Della (Boyer) Litteral died with her children at her bedside.

Della was born the eighteenth child to James and Arilla (Park) Boyer in Telluride, San Miguel County, Colo. She grew up in the glorious mountains of Colorado, and attended schools in Telluride while helping on the family farm. With as many brothers and sisters, all needed to lend a hand to their mother.

At 17 she came to Oregon with her mother to help pick fruit for her brother in Hood River. From Hood River she moved to Home Oregon,where she and her mother cooked for a county road crew. During the time she was cooking she fell in love and married Leonard Litteral who was working for the road crew. She then moved to Baker City and worked for Sylvan's laundry until the birth of her first child. She lived in Baker City for the next 60 years. Through her years in Baker she attended The New Beginnings Church and served as song leader, Sunday School secretary and church event organizer. She was a very hard working woman and cared deeply for her family. She cared for her ailing mother for 15 years and was also the caregiver for her husband for many years until his death. Several years after her husband's death she moved to Yakima, Wash., into the "cutest mobile home surrounded by a picket fence and flowers" and to be closer to her daughter.

She had the luxuries she never had before. She was excited about being able to turn the heat up on the furnace without getting up to a cold house and building a fire. The dishwasher and microwave were her next challenges. She didn't want to use them at first - she said it was a lazy man's way. After a few weeks of coaxing she didn't know what she had been missing throughout the years. Gardening, flowers, embroidery and collecting many heart-shaped and footprint rocks she could find were her favorite things to do. Her house was filled with her treasures of deer, butterflies and angels. The mountains were her special place with pine trees and nature itself. She attended the Christian Life Center Church where she met and had many new cherished friends. Church and her love for the Lord was her life and she witnessed to everyone she would meet. She will be sorely missed by friends and family for her "cunning wit and joyous personality."

She is survived by her sister, Laura Archambeau of Aurora, Colo.; daughter, Shirley Fairbanks (Mike) of Selah, Wash.; son, Marshall Litteral (Cora) of La Grande; grandsons, Tim Modine (Cheryl) of Roy, Wash., Kurt Modine (friend Vicki) of Tri-Cities, Wash.; step-daughter, Lorraine Zemmer (Brian) of Haines; three great-grandchildren, Ashley, Christopher and Ali; and one very special niece, Connie Williams (Floyd) of Baker City.