Marva Lundquist

Marva Lundquist

She was born Marva Coombes on March 3, 1937 along with her twin brother Marvin. She and her brother joined her three older siblings, Elner, Don, and Bill. Later two additional siblings joined the family, Ilene and David. Elner died while Marva was still a baby.

March 3, 1937 was a snowy winter day during the Great Depression. Her birth was in a farmhouse near Wendell, Idaho and her mother was alone with three young children when labor began. Passersby were able to go to town for a doctor who came and delivered her and her brother. After their birth, her mother was alone with the five children, the oldest only six. Fortunately, neighbors stepped in to arrange for delivery of groceries for the family. Her father had been away and returned three days later.

The family had moved when she was three, the first of many times in her youth around Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Her sister Ilene joined the family after that first move in that same year when she was still three years old. Her parents divorced when she was four and her mother remarried when she was seven. She was ten when her youngest brother David Hansen was born. She was seventeen when her mother and stepfather separated.

Her stepfather farmed most of their years together and the children were expected to work, sometimes from sunrise to sunset. They milked cows, tended and picked potatoes, strawberries, and lettuce. They chopped wood for heat and carried water from a stream when they lived in a house that did not have running water. In another house they had running water, but no hot water. At one point the children bedded in a tent until an old uninsulated house with plastic coverings for windows was moved to their property. They were poor. It would be later that their fortunes would show improvement.

At sixteen the family moved to Hermiston where Marva would end up graduating. Her parents had a thoroughbred horse they took on the race circuit her junior year. She was allowed to stay behind so she could stay in school which was possible because of generosity provided by her Home Economics teacher. In return for room and board she was expected to help around the house. In addition she was paid $2 a week and was provided with school lunches. In her words, “Since I was used to hard physical labor for hours on end, this was a piece of cake.”

Marva was seventeen and still in school when she met and married Ray Arbogast. She had her first child Don two years later. Her second child Mike came the next year. Her third child Randy followed two years later. Her fourth child Donna was born the year following. Donna only survived a few hours after her birth. At twenty-five her fifth child Tim was born.

It was in this same year, prior to the birth of her fifth child, that Marva became a single parent. She became a single working mother for the next eleven years. In contrast to her youth, she supported her children in sports and other activities. When she would get home from work she would invariably be asked, “What’s for dinner?” While she would point out to her children that they were capable of making dinner, she always had it planned and she made dinner. She was proud of her children and later that pride would extend to her grandchildren.

She married Shane Lundquist when she was thirty-six and they remained together until he passed away seventeen years later. During their time together they enjoyed dancing, playing pool, bowling, playing cards, camping, and fishing. In her later years most of those activities fell off but she remained an avid fisherman for the rest of her days.

Marva passed on April 8, 2026, she was eighty-nine. She is survived by her children Mike (Stephanne), Randy and Tim (Yvonne), many grandchildren and great grandchildren, her sibling David and numerous nieces and nephews.

Her funeral will be held April 25 at 11:00 at Burns Mortuary in Hermiston and all are welcome to join in her remembrance following the service at 12:00 at Maxwell Event Center in Hermiston.

Her remains will be interred at a later date in Olney Cemetery next to her daughter.

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