James “Jim” Angus Rees died peacefully earlier this week in Damascus, OR at the Sunshine Valley Adult Care facility. He was 96.
Born in Shaniko, Oregon, Jim was the 5th and youngest child of Lillie May (McHargue) Rees (1875-1968), and William Arthur Rees (1871-1955). He was a fourth generation Oregonian and the great-grandson of James M McHargue (1822-1897) and Sarah Jane (Montgomery) McHargue (1823-1897), Oregon pioneers who travelled by covered wagon from Missouri arriving in the vicinity of Brownsville in October 1847. Jim’s mother, Lillie, moved to Shaniko in the late 1800s. His father, William (“Bill”), was an 1892 Welsh immigrant who homesteaded Rabbit Island in the Columbia River just east of The Dalles. Jim attended Shaniko School for both grade school and high school and was the only graduate of Shaniko High School in 1930. At the time of his death, he was the school’s oldest living alumnus.
After high school, Jim worked for his father in the Moody warehouse in Shaniko, which was then one of the largest wool exporting centers in the world. In 1934, he moved to Portland to study accounting at Behnke-Walker Business College. Upon completion of his courses, he was hired as a bookkeeper by a commission company at the Portland Stockyards and later worked for the Stockyard Company itself where he combined clerical work with helping with livestock.
Drafted into the Army in April, 1942, Jim was sent to California for basic training and later to the Mojave Desert for desert maneuver training. He left NYC for Casablanca in February 1943 and served as a Staff Sergeant in the Quartermaster Corp, Graves Registration, for the remainder of the war. His unit travelled from Morocco through Algeria, Tunisia, into Sicily, through Rome and into France and Germany before heading home in October, 1945.
Before the war, Jim met Irma Lucile McPherson (1914-1993) who worked in an office at the Stockyards. During the war, he corresponded with Irma and they were married in Portland on January 25, 1945----only 2 weeks into a month-long furlough. After the war, they settled in the Kenton district of Portland near Irma’s home and Jim returned to work at the Stockyards, later the Arrow Meat Company and finally Pacific Meat Company where he worked from 1949 until his retirement in 1975.
Jim and Irma had two children – John (1947- ) and Mary Anne (1952- ). The family lived in the Kenton neighborhood from 1945-1953, in Oak Grove from 1953-1957 and in the Irvington from 1957-1995. After nearly 49 years of marriage, Irma died in 1993.
On June 24, 1995, Jim married Sara (Sewell) Berger of Sandy, OR. Sara and her husband Howard (1910-1992) had been good friends of Jim and Irma for more than 50 years. Jim and Sara lived in Sandy until Jim’s health was such that he required more care than could be provided in their home.
Jim had a ready smile and, like his father, was quick to joke. He had a remarkable memory for riddles, puzzles, puns and one-liners (“I once dated a woman with a wooden leg, but it ended when I broke it off”). His eyes lit up when he talked about his granddaughters----together they went on hikes, visited the Humane Society, attended dog races in Fairview, and enjoyed playing all kinds of games. Although his small-school education didn’t go much beyond basic algebra, he could quickly do complicated arithmetic problems in his head. Seventy-five years after graduating from Shaniko High, he could still readily repeat from memory many classic poems he had learned there. He remained fit and trim throughout his life and especially enjoyed baseball, volleyball and bowling. He was a 50+ year member of both the Amaranth and the Masons. Jim was a favorite among his nieces and nephews as well as popular with the kids of the neighborhood.
Jim is survived by his wife, Sara Berger Rees of Sandy; his son John David Rees and John’s wife Pat (Cunerty) Rees of Portland and their children Sarabeth Daily Rees of Alexandria, VA and Ashley Anne Rees of Arlington, VA. He is also survived by his daughter Mary Anne Rees of Gresham as well as nine of his eleven nieces and nephews. Jim was predeceased by his parents and his four siblings: William Adelbert (1904-1992), Lillian Margaret (Rees) Olsen (1906-1930), Harry Alfred (1907-2005) and John Robert (1911-1996). Jim was the last of his generation of the Rees family.
Services will be held on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 1PM at the Community Presbyterian Church, located at 39290 Scenic Street in Sandy, Oregon and have been arranged through Sandy Funeral Home. Viewing will take place on December 22nd from 3-5PM at the Funeral Home. Private burial will occur at Skyline Memorial Gardens. Memorial contributions may be made to the Salvation Army, the Portland Rescue Mission or Adventist Health/Hospice.