Henrietta Emaline Hoxie

Henrietta “Retta” Emaline (Zachow) Hoxie
November 7, 1917 - October 5, 2022

Henrietta Emaline Zachow was born on Nov. 7, 1917, in Cleveland, North Dakota, to William Edward and Frona Ellen (Tift) Zachow. She was born on her sister’s 3rd birthday. Two brothers and another sister later joined the family.

When Retta was very young, the family moved to Washington state. After several moves, Northport, Washington, became her childhood home. She graduated from high school there in 1935. Retta’s father died young and the family was poor, so she grew up quickly and had many responsibilities. She won a scholarship and was able to attend Whitworth University, in Spokane, Washington, for a semester. She always regretted that she couldn’t have had more education.

In 1940 Retta married Leslie Ray Hoxie and shortly after that they moved to Ukiah, Oregon, with part of a mill crew. The men built the sawmill that Les and his friend Leonard Brown financed. The women-built homes with the help of one carpenter teaching them what to do. Retta learned many skills through this experience, and she could fix almost anything. She was talented in sewing and taught many others as she continued learning through the County Home Extension program. She raised chickens and always had a garden. She loved flowers and all animals and nature. Two daughters were born to Retta and Les while they lived in Ukiah.

Due to Les’s partner’s health problems, they sold the sawmill and Les and Retta moved their family to Union, Oregon. Here she delighted in making their much larger house a home, planted fruit trees and had a better growing season for her garden. She taught 4-H cooking and sewing and was active in the Methodist Church where she sang in the choir and taught Sunday school. She also became very interested in rocks and they became rockhounds.

The summer of 1954 found them building their dream home in the Mt. Glen area north of La Grande. Retta drew the plans and worked right along with the carpenters. At this home, she learned landscaping, incorporating many petrified logs and other special rocks outside. She then made bricks out of rock slices she had sawn and rebuilt the home’s two fireplaces with them.

Rock jewelry was her next endeavor. She loved crafts of any kind and started a doll collection where she repaired many and made most of their clothes. She also liked to crochet and sewed many quilts throughout her life. After Les passed away in 1965, Retta joined the Salvation Army, donating dolls and toys at Christmastime and teaching many classes to the women of the church.

Retta loved to travel and go camping. She would always rather be outside if possible. She could be seen walking for exercise well into her 90s. She was an avid reader and put many puzzles together, making permanent pictures of some that she liked to give as gifts. In 1979, she married a longtime friend, Les’s half brother, Vern Hoxie. She liked to tell how she didn’t have to change her name. Her son-in-law liked to joke about how he got to give his mother-in-law away. Retta and Vern went on many adventures in their retirement years and belonged to the Happy Ramblers camping club. They were also active in the Pioneer Park Church of God.

Retta loved the Lord and read entirely through her Bible every year. She was very frugal but also very giving depending on the situation. When Vern became ill, they had to leave the country home, bought a double-wide mobile home and moved to Stonewood in La Grande. Vern passed away in 2003. Retta was able to live independently, as she wished, with the help of her neighbor and dear friend Carmel, her daughter and son-in-law, Ruth and Lonnie Lester, and their daughters. The winter of 2020 she fell and broke her hip. After her surgery, she moved into her granddaughter Brenda’s home where she was well cared for by Brenda and her daughter Haiden and where she (sometimes) enjoyed the company of her great-great-grandson Dmitri, with 100 years between them. She passed away in her sleep Oct. 5, 2022.

Retta was preceded in death by her husbands, Leslie Ray Hoxie and Vernon Esbond Hoxie; daughters, Claudia Darlene as an infant and Beverley Ann Williams; stepsons, William “Bill” Floyd Hoxie and Robert W. Hoxie; stepdaughter, Patricia Riggleman; and siblings, Martha, Bill, Clara and Fred.

She is survived by her daughter, Frona “Ruth” Lester (Lonnie); five granddaughters, Becky Lester, Lisa Lester Kelly, Brenda Lester Bonney (Richard), Marci Lester Pokorney (Jason) and Tamra Stoller (Tim); nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren; stepson, Eugene “Gene” Ray Hoxie; and many step-grandchildren and their families.

Her body has been donated to OHSU for medical study. Donations in her memory can be made to First Step Pregnancy and Relationship Center in care of Daniels Knopp Funeral, Cremation & Life Celebration Center, 1502 Seventh St., La Grande, OR 97850. There will not be a formal service. Her family will gather on what would have been her 105th birthday, Nov. 7, 2022, at Lonnie and Ruth’s home.

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