as a fire lookout on the Willamette National Forest, and in the same capacity with Oregon State Forestry in the Coast Range. On one occasion a forest fire approached her lookout, forcing her to flee. She was a lifelong writer and reader, authoring a column, “Notes from 13th Street” under her pen name, Ellen Hart, for both The Dalles Weekly Reminder and The Dalles Chronicle. She married William Hart in Oakridge, Ore.; they were divorced, with no children. She later married Melvin Arthur Spatz in Stevenson, Wash., and they had one son. They lived in Seattle and Battle Ground, Wash., before moving to White Salmon in 1968, where they lived on a small farm in the Snowden area. She is survived by her son, Daniel Spatz, and daughter-in-law, Michele (Folta Johns) Spatz; two step-daughters, Linda McLean of Roseburg and Dana Michelsen-Gilman, Port Townsend, Wash.; her brother, Wilmer Otterson, Battle Ground, Wash.; two sisters: June Hill, Black Butte Ranch, Ore.; and Anne Nelson, Battle Ground; two sisters-in-law, Eva Murray of Eugene and Verna Burkleo, Junction City; two granddaughters, Melissa Johns, Seattle; and Kathryn Johns, The Dalles; a cousin, Lois Scheel, Grants Pass; many nieces and nephews, and two cats. She was preceded in death by her husband, Melvin Spatz, who died in 1985 at a veterans hospital in Roseburg, as well as her parents and a step-son, Michael. Disposition was by cremation, with Columbia Cremation and Burial in charge of arrangements. Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to the Planetree Library Fund through the Mid-Columbia Health Foundation Humane Society of the United States, or to St. Joseph’s Indian School of Chamberlain, SD 57326. A celebration of life for Ellen Spatz will be held this Sunday, June 12, at noon at the residence of Dan and Michele Spatz, 2506 Jordan St., The Dalles. Family and friends are invited. Additional Comments: Written permission to reprint given by The Dalles Chronicle, The Dalles, Oregon, Dan Spatz, Editor (e-mail dated 3/7/2006). File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/wasco/obits/s/spatz1025gob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb