N. Inez Hassett

N Inez Hassett of Grants Pass and Williams died Saturday 3/20/10 at her home.

A memorial gathering will be held at Hull and Hull Funeral Directors in Grants Pass Wednesday, April 7th at 2 o’clock.

Condolences to [emailprotected] or to PO Box 35, Williams Oregon 97544.

Contributions may be made to the Stephen Ministry at Bethany Presbyterian Church, 748 NW 5th Street, Grants Pass, OR 97526-3038.

Inez was born (the youngest of 4 children) on a dry-land homestead near Sisters, Oregon, July 6 1917 to Charles and Sarah (nee Lee) Robbins. She and her siblings rode horses to school for her first few grades. After living in several locations in the west-central area of the Willamette valley, the family moved to Klamath Falls at the onset of the depression where Charles died in 1933. Inez quit school to help support the family only a few months before graduation. It was here she met Wesley A Hassett, whom she married at Klamath Falls August 16, 1936. Her first son was born exactly a year later in Klamath Falls.

They lived in logging camps and logging towns along the Oregon-California border until the onset of World War II. The family then moved to Grants Pass in February of 1942 to be near family in case Wesley might be drafted. Since he was in a critical war industry, logging, this became their joint WWII service. They formed Hassett Brothers Logging with Russell Hassett which operated until 1956. After the war she was the principle operator for the Josephine County loggers’ cooperative communications system “Sexton Forest Communications,” a two way radio hookup to various logging operations throughout Josephine and Jackson counties.

In 1953 a second son was born, in Murphy, Oregon.

She was extremely involved with Rogue Valley Grange from 1943, rising to state office in the Grange. During those years Rogue Valley was the largest Grange in Oregon. Later, she was equally involved in Rebekahs and FL, also holding state office. Other activities included Scouting (Troop 22), 4-H, Eastern Star and the county fair (with Rogue Valley Grange, as a crafts judge and with the Sheriff’s Department). She and Wesley loved dancing, both ball-room and square dancing. They taught the latter in the early fifties.

Inez started her nursing career as a volunteer nurses aid at Josephine General in the late ‘50's. She decided to return to school, completing her GED and going on to graduate as an LPN in 1966 and from Southern Oregon as an RN in 1971. She rose to a nursing supervisory position at Josephine General and, later, was office nurse for various doctors’ offices in Grants Pass and nursing homes in Medford and Grants Pass, retiring at age 75. She was widowed in 1980 after 44 years with Wesley. She never remarried and had worn his rings for nearly 3/4 of a century when she died.

Retirement interests included family, Bethany Presbyterian Church (where she was a long time member and a Steven’s Minister until her health no longer permitted), oil painting, textile painting crocheting and knitting, sewing and embroidery, computing and a group of obstreperous cats.

Survivors include two sons, Loran S Hassett of Williams Oregon and L. Scott Hassett of League City, Texas, 4 grand children and two great-grandchildren. (Six of seven step-grandchildren also survive.)