Iris Roy Little, age 87, died peacefully at Channel Point Village in Hoquiam, Wash., on Saturday, March 25, 2017. Iris was born Nov. 10, 1929, in Pilot Rock, Ore., to Marvin and Mildred Roy. She attended Pendleton High School in Oregon, graduating in 1947 before attending Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore. Her love of music led her to a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1951; where for her Senior Final Iris performed Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto to great acclaim.
While attending college, Iris met her husband of 62 years, Kenneth W. Little. She attended a social event where she remarked to a girlfriend that, “the man across the room was the man she was going to marry” From then on, Iris’s interests were her music studies and Ken. Following graduation from Pacific, Ken headed to Alaska for the summer. Iris saw that Ken’s graduation could likely mean a parting of the ways and not being content to let the moment slip by reached out to him in the north country by sending him a tie she had lovingly knit and enclosed a note that said, “This is the tie that binds, and you can take that any way you want’.
In 1951-52 Iris taught Band and Choir in John Day, Ore. Then on June 8, 1952, Ken and Iris were married in Pendleton, Ore. The newlyweds then headed to Chicago so that Ken could continue his studies receiving a Masters degree from George Williams College. During that time Iris worked in the Alumni Office of the University of Chicago. The couple moved to Washington State in 1953, residing first in Seattle then Kelso and finally in Aberdeen where Iris was a stay at home mother until 1969, when she took a position at Montesano High School teaching choir and 8th grade American History (which she truly enjoyed) retiring in 1992.
Iris and Ken retired to Mason Lake where they both enjoyed the life style it gave them. She continued her love of music becoming a founding member of a “Four Hands’ piano quartet that practiced weekly and performed at different venues around the area. She took the time to compose and score a merging of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” with the Beatles “Because” and played this at her husbands 2014 Celebration of Life, adding a little twist “sailing, sailing over the ocean blue” to honor his passion for boating.
Besides being a member of the Colonial Dames Oregon Pioneer Society, she was a member of the Emily Reed chapter of the DAR, The Grand Army of the Republic Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War. She enjoyed playing Bridge with Ken and their travels to the Civil War battlefields and Washington D.C., as well as to Scotland where Ken was able to explore his Scottish lineage.
Iris was preceded in death by her husband Ken, her daughter Kathy Howard and great-grandson Porter Rudd and Sister Mary Roy Wilson. Survivors include sister Janet (Lynn) Norby of Spokane two sons Don (Diane) Little and Brian (Julie) Little of Aberdeen; four grandchildren Becky (Mike) Rudd, Darcie (Andy) Dingman of Spokane, Dana (Mike) York from Auburn and Drew (Sarah) Little of Aberdeen and four great-grandchildren Joey Dingman, Emily and Tyler Rudd, Kaitlyn York and Madilyn Little and numerous nieces and nephews. A Family internment will be held June 10, 2017, at Olney Cemetery in Pendleton, Ore.
Memorial contributions may be made to: Harbors Home Health & Hospice 201 7th St, Hoquiam, WA 98550 or Grays Harbor Historical Seaport — P.O. Box 2019, Aberdeen, WA 98520.
