Helena Cecilia Oliver Boe

Helena Boe was born to Tom and Ellen Oliver on May 7th, 1913 in Flatwillow, Montana, the second of three children. The Olivers moved to Oregon in 1926 and settled at Bell Station in Portland, Oregon where her parents met the Ellis family. The Ellis family moved to Canby to start Ellis Gardens and Tom Oliver was asked to operate the farm.

Ellen later joined him working there before she started her own pansy seed business, mailing pansy seed around the world.

Helena married her high school sweetheart, Clarence Boe, on June 30th, 1935 and they recently celebrated their 72nd wedding anniversary. Soon after their marriage, Helena moved to be with her husband in a Quartz Mountain logging camp where he found employment with the Ewauna Box Company, out of Bly, Oregon. After the war came, they moved back to Canby and built a home on a $60 lot close to town.

During the war, Clarence was employed running a lathe for the Swan Island Shipyards servicing ships. After the war ended, they purchased a little grocery store, a service station and a logging truck at Ocean Lake, which is now called Lincoln City. Soon, a relative offered them a job in Roseburg with Interstate Tractor where he moved the family and worked for two years. Then, he was asked to be a manager for the city taxi cab business at the Grand Hotel in downtown Roseburg. After 10 years, he and Helena purchased the business and ran it for 20 years.

In 1973, they sold the cab business and moved to Portland to be closer to their children: Norman Boe, his daughter Jessica Rader; Bill and Merrie Ellen Boe Davies (now deceased), their daughter, Tracy, her husband Michael Payne, and their great-grandson Lincoln. Another daughter, Karen Boe Morrow, lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia with her husband, Jim, and son, Ryan.

For the past five years, they resided in a retirement home at CherryWood Village in Portland where they enjoyed socializing with friends and family during their later years.

Helena was always proud of her school days and life in Canby. She played basketball in grade school and high school, being on a championship team, something she talked about with pride. She followed the Seattle Mariners and Portland Trailblazers faithfully, along with Oregon State Beavers and Oregon Ducks. She was very interested in politics and kept up with current issues and events. She was a strong Christian and a loving matriarch to all her family. She had many friends, old and young, being a constant source of support for all who met her. She was the family historian who shared many stories of the past to the delight of all her family. Her love of life and family was evident always. Helena was most remembered for her quick-witted remarks, her frequent laughter, and her ability to make all people feel comfortable in her presence.

She was a breast cancer survivor, but pneumonia took her at the end with Clarence and

her family at her side.

Several people who were close to Helena preceded her in death. A daughter, Merrie Ellen Davies, in 2004, her brother, Earl Oliver, in 1991 and sister, Mildred Oliver Kelly.

Internment will be at the Zion Mausoleum at 3:00 on Sunday, October 28th and her memorial service will be at Gateway Baptist Church, 13300 NE San Rafael Street, Portland, Oregon at 2:00 P.M. on Monday, October 29th.

Survivors also include Wayne Oliver (nephew) of Canby, Oregon; Vicki Oliver Lang (niece) Canby, Oregon; CT (nephew) and Carol Kelly of Abilene, Texas; Esther Boe Solberg (sister-in-law) of Ferndale, Washington; Jeannette Hagstrom (niece) of Seattle, Washington; and Dorothy Boe (niece) of Lynnwood, Washington.