Obituaries
Vera N. Culver
Elgin
1928-2011
Vera Nadine Culver, 83, of Elgin, died Nov. 6 at Robin’s Nest Adult Foster Care Home in Elgin. A celebration of life for Vera will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Loveland Funeral Chapel. Burial will be at Elgin Cemetery.
Vera was born March 31, 1928, in Enterprise to Harold and Josephine (Fisk) Fruitts. She was raised on the Divide between Imnaha and Big Sheep Creek. She married Lavon Culver on Oct. 24, 1944, in Elgin.
They raised three children and occasionally, Vera worked at the sale yard. Vera loved crocheting, quilt-making and gardening. She raised horses and enjoyed ranching and hunting.
Vera is survived by her children and their spouses, Carlene and Merrill Cox, Gale and Carolynn Culver and Rex and Arlene Culver, all of Elgin; five grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Lavon; her parents, Harold and Josephine; two grandchildren, Todd Culver and Ann Janette Cox; and her siblings, Aubrey Fruitts, Arthur Fruitts, Frank Fruitts, Loretta Fitzgerald, Hazel Sherwood, Jean Fruitts and Patty Jo Leany.
Lloyd Doss
Enterprise
1920 – 2011
We were saddened to here that former Imnaha Store owner/proprieter Lloyd Thomas “Tommy” Doss passed away in Enterprise on October, 25 2011.
Lloyd became famous playing with some of the best Western music bands of the ’40s and ’50s.
Born in Weiser, Idaho in 1920, his family moved to La Grande, Oregon in 1922.
Lloyd met his wife Naomi Henderson in Hermiston, Oregon where they were married. They moved back to La Grande where in 1939 he formed his first band, Sons of the Grande Ronde. They played the local Elks Club and drove to Baker where they earned $12.50 per week performing on live radio.
In 1948 Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys cane to play in La Grand at Zuber Hall. While there Bob heard Lloyd play and hired him on the spot. The Dosses left for California the next day, where he played with the Playboys, the Rythm Busters, and Ole Rasmusseen and his Nebraska Cornhuskers until he was recruited by the legendary Sons of the Pioneers to replace Bob Nolan in 1949. When Lloyd joined the Pioneers his stage name became “Tommy Doss’ as there was already a ‘Lloyd’ in the band with Lloyd Perriman.
Lloyd left touring with the Sons of the Pioneers in 1963 and he, Naomi and their youngest son moved to Imnaha and operated the Imnaha Store and Tavern that they had purchased. Naomi served as the Imnaha postmaster until they sold the store in 1977.
Lloyd Doss was inducted into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame November 21, 2008.
