Obit: Marcene Harris Garriott | Obituaries

Marcene Harris Garriott passed away on May 6 at Wheatland Village Park View at the age of 96. She was an end of the fourth generation of the Harris clan. A life-long resident, she was born on February 28, 1925, in the red brick house on Highway 11 approaching Milton-Freewater. Her parents, Claude and Maude Harris, built the house.

She completed her grade school years in the Adventist school and played the violin in their orchestra. She attended McLoughlin High School, playing the saxophone in their band, and when she turned 16, her father bought her the first rumble seat in Milton-Freewater.

She always worked, but her first job driving wheat truck was for Wade Bergevin, whom she called the most fair boss she ever had. She also attended Oregon State University and joined Theta XI Sorority.

Marcene married Harland Garriott on April 10, 1947, in the First Christian Church in Milton-Freewater. After their marriage, Marcene and Harland began farming and raising strawberries, cherries, apples, prunes, wheat and sheep. They pedaled their crops door to door and to the Dacres Hotel in Walla Walla.

Marcene loved being outdoors, and from the age of 5, her mother required her to memorize a Bible text before allowing her to have the privilege of going outside. She memorized a text every day and, quite naturally, her favorite verse was John 11:35. After spending the whole day away, she got a switching when she finally came home at the end of the day. Later, she learned to fence and got a pilot’s license. She loved fly fishing and mushroom hunting and told of her encounters with bears and rattlesnakes and developed a collection of rattlesnake rattles. She was a hunter of deer and elk, but strictly for food, never for sport.

She was adventurous and traveled extensively throughout Europe, with a friend Jan March to Majorca, and visited her daughter Jaklin in Austria three times. She and her sister flew to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1966 to visit her niece and her husband Merlin Tuttle, a bat expert, and lived in the wild for three weeks. One of her favorite memories of that adventure was being able to hold a wild baby crocodile, with Merlin’s supervision.

Later in life she became an avid bird enthusiast, joining the Audubon Society and developing a large and varied bird egg collection that she collected during the 1950s and ’60s.

Her interest in nature and in sports often evolved into contributions to the recreational resources of Milton-Freewater. She was elected school director for District 31. She started the first softball team for women in Milton-Freewater, called the Harris Orchards Softball Team. Her opponents nicknamed her “the witch” because she was formidable.

Pioneer Posse Grounds started on her land on the Walla Walla River with a quarter-mile track and bleachers. Bill Harder was the first president of the Posse Grounds and also farmed her land for the next 30 years.

Marcene had the land and helped build the Totem Bowl, the first and only bowling alley in Milton-Freewater, owned by Lew Renville. Later, in 1958, the Founding Fathers from Hermiston came and asked if she would build a bowling alley in Hermiston, and from that she and her husband built Desert Lanes Bowling Alley in Hermiston and a house next door. From there she won bowling contests that helped put them on the map. Soon after that she received certification awards for helping to establish a golf course in Milton-Freewater, with Ivan and Fran Wheeler.

Her entire life of nearly a century was lived in the Walla Walla Valley. She loved the valley and the world of nature it embraced. She always believed in God, but she kept her faith private until finally she decided she wanted to be baptized later in life, in her early 70s. The family remembers well the day when Pastor Karl Haffner baptized her in the Walla Walla River on the old Demaris Homestead in Milton-Freewater. She loved that land and considered the river that nourished the Harris family homestead the only fitting place for her baptism.

Marcene was preceded in death by her brother Archie Harris (wife Sylvia) and her sister Majorie Harder (husband FEJ Harder) from Texas. Surviving are their children and grandchildren, including Archie’s son Tom Harris (wife Judy) and daughter Judy Voshell (husband Butch) from Walla Walla; niece Mindy LaGosse (husband David) of Portland, Oregon; nephew Fred Harder (wife Virginia); and niece Claudette Hartman (husband David, deceased), Texas.

Marcene and Harland Garriott had one child, a daughter Jaklin. She had two children: a son Chad Womack and his wife Megan who have two children, Sophie and Ava, who live in Argentina; and a daughter, Sheri Vammen from New York City.

The family wishes to give special thanks to the Milton-Freewater Rehab, Wheatland-Parkview, and Walla Walla Hospice for their care of Marcene in the closing days of her life, and especially to Dr. Paul Parker, Dr. Joanne Perez, and Sarah Scarborough for their medical care and kindness. And thanks to all the friends who took her for birdwatching rides, especially Cheryl Dietz, Judy Piper, Sarah Scarborough, Charlotte Trumbull and Tiffany Yensen.

A private memorial will be held.

Memorial contributions can be made through the Munselle-Rhodes Funeral Home to the Frazier Farmstead Museum or the Milton-Freewater Golf Club.