IN MEMORIAM
Theresa Marie Huff
November 29, 1922 - July 18, 1924
Theresa Marie was born on November 29, 1922 in Heppner, Oregon. She was the fourth child of Elick and Delphine Huff. She was only a year and seven months old when she and her three other siblings came down with food poisoning. The doctor was summonded and he prescribed "salts" for the two older children. The two younger children, Helen and Theresa, were too young for "salts" so another medicine was given them. The three older children recovered. Sadly, on July 18, 1924, Theresa succumbed to her illness and died in her father's arms.
Elick and Delphine were struggling financially and unable to purchase a "proper" plot and gravestone for their tiny daughter. Theresa was buried in the Heppner Cemetery in a "pauper's" grave with no real marker for her resting place. Time, fire and flood all conspired to erase traces of the site where Theresa was buried.
Years later, Helen, Margaret and Delphine searched for Theresa's grave, resulting only in heartbreak for Delphine as they had no success locating the gravesite. Later, Helen and her sister-in-law, Nola, took up the search. Again there was no success. After Helen's death in 2006, Nola was moved to carry on the search to a conclusion out of devotion to the family and a sense of need for closure. She spent many hours in research and interviews. Just about the time it seemed a hopeless endeavor, Andy had an unexpected memory from a time in his life when he was too young to have been expected to remember such details. He recalled visiting his sister Theresa's gravesite near a small building. Off Nola went to interview the caretakers of the Heppner Cemetery again. A small building was on the property. It was near Babyland. Although there was no way to be certain this was the same building or location, Nola had a sense of "rightness" and closure and an unexpected emotional impact.
Nola, along with the support of her in-law's Margaret and Leonard and Andy and Kathy had a stone engraved and placed by the little building near Babyland in the Heppner Cemetery.
-submitted in part by Elizabeth Jones
Elick and Delphine were struggling financially and unable to purchase a "proper" plot and gravestone for their tiny daughter. Theresa was buried in the Heppner Cemetery in a "pauper's" grave with no real marker for her resting place. Time, fire and flood all conspired to erase traces of the site where Theresa was buried.
Years later, Helen, Margaret and Delphine searched for Theresa's grave, resulting only in heartbreak for Delphine as they had no success locating the gravesite. Later, Helen and her sister-in-law, Nola, took up the search. Again there was no success. After Helen's death in 2006, Nola was moved to carry on the search to a conclusion out of devotion to the family and a sense of need for closure. She spent many hours in research and interviews. Just about the time it seemed a hopeless endeavor, Andy had an unexpected memory from a time in his life when he was too young to have been expected to remember such details. He recalled visiting his sister Theresa's gravesite near a small building. Off Nola went to interview the caretakers of the Heppner Cemetery again. A small building was on the property. It was near Babyland. Although there was no way to be certain this was the same building or location, Nola had a sense of "rightness" and closure and an unexpected emotional impact.
Nola, along with the support of her in-law's Margaret and Leonard and Andy and Kathy had a stone engraved and placed by the little building near Babyland in the Heppner Cemetery.
-submitted in part by Elizabeth Jones
