Viola Elizabeth Hawley

Viola Elizabeth Hawley, age 92, of Grants Pass, died Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at an adult foster home.

A funeral service will be at 1:00 p.m., Monday, March 7, 2011 at Hull & Hull Chapel. Private interment will be at Hawthorne Memorial Gardens. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Viola was born October 3, 1918 in Manning, Oklahoma to Earl & Vivian Ferguson. In 1937 she graduated from Compton High in Compton, California. She worked in Los Angeles after high school and then as a bookkeeper at Long Beach Naval Hospital where she met her future husband, a career Navy corpsman, Neil Hawley. On March 3, 1945 in Compton they were married. Upon her husband’s retirement they moved to Grants Pass to be closer to her parents. Viola worked for the City of Grants Pass and retired as the Assistant City Finance Director after 20 years, due to her husband’s illness. After retirement she worked for Mel Atkins Realty and Killian Real Estate as a bookkeeper and when she really retired, she worked at the Senior Meal Site for many years as a volunteer.

Survivors include a son, Michael Hawley of Medford, Oregon; a daughter, Vickie Barnts and husband Clint Barnts of Eugene, Oregon; a grandson, Neil Wyland and wife Nancy; a granddaughter, Holly Wyland; and two great-granddaughters, Emily and Allison.