Lois Hawley Wilson

Lois Hawley Wilson died at home in hospice care on August 17 at the age of 98. She was born January 21, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois to Lois Linthicum and Melvin Hawley, the youngest of four children. Although raised in a Chicago suburb, she always wanted a country life. When asked to state her profession, she described herself as a gentlewoman rancher, medieval translator, and sometime editor.

Lois began her love affair with horses at an early age, volunteering to clean stalls for a family that ran a pony ride concession in return for riding privileges. As a teenager, three events would shape her adult life: she spent a year in a body cast following a spinal fusion resulting from a horseback riding mishap, her father died of heart disease, and she got her first poodle, a miniature named Bougie. She would never be without a standard poodle the rest of her life.

She graduated from the Out of Door School in Sarasota, Florida with just two classmates, and attended Washington University in St. Louis for a time before leaving college to marry Jim Doolittle. They divorced prior to the birth of their son Graham in La Jolla, California in 1949. She married James C. Wilson, Jr. on August 10, 1950 and he later adopted Graham. They lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time, settling on four acres in Los Altos Hills with second son Brennan, a horse, and a milk cow. In 1956, they welcomed daughter Hart who was joined two years later by Amy.

In 1960, Lois and Jim decided there were too many people in the Bay Area. Their search for property in Southern Oregon led them to the 1,600-acre Dodge Ranch in Sams Valley where their nearest neighbor was a mile away across the river. They brought the first Charolais cattle into the Rogue Valley to augment the mixed herd that came with the ranch, bringing the herd up to 250 head. Lois spent hours on Pinky, an Appaloosa/Welsh Pony cross, the best cow pony that ever was. At the time, she figured that if she ever broke her leg out riding, she could probably crawl to the highway and someone would drive by in a couple of hours.

A few years into cattle ranching, Jim and Lois realized that with all of their assets tied up in land they needed an actual source of income, so they sold most of the cows and two thirds of the acreage and Jim passed the Oregon bar exam and launched his legal practice in Central Point. Lois continued to be responsible for much of the ranching as well as keeping four kids on the straight and narrow. She became a 4-H leader, starting the Eagle Point Mavericks mixed livestock club and Knit Wits knitting club. In the mid-70s, she helped out at 4-H camp and participated in Hi-Country hiking activities with her daughters. She counted the fun she had working with young people—camping, working with animals, and just hanging out—as one of her greatest pleasures, learning while they were learning. She enjoyed helping young people discover their own intellect and interests, encouraging them to realize their own strengths and abilities. Lois was also involved with the PTA, graded papers for the EPHS English department, and helped organize the initial Senior Graduation Party in 1967.

Lois served as the president of the local 4-H Leaders Association and was tapped to join the Jackson County Fair Board in 1975. A board member until 1990, she was a key member of the Board that left the old fairgrounds in South Medford and began constructing the current facilities on bare ground in Central Point. She was appointed by Governor Vic Atiyeh to a four-year term on the Oregon State Fair Commission in 1981 and toured fairs throughout the state to rate them for the Oregon County Fair Commission from 1984-89. And somehow, in the midst of all of these activities, she managed to graduate cum laude from Southern Oregon State College in 1986 with a degree in general studies (a degree in comparative literature of Latin and Old French not being an option!).

Having learned a lot about the fair industry, Lois shifted to a new area of community service in 1989 when she was appointed to serve on the Board of Jackson County Fire District No. 3. After her initial appointment, she was elected to the post several times and served in many roles including board chair. She represented the Fire District on the Jackson County Urban Renewal Advisory Committee and took satisfaction in playing a role in the improvements that Urban Renewal brought to the White City area. At the age of 84 she retired from the board, having served 22 years.

Other community service included work with the Pacific Non-Profit Network as a Boardwalk Team Assessor, Jackson County Major Projects Committee, Southern Oregon Historical Society Board, Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy Board, and the Rogue Community College Board.

At SOSC, Lois began translating Old French as part of her studies. Through daughter Hart, she met Carleton Carroll, a medieval scholar at OSU. They began collaborating on a translation of Le Chevalier deliberé (The Resolute Knight), an allegorical poem written in the 14th century. Trips to Salem for the State Fair Commission each month nearly always included a stop in Corvallis to meet and work with Carl. Their work was published by an academic press in 1999. Lois also contributed an article on fairs in the Middle Ages in Medieval Trade, Travel, and Exploration, an encyclopedia published the following year.

With all four children raising sheep in 4-H, Lois developed a wealth of experience that she brought to translating Le bon berger (The Good Shepherd), a treatise on raising sheep written in France in the early 1400s. While she worked on identifying plants and diseases described in common language centuries ago to produce the most accurate translation for the text, Carl worked on an in-depth analysis of the language itself. That collaborative effort at translation, more than 10 years in the making, was published in 2012.

Lois loved hosting international visitors and learning about other cultures. She took advantage of her daughters’ international travel to get off the beaten path, meeting and staying with people in France, New Zealand, and Niger. She developed deep lifelong friendships with many people from other cultures.

Always active, Lois started an exercise class in her living room when she discovered there wasn’t one in Eagle Point. A lifelong swimmer, she was still doing deep-water aerobics three days a week at the age of 91. While her family would credit her commitment to her physical health for her longevity, her own explanation was just that there were books she hadn’t read yet! She was a constant reader of mysteries and biographies, and she had a fascination with the Lewis and Clark Expedition that began at Joseph Sears grade school in Kenilworth, Illinois. She loved all kinds of word play and kept a dictionary handy at all times to track down the origin of words that struck her fancy. An optimistic realist, she once explained her pragmatism with “Ranching teaches any sentient person an appreciation of life and death: a rancher lives in hope but deals with the inevitable, wanting the best but accepting the feasible.” When asked to list her activities, she said "I am always active in whatever I undertake. The status quo is boring, a dead end.”

Lois was an intellectual with a quick wit and a great sense of humor, traits she maintained to the end. She couldn’t imagine how people survived if they couldn’t laugh, especially at themselves. She and Jim infused an intense sense of justice and the importance of doing the right thing not only in their children, but also in those they associated with. A lifelong learner, all who knew her learned something and gained inspiration from her. Throughout her life she engaged and mentored many by showing genuine interest in them and encouraging them to live their lives to the fullest. Widowed in 1992, Lois is survived by her children, Graham and Hart, Eagle Point; Amy, Central Point; and Brennan (Kathy), Tukwila, WA; and enjoyed close relationships with grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and dear friends she loved like family. The family is indebted to Jaymi who gave Lois loving care over the last year and a half. Plans are underway for a celebration of a life well-lived.

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