Virginia "Virgie" Bushong

An inurnment will be held on Wednesday, July 3 2013 at 2PM at Juniper Haven Cemetery in Prineville, Oregon.

Virginia was born on April 9th, 1919 to LaVerne and Edna Gunn in Glen County, California. She was raised on a homestead in the Sacramento Valley with her two younger brothers, Glen and Ralph. As a girl, she was very athletic, keeping up with her brothers who were both outstanding football players. She graduated from Hamilton City High School in 1936. She attended college for one and a half years at Linfield College in the McMinville, Oregon. During her second year, she met Jack Bushong. They were married on Christmas Eve in 1938.

They lived in the Sacramento Valley for two years. They returned to Oregon in 1940 so that Jack could pursue his career as a logger. They lived in various towns along the Oregon coast before settling in Tillamook where they started the Bushong Logging Company. They spent 12 years there raising their four children: Jacqueline, Gary, Fred, and Charles.

In 1957, Jack and Virgie moved to Lewiston, Idaho, where they lived for 4 years. Virgie finished her teaching degree and taught in small high schools in the area. In 1961, they moved to Forest Grove, Oregon where the Bushong Logging Company worked for Stinson Lumber doing contract logging. Virgie taught elementary physical education at a Portland elementary school for a few years. She finished her B.S. degree at Pacific University.

Jack and Virgie moved to Sheridan, Oregon where she taught in the junior high school. They then moved to Eugene, Oregon where Virgie got her M.S. degree in physical education at the University of Oregon. In 1972, Jack got a job in Prineville, and they spent the rest of their working careers there and John Day. Virgie did substitute teaching in both Prineville and John Day. The last few years before retiring, she was the office manager for the U.S. Forest Service office in John Day.

After retiring, Jack and Virgie spent five months every winter in Yuma, Arizona in RV parks.

Virgie’s biggest passion was building. She learned carpentry from her father and was involved in various building and remodeling projects wherever they lived, often to Jack’s dismay. Jack and Virgie loved to camp. They knew all the lakes and creeks in Central and Eastern Oregon.

Virgie was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, and son Gary.

She is survived by her daughter, Jacqueline Shumway; her sons, Fred and Charles Bushong; 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and 6 great-great grandchildren

Arrangements are in the care of Prineville Funeral Home.