Heinrich (Henry Thoeny) THONI

                   Burial: 
Mountain View Cemetery 
Oregon City
Clackamas County
Oregon, USA
Plot: Section B2 ,Lot 99,Grave C
                  

                   Eulogy

We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of Henry John Thoeny or just plain, "Hank," as everyone knew him.

Hank was born June 12, 1906 in Portland, Oregon.  HIs father owned a diary farm on Columbia Boulevard.  When he was three years old the family moved to a farm in Oregon City.  Hank called it a "stump farm." He lived on the farm in Oregon City for 31 years.  His father died of a heart attack when Hank was 31 years old.  His mother sold the farm shortly after his father's death and she moved to Portland and lived with her daughter, Caroline Thoeny Brande.

Hank was the youngest of three children.  Caroline was six years older than he.  He also had an older brother named Alfred who died of pneumonia at age 26.

Hank left the farm in Oregon City to seek employment in Coos Bay as a logger.  He was a tree faller for several years and then started his own small logging operation.  Often these were referred to as "gypo" loggers.  He was like a sub-contractor and said, "It seems like whoever I worked for went broke and that broke me." During the time he was logging he says he was married and divorced twice but couldn't remember their names - he laughed when he said that.  He said, "Women sometimes like to push ahead in marriage," and he didn't sound bitter, just kind of philosophical.

He moved from Coos Bay to Sauview Island to log cottonwood trees.  He started to prosper but got sic with tuberculosis.  He went to The Dalles TB hospital for three years in hte 1950's.  He said most of the time in the hospital he read or played cards.  After his release he met Hazel Moudy and they married and moved to Nehalem Bay, Oregon to work on a dairy farm.  He also worked in Banks, Corbett, and then moved to Woodland, Washington to work at the Donald Brothers dairy farm.  He was unsure what year but thought it was in the mid-1970's.  His wife was diagnosed with cancer and after an operation she was confined to her bed and he cared for her.  His wife died in 1980 in a house fire.  Another set back just when things were going well; he had to begin again.  He continued working for Donald & Sons Farms until his retirement.

Let me share some of his childhood memories and experiences with you.  As a child growing up in Oregon City he attended school until the 8th grade.  He said school was fun and always easy for him.  He couldn't go past 8th grade because his family had no transportation and there were no school buses.  He spoke kindly of his parents and said he only got one spanking and he deserved it.  A classmate had a pocket watch Hank wanted so he swiped a dollar from his dad and bought the watch.  He said his dad swatted him once with a rod.  He said his mother loved him a lot and was physically affectionate, held him and spoiled him.  Hank spent his youth in Oregon City and he liked to hunt and fish.  He liked to hunt pheasants, rabbits and deer.

For entertainment he liked dances and parties though he said, "I never was much of a dancer."  He said he was shy but did have a girlfriend near the family farm that he would take for rides in a Model T he bought.  He liked her but said she met someone with more money - and then he laughed.

He remembered going to movies in Oregon City and occasionally going to Portland to the Paramount or Liberty Theatres.  It was a big deal to go to Portland.  His mother's parents lived in Hillsboro and they would often ride the street car from Oregon City to Hillsboro.  He remembered riding a steam locomotive from Portland up the columbia River to Cape Horn, Washington to visit an aunt.

He said he was very close to his sister who lived in Portland and worked for the telephone company.  She had two daughters (his nieces) living in Portland.

Hank lived a very simple life.  I don't think he traveled outside Washington and Oregon.  He was as close to a blue-collar common man as I know, albeit a very intelligent common man.  Even in his 90's he read the daily paper and discussed current issues with me.  I'll always remember his dressed in his "uniform;" blue jeans, white socks, blue chambray shirt, black suspenders and slippers with the back bent down.  He almost always had a bandana hankie in his pocket.

He had an orange cat he befriended that was his constant companion.  Sometimes it would sit on the back of his chair and lick his bald head.  That always made him laugh.

He like to hear me tell stories of my work at the jail.  Always wanted to know what kind of people I worked with and who had been arrested.

Hank expressed deep appreciation and love for his stepdaughter, Elizabeth, and her husband, Dale.  He always spoke highly of Bob and Mary Donald.  He cherished the cards and letters he received from family and friends and would always make sure I read them.  He especially appreciated the young men from the Mormon Church that visited every Sunday who came to his house to give him sacrament.  He mentioned Mark Bolen and B J Driver a lot.  They also came on occasion to do yard work.  I used to tease him about his old lawnmower and how he fell asleep on it and would go around in circles in his yard.  I didn't visit Hank much from 1990 to 1997.  Then, at the urging of my neighbor, Arliss Sessions, who was Hank's friend, I stopped to see him.  My weekly visits became sometimes daily.  I thought I was helping him but now I realize how much his friendship meant to me.

I will close with these thoughts...

To Hank

We called you Hank or Brother Thoeny
You always showed a smile and appreciation

You lived a simple, kindly life
Beset by trials and tribulations-
Business failures, lost love, poor health
Didn't hold you down or dim your smile

I always said as I left your house,
"Are you going to be home tomorrow?"
And you always laughed,
"The Good Lord willing; I can't go anywhere, anyway"

Good Bye, Hank
No more business failures, disappointments,
Loneliness or aches and pains
You have truly earned that Great Reward

Amen