Vada Martin

Vada Martin, 93, passed away on September 10, 2011, in Mancos, Colo.

Mary Vadie Harris was born near Sasakwa, Okla. She moved with her family in a covered wagon to the Sofia Valley in Eastern New Mexico when she was two years old. The family relocated to a homestead in the Seneca community the summer after she finished second grade. An independent little girl, Vadie enrolled herself in fourth grade at Seneca and no one questioned her action. She graduated from high school in Clayton, N.M., in 1935. After graduation, Vadie went to Duran, N.M., to stay with her sister and brother-in-law, Fred and Josie McIntyre. That is where she met Joe Martin, her husband for 56 years. He always called her “Vada” and she was known as Vada Martin for the rest of her life, although, her nieces and nephews continued to call her “Aunt Vadie”.

The Great Depression and the drought of the 1930’s made life in central New Mexico untenable for the young couple so they took their baby son, Wayne, and moved to Colorado in 1939, along with Joe’s sister and husband, Sam and Opal Rather. Their parents and most of their siblings also migrated to the San Juan Basin, including Vada’s sisters, Joycie Davis, Josie McIntyre, Sadie Altman and her brother, Frank Harris. Many descendants of the Harris family from New Mexico populate LaPlata County today.

The pickup truck that Joe and Vada drove to Colorado was traded as a down payment on 80 acres just west of the Pine River on Hwy 160. They had four more children, bought more property, and raised beef cattle and registered Quarter Horses on their ranch for many years. Vada especially liked to irrigate and she was still setting water when she was into her 80’s. She also liked to grow flowers and cook great food for her family and friends.

Mrs. Martin decided to go to college when she was 44 and graduated cum laude from Fort Lewis College in 1966 with a degree in Secondary Education. Mrs. Martin taught at Bayfield High School for 17 years, until she retired. One of the classes assigned to her was girl’s Physical Education. Mrs. Martin had played basketball in high school and having had no training in P.E., she didn’t know what to do with the girls except to play basketball. At that time, there were no sports programs for girls in any of the surrounding school districts. Girl’s P.E. classes at Durango, Cortez and Farmington were also playing basketball so the coaches got together and organized some games. Other schools soon had teams in the mix and, before long, they had a league of their own. Mrs. Martin’s Bayfield team went undefeated for three years; she was so proud of those girls. She continued coaching basketball for a few more years and then picked up the Volleyball coaching duties. During Mrs. Martin’s coaching tenure at Bayfield High, she won more games and took more teams to State competition than any other coach, male or female, in the area. She was awarded a trophy near the end of her career for being the “Winningest Coach” in the San Juan Basin.

Still looking for new adventures, after her retirement from teaching, Grandma Vada enjoyed traveling and spending time with her grandkids. Grandpa Joe and Grandma Vada spent summers in Colorado and Alaska and winters in Arizona until Joe passed away in 1992. Grandma worked one summer in a salmon cannery in Alaska; another summer, she hosted a number of her teenage grandsons at her Bayfield home.

During the later years of her life, Vada lived in Aztec, N.M., and continued to grow vegetables and flowers in her garden. Since Mom’s birthday, May 26, is close to Memorial Day Weekend, her family decided to throw a party for her 86th birthday so that the kids and grandkids from out of state could use the holiday weekend to travel. That tradition continued through 2011 and will be scheduled again in 2012, and beyond, as a memorial service to honor and celebrate the life of our beloved Mother, Grandma and Great Grandma. Mom moved back to the ranch at Bayfield in 2008 to be with her son and daughter in law, Chris and Susie Martin. In December of 2010, she relocated to the beautiful Valley Inn Nursing Home in Mancos, Colo., where she passed away on September 10, 2011. She was 93.

Vada Martin was preceded in death by all of her brothers and sisters (she was the youngest of 16); 10 nieces and nephews, her great-grandson Matti Martin in 2009; her husband Joe in l992, her son Julian in 1988, and her grandson James in 1987.

She is survived by eight nieces, one nephew as well as numerous great nieces and nephews; sons Wayne Martin of Dolores, Colo.; Carrol Martin of Soldotna, Alaska; Chris Martin of Bayfield, Colo.; and daughter Suzan Rinner of Anchorage, Alaska. Surviving grandchildren include Pat Martin, San Diego, Calif.; Molly Bangor, Cortez, Colo.; Mike Martin, Crawford, Colo.; Blair Martin, Kenai, Alaska; Lisa Burkhart, Soldotna, Alaska; Jon Martin, Houston, Texas; Tim Martin, John Martin and Janice McCartney, Kennewick, Wash.; Bob Martin, Bayfield, Colo.; Rhonda Ledford and Christy Morgan, Durango, Colo.; Justin Rousseau, Anchorage, Alaska; plus 26 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at Pine River Cemetery in Bayfield, Colorado at 11:00 am on Tuesday, September 13, 2011. Vada will be buried at the Bayfield Cemetery alongside her husband, Joe and her son Julian.