Sally Hoover

Born in Kittanning, Penn., on Aug. 24, 1942, to Wilbur French and Sarah Brown, she weighed three pounds. Her family dressed her in baby doll clothes and made her first bed from a shoe box keeping her warm on the oven door.

Sally’s size didn’t hold her back. She was always a tomboy with a first love of horses.

Sally moved with her mom to Buffalo, N.Y., when she was young. Her mom held things together as a waitress and bartender. When Sally was in her later teens she decided to run away to California.

When Sally’s mom found out about it, she ran away with her. Sally and her mom ended up in Long Beach, Calif., where they both worked at The Pike (a big amusement park along the Long Beach Waterfront). There she met Darrell Hoover. Darrell was in the Navy. Darrell had other great qualities and skills and he was a real cowboy from Washington State. Sally and Darrell married and had their only child, Melody, in Southern California.

Getting back to farming and horses was going to be the primary plan for Sally and Darrell so as soon as they could, they headed back to Washington State. After a couple years in Washington, they returned to the LA area again where they partnered with Sally’s mom and step-dad, Claude (Al) Allisson in owning and operating a bar. Everybody in the family worked hard at their regular 9-5 type jobs but after hours they worked at the bar.

Sally’s regular job was building carburetors at the Posa Fuel Carburetor Factory. On the weekends, Sally, Darrell and Melody rode motorcycles (dirt bikes) in the hills around Gorman, Calif. They also did a lot of deep sea fishing out of Marina Del Rey, Calif.

In 1976, they sold off everything and headed back to Washington. Eventually, they decided to stay in the White Salmon/ Bingen area.

The Hoovers didn’t like town much (it was a nice place to shop but they didn’t want to live there). So, they bought a farm on Snowden where they lived from 1980 to 2004.

Sally and Darrell had enough property to allow their daughter and her family to move onto the place. They helped raise two grandsons.

Sally was renamed “Granny” at the moment her first grandson arrived in 1982, the name stuck.

The whole family was farming cattle, hay and most important- Horses. Sally was a very good rider and taught her grandsons to ride and to become excellent show and trail riders. Sally was a member of the Klickitat County Posse Club and a leader in Klickitat 4H Horse Club.

Sally worked at Underwood Fruit Co. as a forklift driver - she retired in 2002. She worked very hard and had a lot of friends at Underwood.

In 2004, Sally and Darrell moved to The Dalles to get closer to town. The place there was big enough to pasture two horses.

She joined the Fort Dalles Saddle Club where she became friends with many horse folks from The Dalles area.

She moved to Mill-A, following the loss of her husband, Darrell. There she was near her daughter and family.

Sally is survived by her daughter Melody (Ed) Farrell, grandsons Shamus (Denise) Farrell, Jacob Farrell, great-grandchildren Clancy, Cloei, Hailey and Nathaniel Farrell.

A memorial service will be held at Gardner Funeral Home in White Salmon on Saturday, March 2, at 1 p.m. A reception will follow.