Dale (Espy) Little

Helen-Dale Espy Little, known affectionately by her many friends and admirers as the "Queen of Oysterville," died June 13, 2009, at the Willapa Harbor Care Center in Raymond not far, as the crow flies, from the village she had considered "home" for most of her 97 years. It was her grandfather, R. H. Espy, who co-founded Oysterville along with I. A. Clark in 1854. She was Espy's last surviving grandchild. Although she considered herself a native of Oysterville, she was actually born in Olympia on Nov. 13, 1911, while her father was serving out a term as senator from Pacific and Wahkiakum counties. She was the youngest of the seven children of Helen Richardson and Harry Albert Espy and grew up in the house across from Oysterville's Baptist Church. She enjoyed talking about her growing up years in the village. She remembered that there were no girls around her age, only boys - her two brothers, Willard and Edwin, and 11 others. When her two brothers reached college age, the family made a temporary move to Redlands, Calif., where she finished high school and went on to follow in her brothers' footsteps and graduate from the University of Redlands. At the university she met Bill Little from Boston and after graduation they were married in his boyhood home in Boston. Five years later they returned to the West Coast with their three-year-old daughter Sydney. They settled in the San Francisco Bay area, coming "home to Oysterville" frequently and seeing to it that their daughter and later, grandchildren Charlie and Marta, spent their school vacations there. The move to California in the summer of 1941 was just prior to the outbreak of World War II. Mrs. Little went to work in the shipyards as a pipe fitter's helper at General Engineering and Dry Dock Company in Alameda. There she earned the title of Miss Safety and she and her husband were sent to Los Angeles on a whirlwind public relations trip during which they met celebrities, visited the Lockheed Plant, and Dale promoted the war effort by appearing on Bob Burns' NBC radio show. Following the war, the couple worked as manufacturer representatives selling gift lines of all sorts and especially brassware imported from India. In the 1960s she began her own business, "The Little Lamp and Shade Shop," in Oakland, Calif. Throughout those years, she never lost her Oysterville focus. She returned to the Peninsula for eight months in 1947 to arrange for a family reunion on the occasion of her parents' 50th anniversary and, again, in 1954 to assist with the Oysterville Centennial celebration. When she and her husband retired in 1972, they moved permanently to Oysterville. There they set about doing some much-needed maintenance on the family house and, in short order, she set her sights on restoring the Oysterville Church and getting some recognition for the village she loved. They helped form the Oysterville Restoration Foundation. Her grandfather donated the land and $1,500 to the baptists to build the church and, in accordance with the deed, it reverted to her family when it stopped being used on a regular basis. She and family gifted it to the Oysterville Restoration Foundation in 1980. In addition to her many efforts on behalf of Oysterville, she was active in community organizations including the Shoalwater Chapter of the Daughters of the Pioneers, Mentor Club, Questers, and the Oysterville Community Club. Survivors include her daughter, Sydney Stevens, her son-in-law Nyel Stevens, and her grandchildren Charles Howell and Marta LaRue. A memorial service will be held in the Oysterville Church at two o'cold in the afternoon on July 1, 2009. Memorial donations in her name may be made for the Oysterville Church in care of the Oysterville Restoration Foundation, P.O. Box 71, Oysterville, WA 98641.