Earl Thaine Bullock

Earl Thaine Bullock, a longtime resident of Corvallis, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Monday, 27 May 2024 at the age of ninety-five (95) after a brief illness.

Thaine was born in the small town of Otis, Colorado on 30 January 1929, the 2nd of three sons born to Charles James and Florence Mae (Henry) Bullock. A child born at the end of the roaring twenties, living through the depression years, from hand cranked automobiles to self-driving electric cars to astronauts living in a Space Station orbiting the earth. From a radio in every household listening to Amos and Andy, Fibber McGee and Molly and I Love a Mystery on Saturday nights, to satellites encompassing the earth bringing communications to our fingertips and across the globe in seconds along with images of universes billions of light years away.

Shortly after he was born, as many families did during that era, they moved from Colorado to Nebraska and then unable to find lasting work, his immediate, extended families and close friends left Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado moving west to Oregon where they hoped to find a more secure life. In 1931 they found the Willamette Valley and the towns of Rickreall, Independence, and Salem, Oregon living and working at the local Hop Camps when school let out in spring and leaving when harvest was over in the fall before the camps flooded, as well as working other jobs throughout the area during the rest of the year. They lived in several homes throughout the community, even living one winter in a Dance Hall where his father ran the hall on Saturday nights, with the family living in an apartment on one side of the hall, eventually settling permanently in their home on 6th Street in Independence the winter of 1935.

In school Thaine was athletic, playing basketball and other sports. As a young man in the 1930’s he would earn money picking berries or working in the hop fields. During the early war years, he spent a couple summers in Colorado helping his extended family with their grain harvest. In the mid-1940’s he worked one summer for a Dairy, delivering milk, cream, and butter for $1 a day. The next year he was offered a summer job learning to pasteurize & bottle milk and make cottage cheese for $90 a month working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. During the war years his father purchased the Independence Cab Company, which they owned until about 1960, all the family would help dispatch and periodically drive. One evening a young pretty woman came by the Taxi stand looking to get a Taxi to take her family home after shopping. After he finally convinced her, his family really did run the Taxi Service, he got her the next Taxi and delivered her family home safely. This was 1945 and the young pretty woman was Barbara Jean Anderson. He met her again a few weeks later, securing a date on the condition he would find a date for her younger sister Joan. Turns out he had a younger brother Max that fit the bill. That night was the beginning of a romance for Thaine and Jean (Barb) that lasted over 75 years. They would finish high school in Independence, Thaine spending a year in Portland for Refrigeration School and Jean a year at College in Monmouth. After a little convincing from their parents that it was time, Thaine and Jean were married at the First Methodist Church in Independence Oregon on 19 June 1949. They moved to Dallas where Thaine drove Taxi for his father part time and worked for Al Laue Refrigeration when their first son Dennis was born in 1950. A year or so later, they moved to Corvallis where Thaine started working for Star Trading Center, “Trader Smith’s” and the family settled into a small house behind the Roller Rink where William, their 2nd son, was born. The young family eventually moved to their forever home south of Greenberry where Jeffery, Elizabeth, and John, the last of their five (5) children, were born and grew up.

As a profession, Thaine was a refrigeration expert, appliance salesman and TV/appliance repair technician. After the appliance stores closed, he then tried his hand as owner/operator of a small market/store, then worked for Wah Chang and in his later years, drove bus for the local school district and at OSU.

He was a Hunter securing food for his family as well as teaching hunter safety courses and a Fisherman, enjoying Lake, Salmon, and Fly fishing. He raised hounds for hunting and Racoon Races, was a talented Bowler playing on multiple leagues throughout the area until well into his 90’s, and a youth bowling instructor teaching all his children and their friends to bowl in the 1960’s. He was selected Director and President of the Oregon State Bowling Association and in the Bowling Hall of Fame, as well as a member of the Eagles and an avid Golfer. When not walking through cemeteries or searching through archives with wife Barb, along with spending every Memorial Day Weekend placing flowers on as many ancestral graves as possible (which usually meant 3-5 cemeteries between Corvallis and Salem), he enjoyed building things with his hands, whirly gigs, bird houses, doll beds and windmills and made the best Clam Chowder. A Quiet Man who loved his family and the only man I’ve known that worked a crossword puzzle using an ink pen.

He was proceeded in death by his son William (Bill) Bullock, both brothers Max and Chuck Bullock and his Beloved Wife Barb who he was married to for just shy of 73 years.

Thaine was a devoted Husband, Son, Brother, Uncle, Father, Grandfather, Great, and Great-Great Grandfather, and Friend. He is survived by his sons Dennis (Pat), Jeff (Mary) and John Bullock, daughter Beth (Gary) Pettit, 20 Grandchildren, 54 great-grandchildren and 18 great-great-grandchildren.

Thaine will rest with his beloved wife, Barbara at Hilltop Cemetery outside of Independence Oregon. A Celebration of his Life will be held on 6 July 2024, from 1-4pm for family and friends at Christ’s Church Methodist and Presbyterian United in Monmouth, Oregon. He will be Greatly Missed.