Marjory Ramey, who climbed mountains, literal and figurative, has died at 101

Marjory Allingham Ramey was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 50s, a fact she kept a secret from everyone but her husband and her boss. 

As she later told the story to her grown children, each time she saw her doctor between the concerning August diagnosis and the lead-up to Thanksgiving, she’d ask if she dared buy a turkey yet. 

The answer was always no, recalls her son, Chris Ramey of Eugene. 

Yet Marjory Ramey not only survived but also thrived for several more decades.

Described by friends and family as delightful to be around, smart, a good conversationalist, fearless, fun and possessing a deadpan sense of humor, Ramey died Aug. 29. She was 101.

“She was willing to take risks and eager to seek out new things and new adventures,” Chris Ramey said. “And always with a style and grace that involved others when she did it.”

A descendant of Willamette Valley pioneers, Marjory Ramey was born Jan. 22, 1925, the only child of parents who were both ham radio operators.

Chris Ramey recalls his mom’s stories of her childhood dinner table, where the family would tap, tap, tap out Morse code on water glasses to communicate. That likely contributed to her receiving a ham radio license at age 14, the youngest female in the region to do so.

Physically active throughout her life, she was a member of the Mazamas in her teens and early 20s, summiting most of the region’s major peaks, including Mount Hood, which she climbed 16 times. 

She didn’t stop there. 

She took her boys on adventures, including climbing the South Sister when her youngest was 7, with a group of other parents and kids.

Her friend Alice Parman joined Ramey on some of her later adventures. Parman and Ramey became close around 2009, when Parman joined St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Eugene, where Ramey was a member for 70 years.

They were part of a group that offered a free weekend breakfast to anyone who needed it. Together they chatted while chopping vegetables two Saturdays a month. 

“She was just an amazing woman. She had a fabulous way about her. She never was judgmental or gossiped, but she let you know what she was thinking and what she thought,” Parman said. “She was not the kind of person to make a lot of noise, but when she spoke it was worth listening to.”

Ramey, who graduated from Girls Polytechnic in Portland before starting college at the University of Oregon in 1942, met her husband, Howard Ramey, in UO’s theater department. 

Marjory Ramey earned a degree in English. The couple later moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and then New York City to pursue theater work.

That led to working on traveling Broadway shows, with Marjory Ramey in the props department and her husband working as a lighting technician.

“They absolutely loved it. She loved being in New York. She loved traveling with the shows,” Chris Ramey said.

After their first child was born, the couple returned to Eugene. Eventually, Marjory Ramey worked part-time in the UO’s housing office, where she stayed for more than 25 years. She was the first female housing director for the university from 1984 until she retired in 1992.

Barbara West worked with her at a time when relatively few women held higher-level administrative roles. They were friends for 50 years.

West and Ramey were among a group of four women who played bridge at noon in West’s office, to the consternation of the men in the building, who were concerned the ladies were talking about them, West noted.

Ramey and West continued to play bridge together outside of work and forged a lifelong friendship. 

“We were just very, very good friends for a very long time,” West said. “What I’ll miss about her is her courage and what I want people to know is that she had a wicked sense of humor.”

Chris Ramey also remembers his mom as a great cook with a table always ready for others. While in college, he and several others on the swim team would have dinner Sunday nights at his parents’ house.

“She loved that. And it was so fun to sit around the table and have her try to get stories out of us about what we were doing because she, at that point, being in the dorms, she had seen it all,” he said.

Together, Marjory and Howard Ramey raised three sons — Timothy, Jonathan and Christopher — who married Gretchen, Debra and Laura, respectively. They had eight grandchildren. They were together for 65 years before Howard died in 2006 at the age of 94. 

Chris and Laura Ramey lived across the street from his mom for many years, making it easy for her to be an involved grandma who enjoyed buying Easter dresses for their two girls, taking them to plays and babysitting.

“She was very welcoming,” Laura Ramey said. “She was just very supportive.”

Marjory Ramey lived on her own until she was 99, slowing down only at the end, and then died peacefully in her sleep.