The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Doris Romine passed away from complications following major heart surgery on June 14th, 2015 in Portland in the presence of her children Bonnie and Steve and their respective spouses Walt and Nanqi.  She was 85 years old.

Doris and her twin brother Donald were born in Port Angeles, Washington in the summer of 1929 to Sylvester and Elsie Beard. She was one of 5 children. Doris grew up in Bellingham, WA, graduated from Bellingham High, and then attended business school in Bellingham. Following a few years of working at Bellingham First Federal she married Dwayne May, June 18th, 1952 and became a traditional 1950's mother after her two children were born. Doris and Dwayne lived in Bellingham for several years until Dwayne got a job with Vinnel Mannix McNamara Construction Company in the accounting department.  For the next 5 years, the family moved to Upper Baker, Concrete, and Goldendale, WA as Dwayne worked on the Upper and Lower Baker dams and John Day dam. In 1962, the family moved to Prescott, WA where Dwayne worked on Lower Monumental Dam. Tragically, Dwayne passed away from a major heart attack in 1964, leaving Doris with two young children and the challenge to join the workforce to support her family.  After taking some courses to refresh her office skills, Doris started her long career in mortgage loan servicing, first at Sherwood and Roberts and then at First Savings Bank, (renamed in 2000 to Banner Bank) both in Walla Walla.

In 1978 Doris married Jim Romine and they enjoyed the next 20 years together on their small acreage a few miles west of Prescott, WA. This was the place Doris thought of most fondly for the rest of her life; remembering her dogs, Whitney and Duke, and the deer and wild turkeys she so enjoyed watching from her kitchen window. And how she loved the garden and apricot tree in the back yard. Doris stayed at the Prescott place for several years after Jim passed away in 1998, but eventually was convinced, after a few years of prodding by her concerned children, to leave her bucolic rural isolation and move to Walla Walla.

Everyone who knew Doris was well aware that nothing was more important, or brought her greater joy, than her family. So it was most fortunate that for the last 5 years of Doris's life that both of her children lived within a few miles of her. Shared meals and nearly constant visits were the norm.

Doris loved traveling and took a number of trips with a variety of family members. Trips with her sisters included a cruise to Alaska, touring Australia and New Zealand, and a fall colors tour of New York and New England. She also cruised down to Mexico with Steve, his wife, Nanqi, and Bonnie. Doris always enjoyed the history of our country and after Bonnie retired, the 2 of them went back to Williamsburg, Virginia and spent time in Washington DC. It meant a lot to Doris that she could finally see the Nation's Capital. Most recently she enjoyed a cruise through the Panama Canal with Bonnie and Walt; a trip she had talked about taking for years.

Regarding her enjoyment closer to home, it would be an omission not to also mention that she received great pleasure, and a fair amount of frustration, from both the Mariners and the Seahawks.

Doris was a woman with a clear and humane sense of right and wrong, a remarkably unpretentious dignity, and an amazing inner strength, persevering the loss of two husbands. She is, and will always be, so missed by those of us so close to her; but memories of her will bring us great joy for all of our remaining years.

Doris was preceded in death by her parents, husbands Dwayne May and James E. Romine, sister Violet Raplee, and brothers Donald Beard and Art Beard. She is survived by her sister Dixie May (Clyde) of Bellingham, WA, son Steve May (Nanqi) and daughter Bonnie May (Walt) both of Walla Walla; 4 step-children Linda Carter and Wes Romine of Walla Walla, James R. Romine (Virgina) of Waitsburg, and Frank Romine (Janie) of West Richland; and 8 grand children.

A graveside service will be held at Prescott's Ivy Cemetery October 17 at 1:00 pm. A reception immediately following the service will be held at the Prescott Lion's Hall. Memorial contributions may be made to the Memorial Scholarship Fund in Doris's name C/O Prescott Alumni Association Prescott, WA 99348