Ina Mae Shuck

Ina Mae was born in Portland, Oregon in the Women’s Hospital to Jesse Earl and Alfreda Mary Eaton. She was raised in a Christian family and made her decision to follow Christ at an early age. As with many families of the late Depression, a large garden grew their own vegetables and fruits. Even a cow, ‘Bessie’, gave the family milk and butter. She learned home making skills of cooking, sewing, and canning from her mother.

Ina started school and soon out grew her shyness, playing with other girls, since there were mostly boys in her neighborhood.

The family loved spending special weeks during each summer attending Christian family conferences. Tragically in 1939, while returning from a Missionary Alliance Conference, Ina’s older brother Wallace, was killed when a train struck the car he was riding in.

As life continued, Ina spent summers picking fruit and vegetables to earn money her goal was to attend college. Neither of her parents had that opportunity.

Ina Mae graduated from Lincoln High School in 1945 and earned a scholarship to Lewis and Clark College in Portland. After 2 years, to follow her interest in nutrition, she decided to transfer to Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon where she focused on a degree in Dietetics in Home Economics. She found the required science classes challenging.

While attending First Baptist Church in Corvallis, she met Dale Shuck, a veteran attending Oregon State on the G.I. Bill. Their relationship grew and he proposed on Valentine’s Day 1949. Ina Mae graduated and they were married August 5, 1949. After their honeymoon in British Columbia, Ina secured a job as Food Supervisor, over 200 kitchen workers in one of the dorms at Oregon State. Dale had one more year to receive his degree. They lived in the upstairs of a small house across from their church in Corvallis.

Dale graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering and worked for Bonneville Power in Portland. As Dale’s professional experience grew they moved around the country from Portland, to Vallejo, California, to Bell Telephone Labs in New Jersey, where their first son, Craig was born in 1953.

With their family roots on the west coast they decided to return to Portland. Dale was hired by Bell Telephone in Seattle, then the Boeing Company. Seattle is where the family would establish themselves and Ina Mae became a fulltime homemaker. Two more children were born; David and Marily in 1956 and 1957. As the children and Dale’s career grew they moved around the area, from Bellevue to Issaquah.

Ina continued her love of gardening where she was a member of the Bellevue Garden Club. She raised many varieties of flowers and was responsible for arrangements at their church, First Baptist in Kirkland. She sang in the church choir and played the violin. She also had a passion for Camp Fire Girls, where she continued a relationship with the girls in reunions throughout her life.

Following Dale’s, early retirement in 1982, they moved to 14 acres in Issaquah where they began a Christmas tree business. Ina spent long hours during the Christmas Holidays making holly wreaths.

In 1989, the Christmas tree farm was sold and they moved back to Bellevue. Ina Mae joined Dale in mission’s work as area representative for HCJB, World Radio. Their involvement with HCJB, later took them to serve in the international office in Miami, Florida and then to relocate the offices to Colorado Springs. After several years of service they moved back to their townhouse in Bellevue.

Now in their 80’s it was time to relocate back to Issaquah to Bellewood Retirement Apartments where they were still able to live independently. Dale went to be with the Lord in October 2012. After downsizing Ina continued to live at Bellewood where she continued to attend Crossroads Community Church in Bellevue. She cherished frequent visits by my children, grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.

In the last days of June she was surrounded by her family. June 23, 2018 she went to be reunited with Dale and the Lord.

Ina Mae’s interests included:

Hobbies: Violin, Choir, sewing, gardening, flower arranging, crafts and genealogy

Recreation: camping, hiking, skiing, and travel

Faith: Completed Moody correspondence courses, commitment to foreign missions in South America, Japan, and China. Also the Camp Fire Girls.

Life Verse: Deuteronomy 10:12 “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,”