Oct. 3, 1930 — March 1, 2025
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Ethel Pearl Settles was born on Oct. 3, 1930, in Scott City, Kansas. She grew up in the small town of Healy, Kan., during the Great Depression, where she and her family endured relentless dust storms and the hardships of rural life. Alongside her parents, Cecil and Sadie Settles, and her sisters, Anna, Celia and Carolyn, Ethel weathered the trials of a changing world, finding solace in the warmth of family.
In the summer of 1939, seeking a better future, Cecil and Sadie packed their belongings into a 1939 Dodge pickup truck and set out west with their daughters. Along the journey, Ethel recalled her mother baking fresh bread daily and cooking meals over a small cast-iron stove in the truck bed. At night, beneath an endless canopy of stars, the family rested in a canvas tent. Their passage through Idaho’s White Bird Hill Grade remained etched in Ethel’s memory — the oppressive heat forcing frequent stops as their truck overheated while she and her sisters trudged uphill on foot amidst swarming grasshoppers.
The family eventually settled in Nezperce, where Ethel flourished. She attended high school there, excelling as captain of the girls’ basketball team while also singing in the choir and attending school dances. During her senior year, she competed in the Miss Lewis County Beauty Pageant. The Settles’ home — a humble two-story farmhouse surrounded by golden wheat fields — lacked modern plumbing conveniences. Saturday nights meant hauling water for baths in a round wooden tub; late-night emergencies were met with a copper bedpan affectionately known as the “Thunder Bowl.” Music filled their home on weekends as Cecil played the fiddle while his daughters sang together around the piano.
Ethel carried a lifelong fondness for white horses after spending countless hours riding at a friend’s ranch. After graduating from Nezperce High School in 1949, she pursued higher education at Northern Idaho College of Education in Lewiston, earning a three-year teaching certificate. Teaching became her calling — she shaped young minds across various schools in Oregon, California and Washington.
In 1955, Ethel married Dale Beck and later welcomed her only son, Dana Beck. Though life took unexpected turns following her separation from Dale, she raised Dana on her own. In 1962, they moved to Portland, Ore., where she dedicated 25 years to teaching within the David Douglas School District. Generations of third-grade students at Earl Boyles Elementary School and several other local schools may still recall her vibrant presence in their classrooms.
After her second marriage to Lou Mores ended, Ethel found solace on the Oregon Coast in Yachats. There she embraced coastal living — hunting for agates along windswept shores, picking huckleberries under summer skies and relishing dry days when she could hang laundry on the clothesline as she had done since childhood.
In later years, Ethel resided at Five Rivers Retirement Community in Tillamook before moving to The Ackerly at Timberland in Beaverton. Even into her nineties, she remained engaged — playing cards with friends, exercising daily, speaking with her sister Carolyn each evening, and cherishing weekly visits from Dana and his wife LynAnn.
On Saturday, March 1, 2025, Ethel passed away peacefully at age 94 with loved ones by her side. She was preceded in death by her sisters Anna Della Marshall and Celia Loree Ryer as well as her grandson Christopher Alan Beck. She is survived by her sister Carolyn Joy Heber; her son Dana Beck; and daughter-in-law LynAnn Beck.
Ethel’s life was one of resilience — a journey marked by perseverance through hardship and joy found in simple pleasures. May those who knew her find comfort in cherished memories and the enduring legacy she leaves behind.
