Obituaries: Rosemarie “Rosie” Short (June 24, 1928 – April 24, 2011)

Rosie Short was born on June 24, 1928, in Beecher City, Illinois. She passed away peacefully at her Central Point home, her son and daughter at her side, on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011.

Rosie was the daughter of Floyd and Dolly Ireland. When she was 4, the family left Illinois and moved to Oregon. At 17 Rosie met and fell in love with William (Bill) Short, a 20-year-old returning war veteran with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. They married in April 1946 and in March of the following year their first child, Sharon, was born. Rosie and Bill bought a lot in Eagle Point, and using reclaimed lumber from Camp White, they built a modest house with their own two hands. There they had two sons, Steve (b. 1948) and Gary (b. 1954).

In the early 1960s the Short family moved to Crescent City,  where Bill started fishing and Rosie worked for 14 years as a teacher’s aide, a job she found particularly rewarding because of her love of children.

Bill and Rosie retired in 1988 but three years later, at ages 66 and 63, they decided to buy a small farm in Sams Valley, Ore., and return to the country life they had enjoyed in childhood. Despite the hard work, Rosie loved the peaceful life and animals in the country.

In 1997 tragedy struck when Rosie’s son Steve died saving a young man from drowning. In 2005, Bill succumbed to cancer. Rosie started life anew in Central Point, but shortly after moving, discovered she herself had cancer. She battled the disease for more than five years with characteristic optimism, courage, determination and abiding faith.

Rosie enjoyed reading, painting, gardening, teaching Sunday School, and writing poetry. Motivated by the death of her son Steve, she started writing hymns in the latter years of her life. Her family privately published 10 of her hymns in a book entitled “Echoes From My Heart.”

In addition to her son and daughter, and their spouses Debbie and Dale, Rosie is survived by six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. She will be greatly missed by her many friends and family, and eternally loved.

She was interred in the family plot at the Rock Point Pioneer Cemetery. A service celebrating her life will be held at the Lake Creek Pioneer Hall on Sunday, May 22, at 3 p.m.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital or some other cancer research organization, or to an organization assisting veterans.

— Submitted by Rogue Valley Funeral