Hazel Jane Fleet

Hazel Jane Fleet, age 90, of La Grande and formerly of Wallowa County died March 6, 2005. The funeral will begin at 2:00 p.m. Saturday at Bollman Funeral Home in Enterprise. Burial will follow at the Enterprise Cemetery. Mrs. Fleet was born October 26, 1914 to Ralph and Lenora Barton in Joseph. The family lived in Hells Canyon on Johnson Bar, at Grouse Creek on the Imnaha River and at Summit Creek. She attended Park School and Enterprise High School and graduated from high school in Eugene. She was an accomplished horsewoman, running and winning races on the Imnaha and at the Wallowa County Fair. She was a princess at the Pendleton Round-up in 1933. After the death of her father and grandfather in 1934 the family traded ranches with the McGaffee brothers in Hells Canyon. In 1936 she married Allen Wilson. The couple ranched in a number of places, running cattle and sheep, and were known as cougar hunters in Hells Canyon. They worked part-time as packers for the Nez Perce National Forest and as fire lookouts at Dry Diggins, Horse Heaven, Heaven's Gate, Cold Springs and Hat Point for the Wallowa-Whiman National Forest. The couple divoced in 1950 and she looked after her mother in Riggins, Idaho until the two moved to La Grande.

She married Duane Fleet and the couple farmed in the Grande Ronde Valley for 24 years. She was noted for raising quarter horses. She enjoyed hunting, fishing, horses and being with her family.

Survivors include a son, Kim Wilson of La Grande; a brother, Ace Barton of Riggins; five grandchidlren and fourteen great grandchildren. Her husband died earlier.