Hunter, Emily Perkins 92 Oct. 07, 1919 April 12, 2012 A Memorial service for Emily Hunter, who died on April 12, will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 12, at the Peoples Church, 6801 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver. Emily was born in Portland on Oct. 7, 1919. Her parents were Philip Benson Perkins and Meta Irene Warner. Emily entered Jefferson High School at age 12. She graduated with "honors," and was the youngest student in her class. After attending Oregon Normal School in Monmouth for one year, she decided that a business career held more interest and entered and graduated from Northwestern Business College. While still in her teens she was declared to be "the best darn secretary" by the General Superintendent of Northwestern Electric Co. where she worked. During this time she designed the winning Rose Festival float and was in charge of parade financial matters. She was later working for an architectural company in 1946 when she married Wayne Hunter. During the 1950's Emily was a special writer for The Oregonian, contributing human interest and informational articles. She later wrote and illustrated eight Christian-themed books for preteens and teenagers. Her first book was the result of an outline of ideas that she created in order to teach a Christian Charm Course for girls at her church. The basic premise was that "real outer beauty must result from an inner beauty!" After running into several roadblocks from established publishers, and with encouragement from her husband, she agreed to create their own publishing company and "Manna Publications" came into being. The "Christian Charm Course", first published in 1967, found worldwide distribution and was translated into many languages. Recently, the course has been updated by Harvest House Publishers. One of her books, "Bible Time Nursery Rhymes" was the best seller in the Christian category for one year! Emily's greatest joy was to tell her grandchildren bedtime stories. Because of her books, she has been able to tell millions of children bedtime stories. In 1976 Emily and Wayne moved to an acreage in the foothills north of Camas where they lived until 1993, when they moved to Vancouver and into a lovely home that Emily had designed. They were active participants in a senior musical comedy group called "The Glad Timers" where Emily and worship leader Ron Bowe created lyrics and composed music for a musical of the same name. Emily's faith was expressed by her favorite hymn, "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness!" Survivors include her husband, Wayne; son, Gerald; daughter, Rosalie Cole; seven grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren. A son, Dr. Clifford Wayne Hunter, preceded her in death. (The Oregonian, 03 May 2012)