Alyce Lorane Munnell

Alyce Lorane Fenner Cook Munnell, left us for a better place on Monday, August 25, 2014, after celebrating her 102nd birthday on Friday, August 22. She had lived with Alzheimer’s since 1998. She was born to Ellen and Conrad Fenner at the family homestead on Slate Creek in Wonder, Oregon, August 22, 1912. Alyce was the youngest of 8 children, 5 brothers and 2 sisters. The Fenners came to Oregon in 1890 from Texas, thru Colorado and settling in Oregon in 1898.

Alyce lived in the Rogue Valley all her life except for 4 months in 1946 when she lived in Kansas. Alyce married Charles P. Cook in 1932 at Newman Methodist Church in Grants Pass. Charles worked for Copeland Lumber on 4th & G Streets. In 1939 they started Cook Lumber Co. on 3rd & F Streets. In 1942 they added the first ready mix concrete service in Grants Pass. The lumber yard was sold in 1947 after a divorce.

Alyce & Charles had 5 children: Ronald C. who died of SIDS shortly after birth; Roland Cook of Grants Pass; Charles Alan Cook of Spokane, Washington who died this year of cancer; Kenneth I. Cook of Williams, Oregon; and Conrad W. who died of SIDS shortly after birth. In 1949 she married Roland Griffith and they were married 14 years and did a lot of hunting and fishing. They divorced in 1963 and she married Frank Munnell in 1971. They were married until 1995 when Frank passed away of cancer.

Alyce was a life time member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Lodge #26. She was active with the Cub Scouts and Boys Scouts in the 1940s and 50s. Alyce loved to hunt and fish. Her last hunting trip was in her mid 70s. She always carried a rifle and was a good shot. Her eye sight was above normal. She would spot deer walking thru the woods and we couldn’t find them with binoculars. She loved to fish the small streams on the upper Rogue. We did a lot of camping and fishing. She loved to walk in the woods in the spring and look at all the wildflowers and she knew them by name.

Mom loved flowers and always had a garden. Staring in about 1948 she started working in flower nursery’s and flower shops making arrangements and deliveries. She did this until the mid 90s. Again in 1948 she started popping corn for the movie theaters, at the Rivoli Theater until it closed and then they moved the machine to the Rogue Theater. She popped all the popcorn for the theaters until they closed the drive-in in the early 90s.

Alyce is survived by 2 sons, Roland A. Cook and Kenneth I. Cook; 10 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; and 5 great-great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursday, September 4, 2014 at Hull & Hull Funeral Directors.

A funeral service will be at 10:00 a.m., Friday, September 5, 2014 at Hull & Hull Chapel. Interment will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Park.