Margaret Ruth Blair Parrott

STAYTON - Margaret Ruth Blair Parrott was born on February 25, 1919 in Kearney County, Nebraska. She was the sixth child and fifth girl born to Vern and Myrtle Blair. She grew up on a farm knowing hard work including milking cows by hand, carrying water from the well, and riding on a horse several miles to school, sometimes through snow drifts. Her stories of the farm include hiding in the cellar from a tornado, and catching catfish flopping in the corn fields during irrigation season. Her family lost their third generation farm during the depression, and as a young woman she moved with her family to Ontario, Oregon where she met Glenn Parrott, they married on June 18, 1936 in Emmett, Idaho. The couple moved to Portland in 1939 and knew great hardships, but she helped Glenn through two years of Chiropractic School by working at various jobs. When the Pearl Harbor attack occurred, Glenn joined the Navy Marines, and was sent to the Pacific conflict where he served as a medic, separating them for more than two years at a time. Margaret worked throughout the war moving back to Ontario, where she worked as a Chiropractic assistant, going through great financial difficulty as well as managing her parents little acreage while they worked in the shipyards in Bremerton, Washington. When the couple reunited after the war, they went back to Portland and Glenn finished his education and they worked together in his first office in Molalla, Oregon. They had two children within this time, Carol Lynde and Kip, but the family later moved to Oregon City where they spent the majority of their years. Margaret assisted her husband in his office, but later as the children got older, she began working for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and was deputized, but most of her duties were in the records department. She and Glenn were active in public service. Glenn became a city leader in Oregon City and eventually mayor, and both he and Margaret helped start a sister city relationship between Oregon City and Tateshina Japan, one of the longest lasting sister city relationships in the United States. Both traveled to Japan several times on city business. Both Margaret and Glenn were active in the Chiropractic Association where Margaret was elected a leader of the Ladies Auxiliary, while Glenn wrote for their magazine and both fought politically for the association, meeting with both Governor McCall and Governor Hatfield at various times. Margaret wrote Governor Hatfield for help with a problem in Ontario concerning her parents small farm, and that letter and pictures of the abuses done by a large company, helped save her parents farm. They attended the Willamette Christian Church in West Linn helping to start the church in the Willamette fire hall. Later a church building was constructed, and Margaret taught Sunday School and led various Daily Vacation Bible Schools throughout her life. She led the church choir, and worked in ladies groups and Bible study groups. She helped manage various potlucks and fellowship dinners and was famous for her jello mold salads. She has been a resident at the Brookdale Retirement Home, formally called Lakeside in Stayton Oregon for over 15 years. Bedbound, she told her family, “When I see Jesus, I will not walk to him, I am going to run.” Margaret passed away at age 99 on September 25, 2018. She was preceded in death by her husband, Glenn in 1999. Margaret is survived by her brother, Ben Blair of Molalla, Oregon; two children, Kip Parrott of Palm Desert, California and Carol Fleenor of Turner, Oregon in addition to four grandchildren, Rebekah McBeth of Turner, Oregon, Peter Fleenor of Redmond Oregon, Deborah Handman of Creswell, Oregon and Matthew Fleenor of Eugene, Oregon in addition to nine great grandchildren. Margaret will be privately laid to rest with her husband at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. Please leave online condolences at weddle-funeral.com