Fern Louise Burns went home to be with the Lord on Tuesday morning, March 31st, 2015. She was residing at Ashley Manor in Hood River, Oregon at the time. She was born Fern Louise Woodyard on May 18th, 1933 in Burlington, Iowa. Her mother immigrated to Minnesota from Switzerland with her family. She was working as a ‘Candy Striper’ in a military hospital during WW1 and met her future husband. They moved to Iowa where she was raised with 2 older sisters and an older brother. She grew up surrounded by a big family and remembers summer evenings with relatives playing accordions and singing; and running and playing with cousins along the Mississippi River. A large part of her life was the church in which she grew up. At the age of 10, she made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and was baptized. She started school at the age of 4 ½ and attended elementary school and junior high school before moving with her parents to Washington County , Iowa and graduating from Crawfordsville High School. She attended Washington and Burlington Community Colleges and Iowa Wesleyan College to become a teacher. She taught 3rd grade in Burlington and Bettendorf, Iowa for 5 years. She met Charles Burns who attended Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa on a blind date. He was from Canada, and after marrying on Oct. 3rd, 1959, they moved to his hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He opened his Chiropractic practice and Fern taught school for a short time. Daughters Brenda and Stacey were born in Edmonton and son, Scott, was born after the family moved to Leduc, a small town just south of Edmonton. Chuck began his practice and Fern was active in church volunteer work, choir, raising the children and helping with Chuck’s practice. They made many wonderful friends in Leduc, taking many camping and skiing trips to Banff and Jasper National Parks, which remained Fern’s favorite places to this day. She was active in church work and helped start a mission church in Jasper Place, was involved in teaching Sunday school, Pioneer Girls, Women’s Missions and choir. In 1976, the family moved to San Diego, California, where she again became active in church work at Scott Memorial Baptist Church and taught 3rd grade again briefly before she began helping out at Chuck’s office, working there for several years. In 1989, she began working part time at KECR radio, where she worked until 2012. Fern always enjoyed music and sang and performed in plays and choirs all her life. Scott Memorial, later Shadow Mountain Community Church, choir put on large musical productions that she enjoyed singing in and often had solo parts. It was just as enjoyable to her to be a spectator and she and her husband Chuck enjoyed Big Band Orchestra music and attended many concerts, as well as musical theater at Starlight Theater in Balboa Park. Another of Fern’s hobbies was reading and she loved historical fiction, poetry and mysteries. She was gifted at friendship and enjoyed life-long friendships with friends and family in Iowa, friends and family in Canada, and in San Diego, she had a special group of friends made up of husbands and wives, who met once a month for dinner and card games, as well as taking trips together to the mountains and the beach. Fern maintained close relationships with her sisters, nieces and nephews on both sides of the family and cousins, including family in Switzerland, and loved them all. Especially enjoyable were times spent with grandchildren in San Diego and trips to see the grandchildren in Oregon. Her children and grandchildren were special to her and she loved and enjoyed each one. She and Chuck enjoyed travel and traveled in Canada, Mexico, and all over the U.S. including Hawaii. They were masters at the ‘Long Weekend’, just taking off with family and friends to nearby locations in the Southern California Mountains or up to Santa Barbara. Her focus in life was relationships, teaching, enjoyment of the arts, all wrapped up in her love for Jesus. Fern began having seizures a few years ago, which led to increasing fraility and dementia. Chuck became her care giver and last year, 2014, he moved himself and Fern up to The Dalles retirement home to be near daughter Stacey and son Scott and their families. Sadly, Chuck passed away on Thanksgiving, 2014. Fern moved to Ashley Manor to be near daughter Stacey and her family, where she received loving care until she went Home to heaven. She is survived by, and greatly missed by, her daughters Brenda and Stacey, son Scott, and grandchildren, Corban and Danielle Tomlinson, Cameron and Caitlyn Burns, and Andrea, James, Andrew, and Patrick Estes; nieces Karen Zickefoose, Connie Waterhouse, Sue Woodard and families, nephews Lyle and Dale Hesseltine and families; nephews and nieces Chuck and Margaret Burns, David Burns, Gordon Burns and Cathy Reese and families; cousins Loretta Albers and Phyllis Green and families, and brother-in law Bill Burns. Fern wanted this verse read at her Celebration of Life, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in My Father’s house. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” In the time before Jesus came to get her, Fern had amazing caregivers at Ashley Manor and nurses and caregivers at Heart of Hospice and the family wishes to thank them all for taking Fern into their hearts. Memorial donations in Fern’s name can be made to Heart of Hospice, 2621 Wasco St., Hood River, OR., 97031.

Dr. Charles R. Burns went Home to the arms of Jesus on Thanksgiving morning, November 27, 2014 at MCMC in The Dalles, Oregon. Born on June 8th, 1934, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Anne and Charles ‘Scotty’ Burns. Chuck’s grandfather, William, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father was First Violin and Concert Master for the Scotland National Symphony. He died when his children were young and his son, Charles, immigrated to Canada when he was 16. He was indentured to a farmer in Peace River, but was unable to stand the treatment he received. He had to sleep in the barn and winters were very cold. He left there and went to Edmonton where he was taken in by a family for whom he worked. He met wife, Anne, and they married in 1930. Anne’s father was from Austria and her mother was from Polish Ukraine. They met in Ukraine, married and immigrated to Canada, losing an infant child on the boat on the way over and another soon after they arrived. Their family was Eastern Orthodox Catholic and young Charles was confirmed in the Orthodox Church. His father was a Jazz drummer and when Chuck was 6 years old, his father volunteered to serve in the Canadian army band, entertaining the troops in Europe during World War 2. He was gone for 6 years. This was a difficult and challenging time for his mother to raise 2 sons alone. Chuck attended Eastside High School and after graduation, followed his older brother, Bill, to Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. He met his wife, Fern, who was teaching school in nearby Bettendorf, on a blind date. She was from a family of immigrants from Europe as well. Her mother was a strong believer in Christ and Fern was a Christian from an early age. They were married on Oct. 3rd, 1959, in Washington, Iowa and moved to Edmonton to begin his practice as a Chiropractor. Chuck had a personal encounter with the Living Christ and became a passionate follower of Jesus. They were actively involved in their church, Westwood Baptist, and were fortunate to assist in starting a mission church in the suburb of Jasper Place. Daughters Brenda and Stacey were born in Edmonton and soon thereafter, they moved just south of Edmonton to Leduc where son Scott was born. Again they were very active in their church, Temple Baptist, where they made many life-long friends and enjoyed visiting brother Bill’s family, wife Marge, 3 sons, Chuck, David and Gordon, and daughter, Cathy. They enjoyed many skiing and camping trips with friends to Banff and Jasper National Parks.
In 1976, the family moved to San Diego, California, where Chuck opened his practice in La Mesa, California. They became very active in Scott Memorial Baptist church, which later changed its name to Shadow Mountain Community Church, where the children attended the Christian Unified School district. Chuck and Fern made life-long friends here as well, especially in their monthly Birthday group and enjoyed 30 years of dining out, fellowship and card games with these great friends, as well as vacations together to the beach and the mountains.
Chuck was passionate about helping people. He wanted them to enjoy spiritual and physical health. Through his profession of Chiropractic, he was able to teach the principals of physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Throughout his career, he sincerely had a heart to help people whom Jesus called ‘the least of these’. He would weekly travel down to Tijuana with Pastor Von, to minister to people there, making their homes in the City Dump. Pastor Von started Spectrum Ministries which continues today to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor and orphaned, and homeless in TJ. In the last several years he volunteered at Shadow Mountain Church with Servant Ministries, because he desired to see people connect their God-given gifts to purposeful service and mission appointments. He also became part of team developing FIT ministries, an overseas outreach to Muslim peoples, which he began with the Pastor/friend reading this  The theme here of Chuck’s life is a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ to bring hope and healing to the hurting. Chuck was involved in many Church and para Church plantings and and continued to give financially after he became homebound caring for his wife, Fern. Fern began having seizures about 7 years ago and has increasingly suffered from dementia. She is currently living in a memory care facility in Hood River, Oregon, near daughter and son in law, Stacey and Rod Estes. We are so thankful that she has remarkable caregivers and nurses who truly love her.
Chuck’s live was about relationships and he especially enjoyed spending time with friends, his children and grandchildren; He enjoyed Bible study; reading; going for coffee; Sunday afternoon football; jazz music; and hitting balls on the golf course. He really enjoyed anything techny….Way back in the 1970’s, the Burns family was among the first to have a new fangled machine called a Betamax- to play video tapes on tv, to have a personal desktop computer, (Texas instruments) and to have a home espresso maker---many evenings after dinner he would make espresso and get out the milk steamer asking ‘who wants a mocha?’ way before anyone had heard of Starbucks.
He was ahead of his time in his ideas about health, as well. He was among the first to promote a holistic, preventative health model, instead of what he called a disease model, which many more doctors are now embracing.
He and wife, Fern, loved to travel and enjoyed seeing Canada, much of the United States, parts of Mexico, Hawaii, and China. Conversation was a joy to him and he could talk about anything from football to quantum mechanics. He was an inspiration to many through his Christian faith, his positive attitude, and his passion for sharing his message of wellness. His last years were selflessly dedicated to being the caregiver for his wife. He is survived by his wife, Fern; his brother, William; his 3 children, Brenda, Stacey and Scott; and his grandchildren: Corban and Danielle Tomlinson of San Diego; James, Andrew, and Patrick Estes of Hood River, Oregon; and Cameron and Caitlin Burns of Redmond, Oregon, and many nephews and nieces. His generous and compassionate presence will be sorely missed. A memorial service is planned on March 21st at 11 a.m. at Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California. Chuck assisted in starting a ministry that shares the love of Jesus abroad to Muslim peoples, and memorial donations can be made in his name to: FIT International, PO Box 502726, San Diego, CA., 92150-2726.

Arrangements are under the direction of Anderson's Tribute Center (Funerals • Receptions • Cremations) 1401 Belmont Avenue, Hood River, Oregon 97031.