Dorothy "Ginger" Virginia Gibbons

Dorothy Virginia "Ginger" Gibbons, 84, of Boise, Idaho and formerly of La Grande died at a care home in Boise on February 22, 2006. Born to Albert and Grace Jordan Shankland in Yacolt, Washington, July 13, 1921, she shared a birthday with her mother, which was always special to both of them.

Her service will be at First Christian Church, 901 Penn Avenue, La Grande at 11 am Tuesday. Burial will follow at Grandview Cemetery. A viewing will be from 7 to 8:30 pm Monday at Loveland Funeral Chapel.

When she was 6, the family moved to Portland. Mrs. Gibbons graduated from Jefferson High School in Portland in 1939. She enjoyed fashion design, writing and working on her high school newspaper and yearbook staff. She met Millard Gibbons at Highland Baptist Church. The couple married in December 1941, just three weeks after Pearl Harbor. Mrs. Gibbons was a homemaker working part-time only briefly during the high school years of her children. In January 1966 the couple, for health reasons, moved to a 320-acre ranch in the Grande Ronde Valley, just north of Cove. In 1970, they sold the place and bought a much smaller place up Mill Creek Road in Cove.

Millard's health began to fail with the onset of Parkinson's disease and the couple sold again and moved to a small home in La Grande. Mrs. Gibbons spent many years as a devoted care-giver to Millard, including spending many hours every day visiting him in the nursing home, the last five years of his life. After her husband's death in 1996, Mrs. Gibbons continued to live on in the house until a massive stroke forced her to leave it in July 2001.

She and Millard were charter members members of the Grande Ronde Wheelers Good Sam Club. She also had great friends in a caregivers group. The great joy of her life was her grandchildren, David and Diane. She loved taking them along on camping trips with the Good Sam's and having them spend weekends with her at her home.

Ginger and Millard met each other in church and continued an active relationship with churches wherever they lived. Ginger especially loved working at First Christian Church on the Christmas Bazaar, making donuts and helping to deliver Cookie-Grams for Valentine's Day. She was active in the Decker group Ladies Bible Study also. Her sense of humor was infectious to all who knew her.

She is survived by her son and his wife, Michael and Judy of Toledo, daughter, Laurie of Boise, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Her brother, Clifford, and many cousins and other relatives died earlier.

The family requests no flowers. Memorial contributions can be made to the National Parkinson Disease Foundation, 1501 NW Ninth Avenue, Bob Hope Road, Miami, Florida 33136-1494 or Alzheimer's Association, 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Fl. 17, Chicago, Illinois 60601-7633.