Luke Enyeart
Thomas Luther “Luke” Enyeart, 87, died Dec. 14, 2008, at the Oregon Veterans Home in The Dalles.
He was born Oct. 23, 1921 in a logging camp in Powers, Ore., to Marlin Ray Enyeart and Mabel May Davis Enyeart. Not wanting the boys to become loggers, Ray and Mabel moved their family to a farm in Mabton in 1929. Luke played baseball and was active in FFA while attending high school in Prosser, and graduated in 1941. He entered military service on Oct. 19, 1942, and was discharged from the USAAF on Feb. 25, 1946.
In 1944, Luke married Myrtle Jane Reed. Upon his discharge, they moved to Klickitat County and he began farming with his parents, who had been displaced from their farm located on the Hanford Reservation during the war and had settled in Goldendale.
Luke worked on the big power lines running from the new dams, digging holes for the poles, and farmed in his spare time. One of the first places he farmed is now known as Starvation Ridge, west of Centerville. He farmed in High Prairie and then Centerville for almost 20 years. The Enyeart family custom farmed for others, and Luke hauled a lot of hay up and down the Columbia Gorge. He was active in the Goldendale Grange and served on the Centerville School Board for many years. He also played on the town baseball team.
His wife Myrtle died in 1965. In 1966, he married Rosalee Smylie, whom he had met when he hauled hay to her dairy in Toppenish. In the 1970’s, they moved to Ocean Shores, where they managed a restaurant, ran a dog kennel and grooming parlor, hauled cedar shake blocks and started an excavation business, which he operated until five years before his death. While living at the beach, he loved to have family and friends come dig razor clams with him, and he always got his limit. Luke worked hard, enjoyed people (he never met a stranger) and he loved to dance.
He was a good man.
Luke was preceded in death by his first wife, Myrtle; his parents; brothers, Fred and Kenneth; son Rande and grandson, Matt Enyeart.
Survivors include his wife, Rosalee of Goldendale; sons Kirby and wife Cynthia of Chandler, Ariz., Bruce and wife Polly, of Forest Ranch, Calif.; daughter Judy Bane and husband Everette, of Centerville; daughter-in-law MaryAnne of Goldendale; sister Darla Brashers and husband Don, of Lyle; brothers Glen Enyeart of Kalama, and John Strange and wife Pauline of Underwood, 10 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, many nieces and nephews and a host of friends.
Memorials may be sent to the Oregon Veterans Home in The Dalles, Ore., to the attention of Linda Adams.
A celebration of Luke’s life will be planned for a later date.
