Fleta Hazel Slack Barnhill

Fleta Hazel Slack Barnhill passed away on Friday, June 5, 2009, just a few days before her 102nd birthday.

She was born June 17, 1907, in Summerville, Ore. She experienced many changes in her long and rich lifetime.

Fleta was one of two children born to Birt and Nellie Slack. Her father, Birt “Buckaroo Slim,” broke, trained and traded horses up and down the Columbia River from La Grande to Portland. Her mother, Nellie, was a logging camp cook. Fleta helped with the cooking, but her specialty was pie baking. Fleta’s family enjoyed many juicy fruit pies – cherry, apple, pear, rhubarb, gooseberry, apricot and berry. Her family always asked for birthday pie – not cake.

Fleta was the great-great-granddaughter of American legend, missionary-nurseryman, “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman.

Fleta was quite a horsewoman and sat tall and proud in the saddle. She rode until about age 83. She was very active in her church and spent many, many hours playing the pump organ and the piano for church and Sabbath school at the Moses Lake Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Fleta married William “Bill” Barnhill in 1925, when she was 18 years old. They homesteaded a beautiful piece of land in Molalla, Ore. They had two children, Lois and Marlin. The construction of the great Grand Coulee Dam brought them to Washington. After Bill worked on the dam for a few years, he obtained a civil service position at Larson Air Force Base and they moved to Moses Lake. They bought their home in Cascade Valley in 1942 and it was always a haven for family in joyous times and tough times.

Fleta has two children, three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.

Fleta is survived by her daughter, Lois Fleta Barnhill Hastings, her grandson, Thomas Bowles (wife Laura), her granddaughters, Ramona Amos Van Vekoven and Lorna Hastings, her great-grandchildren, David Van Vekoven, Kimberly Van Vekoven-Vaughan and Kyle Bowles (wife Carrie), and her six great-great-grandchildren, Jessica Van Vekoven, Justan Vaughan, Lorna Skye Vaughan, Annalise Fleta Bowles, Karsten Bowles and Jonah Bowles.

Fleta was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, William Barnhill, her son, Marlin Barnhill, and her sister, Oma Graham.

Private graveside service to celebrate her life will be held on June 17 for family and very close friends only.