Mary Ellen Fisher

Mary Ellen Fisher, 73, of Union died Sept. 2 at her home. A memorial service will begin at 3 p.m. Sept. 14 at Hinson Memorial Baptist Church in Portland. Burial at Willamette National Cemetery will be private.

Mrs. Fisher was born Jan. 11, 1933, to Frank Newman and Sarah Virginia Woodruff in Upland, Calif. She attended Chaffey High School in Ontario, Calif., and in 1950, she married Buck Hammons. The couple lived in several places in Oregon. After a divorce in 1971, she graduated with honors from Portland State University in 1973 with a master's in social work. She worked for several years in The Dalles.

She married James Fisher. The couple moved to Portland where she worked for Metropolitan Family Services and later moved to Eugene where she retired as the executive director of Family Resourses of Lane County in 1995. She served on the board of the Wilani Campfire Boys and Girls, and received the United Way Professional Leadership Award in 1995. She enjoyed backpacking, camping, travel, reading, gardening and needlepoint; she had a curiosity about the world and all its wonders, from rocks and bugs to government and societies.

Survivors include children, Linda Bond of Union, Michael Hammons of Oregon City and Paul Hammons of Angleton, Texas; four grandchildren and two brothers, Wayne Woodruff of Livermore, Calif., and her twin, Al Woodruff of Mesa, Ariz. Her husband died earlier.