Naomi Ruth Trettin

Naomi Ruth Trettin, age 93, of Grants Pass, died Thursday, January 7, 2010 at her home of congestive heart failure.

A funeral service will begin at 1:00 p.m., Monday, January 11, 2010 at Jerome Prairie Bible Church with Pastor James Downing and Pastor Russ Gibson officiating. Private interment will be at Hawthorne Memorial Gardens. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Remembrances may be made to a charity of one’s choice.

She was born Naomi Ruth Graham January 8, 1916 in Bolivar, Polk County, Missouri the 9th of 10 children of William Arthur & Stella (Hilton) Graham. In 1933 she graduated from Pleasant Hope High School and received a scholarship to attend Draughn’s Business University in Springfield, Missouri. In 1934 she moved to Ventura, California and on November 23, 1935 in Yuma, Arizona she married George Henry “Hank” Trettin. Hank & Naomi lived in different places in Southern California before moving from Corona to Grants Pass in 1962. They lived on a 10-acre farm for 28 years in the Jerome Prairie area. After her children were grown, she drove a school bus for county schools in the Jerome Prairie-Lincoln Savage area for about 12 years before retiring. In summertime she worked at the Josephine County Fairgrounds raising flowers and cleaning buildings in preparation for the County Fair. At age 88, she moved to Santa Rosa, California where she lived with her son and daughter-in-law, Larry & Deborah. In September 2009 she returned to Grants Pass to live with her daughter, Sharon Trettin-Begley.

Naomi attended Jerome Prairie Bible Church where she was active in Release Time, Women’s Missionary Society, Daily Vacation Bible School, the Music Department, and was church Treasurer for a number of years. In later years she enjoyed the many trips and meetings of the Senior Group there. She was an officer in PTA for Jerome Prairie Elementary and Lincoln Savage Junior High Schools. From the age of two, music was a great part of her life; she sang with the devotional program at rest homes as a volunteer with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Group, sang with the Pacemakers, and in many trios at church.

Naomi loved to garden, raise flowers, crochet, sew, knit, quilt, play board games, sing gospel songs and old hymns, assemble jigsaw puzzles, and spend time with her family. In later years she enjoyed reading and used the public libraries often. She read the Bible through several times.

Survivors include five children, Dennis Trettin of Portland, Oregon, Larry Trettin of Santa Rosa, California, Karl Trettin of Modesto, California, Kathy Shannon of San Jose, California, and Sharon Trettin-Begley of Grants Pass, Oregon; 11 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; and 15 great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Hank in 1987.