Obituary for Harry Cecil Ward

Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)

February 6, 1991

Photo of Harry Cecil Ward

Edition:  Fourth

Section:  Obituaries

Page:  C04

Harry Cecil Ward, a former president of the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, died of lung cancer Saturday in his Northeast Portland home.

He was known for his steady and unflappable style of promoting civil rights. Mr. Ward served as president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP from 1959 until 1962 and was active in the sometimes turbulent battles to win fair employment practices for blacks in the Northwest during the early 1960s.

Recalling the trailblazing era during a 1979 interview with a writer for The Oregon Journal, he said he felt his greatest achievement was in bringing blacks into the white-dominated work force.

In 1962, he led one of the first major challenges against school segregation in Oregon. The protests proved unsuccessful in halting the practice but had enough of an impact that a special committee on race and education was formed to look into the issue.

Mr. Ward was born Sept. 16, 1913, in Muskogee, Okla., where he was raised and graduated from high school. He earned his bachelor's degree from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and taught in Arkansas and Oklahoma. He was one of the first black juvenile-probation officers in Tulsa, Okla., a position he had for 15 years.

After moving to Portland in 1954, he was an Alcoholics Anonymous counselor before spending 12 years as a caseworker for the Oregon Welfare Department.

In 1968, Mr. Ward became the first black employee representative for the Oregon State Employment Association. He retired because of disability in 1978.

Mr. Ward later was director of the Portland Model Cities program for several years and was chairman of the Community Coalition for School Integration for three years until the organization disbanded in 1980.

He continued to serve on the NAACP board for 34 consecutive years, and was a board member for the Business Men's Club and Emanuel Hospital & Health Center. He had been a commissioner for the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission.

Additionally, he served as a director for the Boys Clubs of America and was an active member of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church and Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Mr. Ward was honored with the Russell A. Peyton Human Relations Award by the Metropolitan Human Relations Commission in 1979 for his outstanding commitment and service to human rights and his many years of involvement and leadership in civil-rights issues.

Services will be at 1 p.m. Friday in Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Burial will be in Rose City Cemetery.

The family suggests remembrances be contributions to the Harry C. Ward Memorial Scholarship Fund in care of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.

Submitted by L. Kemp 

Obituary for Zenobia I. Daniel

The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

March 4, 1992

Edition:  FOURTH

Section:  OBITUARIES

Page:  B08

The funeral for Zenobia I. Daniel of North Portland will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the Emmanuel Temple Full Gospel Pentecostal Church. Burial will be in Rose City Cemetery.

Mrs. Daniel died of a cerebral hemorrhage Thursday in her home. She was 79.

She was born Zenobia Green on July 4, 1912, in Elgin, Texas, where she was reared and educated. She married Mark Daniel on Jan. 12, 1924, in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Mrs. Daniel lived in Lubbock, Texas, for more than 45 years before moving to the Portland area 10 years ago. She had worked as a private cook and housekeeper for a number of years. Her husband had died during the mid-1960s.

Mrs. Daniel attended the Emmanuel Gospel Temple Full Gospel Pentecostal Church.

The family suggests that remembrances be contributions to the Diabetes Association of Oregon. 

Submitted by L. Kemp 

Obituary - Henry J. `Jack' Johnson

The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

April 30, 1997

A funeral will be Saturday, May 3, 1997, in Williams Funeral Home in Quincy, Fla., for Henry J. ``Jack'' Johnson, who died April 26 at age 68.

Mr. Johnson was born Dec. 7, 1928, in Quincy. He moved from Los Angeles to Portland in 1955. He was a custodian in Portland-area hospitals and nursing homes and worked in environmental services at Legacy Emanuel Hospital before retiring about three years ago. He was a member of Bethel A.M.E. Church.

Interment will be in Smith Cemetery in Quincy. Arrangements are by Killingsworth Little Chapel of the Chimes.

Submitted by L. Kemp 

Obituary for Mildred L. Darton

The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

May 5, 1994

Edition:  FOURTH

Section:  OBITUARIES

Page:  E04

The funeral will be at 1 p.m. May 6, 1994, in Emmanuel Temple Full Gospel Pentecostal Church.

Mrs. Darton was born Aug. 18, 1939, in Starkville, Miss. She died April 29, 1994, of heart disease. She was 54.

Mrs. Darton lived in Oregon for 16 years. She was a gospel singer and evangelist, and a member of the Hagios Missionary Temple Church.

She is survived by 11 brothers and 10 sisters in Mississippi.

Interment: Lone Fir Cemetery.

Arrangements: Killingsworth Little Chapel of the Chimes.

Submitted by L. Kemp

Obituary for Bennie L. Allen

The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

December 8, 2005

A funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 9, 2005, in Bethel A.M.E. Church in Portland for Bennie L. Allen, who died Nov. 30 at age 64.

Bennie McFerrin was born Oct. 7, 1941, in Little Rock, Ark., and moved to Portland in 1946. She graduated from Jefferson High School and was a licensed practical nurse for Legacy Emanuel Medical Center for more than 40 years.

Arrangements by Cox & Cox.

Submitted by L. Kemp 

Obituary for Ivra Mae Anderson

Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)

January 23, 2004

A funeral will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2004, in Allen Temple CME Church, on Northeast Eighth Avenue in Portland, for Ivra Mae Anderson, who died Jan. 17 at age 74.

Ivra Mae Coleman was born Oct. 6, 1929, in Tatum, Texas. She moved to Portland as a teenager. She was a self-employed beautician.

Arrangements by Cox & Cox.

Submitted by L. Kemp 

Obituary for Mae E. Hargon Bridges

Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)

December 25, 1993

Edition:  FOURTH

Section:  OBITUARIES

Page:  D10

Mae E. Hargon Bridges of Northeast Portland, a former clerk for Multnomah County, died Friday in a Portland hospital of complications from kidney disease. The funeral was Tuesday in the Bethel A.M.E. Church.

Mrs. Bridges was 46.

She was born Jan. 1, 1947, in Camden, Miss., and moved to the Portland area in 1955. Mrs. Bridges worked as an office clerk for Building Environment Systems from 1976 until 1979 and then worked in the Multnomah County permits department for about five years until 1984.

She was a member of the Bethel A.M.E. Church.

Burial will be in Rose City Cemetery.

Submitted by L. Kemp 

Obituary for Walter Bridges

Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)

January 8, 1992

Edition:  FOURTH

Section:  OBITUARIES

Page:  G01

BIG BAND LEADER WALTER BRIDGES DIES

The funeral for Walter Bridges, a Portland big band leader, will be at 11 a.m. Friday in the Killingsworth Chapel of the Chimes.

His body will be cremated.

Mr. Bridges died Monday in a Portland-area convalescent center of causes related to age. He was 77.

He was born Nov. 9, 1914, in Crossett, Ark. By the time he was 23, he was playing first trumpet in the Count Basie Orchestra and living in Kansas City, Mo. He married Mary Lee Burris, also of Crossett, Ark., on March 3, 1938.

The couple moved in 1943 to Portland, where Mr. Bridges worked in the shipyards. Subsequently he worked 25 years for the city of Portland. He was a paving foreman when he retired in 1979.

In 1946 Mr. Bridges formed the 16-piece band that performed, with a who's who of Portland-area musicians, both as the Walter Bridges Big Band and as Walter Bridges and Free Spirit until 1990. Musicians who got their start playing in Mr. Bridges' band and who later became band leaders in their own right include Mel Brown, Doc Severinsen, Ralph Black, Jim Pepper and Thara Memory.

In 1983 music critic and former band member John Wendeborn wrote that Mr. Bridges had woven one of the longest musical threads in the history of Portland.

He was the first black musician to be admitted to Local 99 of the American Federation of Musicians - then the Musicians Mutual Association - in 1946.

In 1984, he was honored by the Metropolitan Arts Commission for his leadership in Portland's jazz community.

Mr. Bridges was a member of the Jazz Society of Oregon. He also served on the steward board and as class leader of Bethel A.M.E. Church.

His wife died in 1989.

Submitted by L. Kemp