Elsie M. Dearing

Elsie M. Dearing, age 87, of Grants Pass, died Friday, August 5, 2011, just shy of her 88th birthday, at Highland House Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.

A viewing will be Saturday, August 13, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at Hull & Hull Funeral Directors.

A funeral service will be at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, August 13, 2011 at Hull & Hull Chapel. Private interment will be at Hawthorne Memorial Gardens.

Memorial donations may be made to Josephine County Artists Association, PO Box 1275, Grants Pass Oregon 97528.

Elsie was born on August 23, 1923 in Lightwoods School District, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada. She always enjoyed telling people that her birth certificate did not have a place of birth, it was recorded as longitude and latitude. Elsie, her sister, Elien and their parents, Alfred & Isabella Mawby lived in a log cabin on their farm. Her father helped establish the one room school for the children in the community. She met her future husband Ashley Dearing in Saskatchewan, and later married him in Rice Lake, Wisconsin in 1947. The family moved to California and then to Colorado following the work in the oil fields. Elsie and Ashley heard of an A & W Drive-In for sale in Grants Pass, Oregon and packed up their belongings and moved to Oregon. Elsie and her husband, Ashley, operated the A & W Drive-In from 1959 to 1970. Many people still remember working for Elsie, and gaining the knowledge of “a job well done”. At that time, a mug of root beer cost 5 cents. Upon Ashley’s death in 1970, Elsie sold the A & W Drive-In and returned to school. She completed a GED and Associates Degree. She was then employed by Rogue Community College as a secretary for the admissions and financial aide department until her retirement in 1988. Retirement did not slow Elsie down at all. She started taking classes in drawing and painting and became quite successful at both, winning many awards at fairs and art shows. She worked at the fair every year for the Artists Association, cataloging and collecting the art entries. Elsie lived on family property for 49 years, then Oak Lane, and later at The Bridge Assisted Living.

She volunteered with Barnstormers, Grants Pass Artists Association, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.

She was a member of the Grants Pass Artists Association, Southern Oregon Historical Society and the Charlie Brown Square Dance Club where she traveled all over Oregon to perform with the club.

Elsie loved to dance and she enjoyed round dancing, square dancing and clogging. She also enjoyed painting and quilting.

Survivors include two sons, Daryl Dearing and wife Deedee , of Grants Pass, Oregon and Timothy Dearing and wife Janice of Medford, Oregon; a daughter, Roxanne Dearing of Roseburg, Oregon; a sister Elien Coffey of Vernon, British Columbia; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Ashley E. Dearing.