Eloise Laura Barry

Eloise Laura Barry

March 26, 1929 - January 11, 2018

We celebrate the life of Eloise who we were blessed to have as a Mother, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister, Aunt and Neighbor. Eloise passed away peacefully at 10:00pm on the 11th of January. She was the eighth child of nine children born in a small town in Alberta Canada. All the children were raised to be honest, hardworking and frugal. The large family moved to Brush Prairie Washington in 1937 at the age of 8. Four years later the family moved to Lacomb Or. where she went to school. She met the love of her life, Russell, and they were married Dec 17, 1948 and had 58 wonderful years together until Russell passed in April of 2005. Russell was in the Navy and that took them to several locations including Oakland California, Puerto Rico and Norfolk Virginia. They settled in Portland until 1962 when they moved to Medford and raised their two children, Tina and Cliff.

While Eloise didn't have any formal education, or training she had strong business acumen. She worked at Miller's, a retail store in Medford, and progressively gained responsibility and was a manager of several departments. Russell and Eloise loved to travel and had several exotic vacations.

Eloise enjoyed participating in many of the Shriner activities that Russell was involved with. She had a big heart for the children that benefited from the Shriner activities. She made many friends at these events and was happy to help.

When we think of Eloise the first thing that comes to mind is family. She loved her family immensely and they all knew that she did. With the nine children there was lots of family. For over 65 years and continuing there is an annual family reunion and she so looked forward to seeing her brothers and sisters and all their children. And they loved her.

Eloise also loved her children, grandchildren and great grandchild (with another on the way). She never missed any event or activity that her kids or grandkids were involved in. Eloise and Russ attended football games, track events, basketball games, volleyball, school plays etc.

Eloise loved to entertain and have company and always had room to spare if anyone needed a place to stay. She thought entertaining was a treat not an effort. She was a great cook and could put a meal together with little to no notice.

In September of 2016 Eloise chose to move into The Weatherly Inn Senior living facility. She loved her new home and was very happy there meeting new friends and enjoying the activities. She was even voted Queen on prom night. She was very active at the Medford senior center where she loved to play pinochle and visit with friends.

We have many fond memories of Eloise but there are a couple of character traits that remain good life lessons for us as we age. She was always very positive, upbeat all the time with a smile on her face. She was full of thankfulness, gratitude and was beaming with love and everyone felt it. If you asked her how she was, she was always good. She never bothered to share all the aches and pains that troubled her. She always had time to listen and made everyone feel loved and important. She told us that she felt like the luckiest women in the world.

We will have a celebration of life on Sunday, Jan 28th at 2:00pm. The Celebration will be held at The Weatherly Inn - 2180 Poplar Drive Medford OR 97504.