Wilmer Oren Yost

Wilmer Oren Yost, age 89, of Grants Pass, died Sunday, December 11, 2011 at Three Rivers Community Hospital.

Private interment was held at Deer Creek Cemetery in Selma. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Wilmer was born July 4, 1922 in Stockton, Missouri to Harry & Martha Yost. At age 13 he drove his family from Missouri to Exeter, California keeping under 30 mph the entire trip at his father’s direction. From 1941 to 1942 he served in the United States Army. In the early 1940s he married Beulah Faye Bingham and when their daughter was two years old Beulah Faye died in 1948. He later re-married and had seven more children. In 1968 he moved to Selma. As a mechanic and welder, he traveled on “working vacations” and enjoyed taking his young children to pick fruit and fish. Two years ago he moved from Selma to Grants Pass to live with a daughter.

His hobbies included playing the fiddle, guitar, and mandolin; fishing; gardening; and singing with his family.

Survivors include his longtime companion, Dorothy Yost of Wimer, Oregon; three daughters, Buenelle Dickerson and husband Doug of Newport, Oregon, Jeanie Truitt and husband Matt of Bakersfield, California, and Connie Evangelista of Grants Pass, Oregon; five sons, Bruce Yost of Cerritos, California, Harry Yost of Rogue River, Oregon, Babe Yost of Redding, California, Marty Yost of Grants Pass, Oregon, and Jarrett Yost of Selma, Oregon; a brother, Tom Yost of Tulare, California; a sister, Pauline Gilchrist of Mountain Home, Arkansas; 18 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren; and seven great-great-grandchildren.