April 1, 1922 – July 16, 2007
Marguerite Nixon Wright, 85, died July 16, 2007 at home, peacefully in her sleep.
She was born April 1, 1922 in Lebanon, the daughter of Emmett and Grace (Sylvester) Loree. One of her first jobs was for Nixon Brothers in Quartzville. While she was there she was courted by Jack Nixon. They married on Dec. 22, 1940 in Vancouver, Wash.
Their first child, Dave, was born in Oregon City in 1941. In 1942 they bought 450 acres in Mountain Home from the old Sodaville College. Later that year, they bought an additional 400 acres on Sodaville Road, known as “the old Boggy place.” Their first daughter, Elzena, was born in Lebanon in 1942. They then bought the 250-acre Olsen place. In 1943 they had their youngest daughter, Edith, who was born in Lebanon. Mr. Nixon died of cancer in the summer of 1946, leaving his wife at 23 with three small children.
At 24 she built the Shamrock Café on Highway 20 next to the rail yard in Sweet Home. The cafe was known for friendly company and fresh donuts. She sold the café when the Calapooia logging rail road and the rail yard closed in 1948.
In 1948 she married Robert (Bob) Wright, and they had one son, Daryl, born in 1949 in Eugene. Mrs. Wright stayed home and became a homemaker. Her husband had two sons, Bobby and Larry, who became part of the family.
In 1957 her home at the upper place burned to the ground and she rebuilt a rock home at the old Mountain Home School Yard on the lower place in 1958. The Wrights logged their properties, ran cattle, sheep and farmed for over 22 years.
Mrs. Wright sold out in 1962 and moved to Springfield. In 1966 she bought a small farm at the junction of Route F and Poodle Creek near Noti. In 1995 she lost her second husband Bob. She bought a trailer in a senior trailer park in Lebanon to be close to her sons and sisters and the rest of the family.
Her younger sister Doris Loree-Morin and her husband Wayne lived close by and they became known as “The Three Musketeers” within the family.
Mrs. Wright is survived by three sons; one daughter; 17 grandchildren; 22 great-grandchildren; three sisters, Doris, Pearl Wilson and Della Valdez; and two brothers, Ed and Paul.
She was preceded in death by both husbands; her son Bobby in 1972; four brothers, Eugene, Delbert, Melvin, and Bruce; and two sisters, Edith Loree and Era Mackey.
Services were held July 20 at the Huston-Jost Funeral Home, with private burial in Bonney Cemetery in Colton.