Orvetta L. Moon Obituary (1920

Orvetta Lucille Moon (Dougherty) died April 2, 2012 at the Life Care Center in Richland, Washington. She was 91 years old. She was born July 4, 1920 in Connell, Washington - the youngest of 12 children of Edward and Elizabeth Dougherty. Orvetta grew up with her younger siblings in Deer Park, Washington, where her father was a mill foreman and her mother cooked for the local school district. She graduated from Riverside High School in 1939 and moved back to Connell, where she lived with her sister-in-law Velda while working as a telephone switchboard operator. There that she met John Moon, whom she quickly fell in love with and married on December 16, 1939. She liked to recall the story of first meeting John while out with a friend – she spotted him, asked who he was, and informed her friend that “I want him.” John’s family farmed wheat in the Connell area but did not have enough resources to support him in his dream to become a farmer as well. For a while Orvetta and John lived in Connell while he worked in a survey crew for the Columbia Basin Project, until John was able to rent land in the Horse Heaven Hills near Prosser, Washington and begin farming on his own. Orvetta moved to their new farm in Horse Heaven in 1940, where she would remain for the next 67 years of her life. Her new home was an abandoned homestead shack patched together after shooing off the wild horses that had previously made it their barn. The first two of those years were without electricity or running water until rural electrification arrived. She took great pride in the work she did to make a home and support the farm in the early years while her husband broke sagebrush ground and sowed their first crops. She had her first son John in 1941, kept her home, and boarded and fed large wheat harvest crews three home-cooked meals a day. Her second son Jim was born in 1948 and continues to farm the same ground today with her grandsons. Orvetta took a two-month trip around the world in 1963, on an itinerary that included South America, Europe and the Orient. She visited her son John at his army post in Stuttgart, Germany, admired Incan ruins and travelled from Pakistan across Khyber Pass to Kabul in Afghanistan with John and other local travelers. Orvetta enjoyed her family, friends and neighbors and loved to entertain with John at their home on the farm. They threw a community dance for the neighbors in their new machinery shed when it was completed, and Orvetta was a long time bridge player who took turns hosting the event with other local women. She was also a Grange member and active in the Horse Heaven Community Hall. Orvetta is survived by her sons, John of Yakima and Jim of Prosser, as well as 7 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM on Thursday, April 12, 2012 at the Prosser Funeral Home, 1220 Sheridan Avenue, Prosser, Washington.