Jan. 26, 1923 Aug. 14, 2013

Christine Chris Anderson, a longtime Joseph area resident and former Imnaha schoolteacher, died Aug. 14, 2013, at the Wallowa Senior Living Center in Enterprise at the age of 90.

Chris was born on Jan. 26, 1923, in New York City to Henry Johnson and Helen Enquist.

She grew up in New York City suburbs and spent summers traveling the United States with her mother and father who was a professor of education at Columbia University. Chris graduated from Vassar College.

After college she worked as an accountant for several businesses including Price Waterhouse on Wall Street and learned how to fly a J-3 Cub airplane.

While on a mountain trail ride in Colorado in 1954, she met and fell in love with a wrangler named Johnny Anderson. They were married in Merrimack, N.Y., Dec. 27, 1954.

Chris traded life in the big city for a move to Colorado, living in cow camps near Gypsum, Colo., where she cooked, canned on wood cook stoves and packed water from nearby creeks. Her four children, Kris, John, Peggy, and Bob were born in Glenwood Springs.

In 1962 the family moved to Wallowa County, living at Fence Creek, Indian Village, Marr Flat, and Mahogany cow camps. Chris home-schooled her children each fall, and then when the family moved to winter quarters near Imnaha the children attended the Bridge school.

In 1965 the family moved to Liberty road near Joseph. Chris worked as a secretary at the Joseph Grade School and tutored children in math and reading. In 1973 they bought their home on McCully Creek. Johnny passed away on Dec. 18, 1977.

Chris returned to college at Eastern Oregon State College, earning a Masters degree in elementary education. Her first teaching job was in the one-room schoolhouse at Imnaha where her children attended earlier.

In 1981 Chris moved to bush Alaska and taught elementary grades in Good News Bay, Toksook Bay, and Kasilik. She retired after 12 years of teaching and returned to Joseph to the home she had built on the west side of Wallowa Lake.

After reading an article in a travel magazine about being a passenger on freighter trips, Chris spent the next five years traveling around the world on freighters, and on one trip went around the horn of Africa.

Her final years were spent writing her memoirs, attending Fishtrap events, and writing with her friends in the Write Group. She is known for her adventurous spirit and determination in giving all children the best education possible.

Chris is survived by her brother and sister-in-law Eric and Lillian Johnson of Santa Ana, Calif.; her children, Kris Fraser and husband Chuck of Joseph, their children Ginger Fraser and her daughter Maya of Beaverton and Mayas father Shelby Camerer of Tidewater, and Jill Fredrick and husband Moses of Enterprise; John Anderson of Joseph; Peggy Kite Martin of Joseph and Dan Martin and their children Erika Kite, Joslyn Day and husband Tyler, and Trent Martin all of Bend; and Bob Anderson of Buena Vista, Colo. and children Bobbie and his children Devin and Mystery, and daughter Nicole.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Johnny and son-in-law Marty Kite.

A celebration of life and picnic will be held at Buckhorn Lookout at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24.

Donations in her memory may be made to Imnaha Scholarship Fund in care of Jean Cook.