Argus Observer (Ontario, Malheur County, Oregon)
Wednesday, July 21, 1993
Letha May Harper Solterbeck
PAYETTE - Letha May Harper Solterbeck, 75, Payette, died July 18, 1993, in an Ontario hospital of natural causes. Services will be 10 a.m. Friday at the First United Methodist Church, Payette, with Rev. David Stewart officiating. Burial will follow at Riverside Cemetery, Payette, under the direction of Shaffer-Jensen Memory Chapel, Payette.
She was born April 4, 1918, at Payette, the daughter of Edward and Lulu Harper. She was raised and educated in Payette, graduating in the class of 1936. She attended art school in Los Angeles after high school. She married Claude B. Solterbeck, March 19, 1945, in Washington, D.C. where she served in the United States Navy. She was assigned to the Naval Intelligence Operation where she earned the honor of breaking Japanese military code. Having done this, the peace with Japan came much earlier than otherwise might have happened.
Letha and Claude returned to Idaho in 1946. They owned and operated a fruit farm South of Payette where she resided until the time of her death.
She was a Past Honored Queen and Past Guardian of Job's Daughters and a former member of Eastern Star. She was active in the Payette First United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Circle and Tuesday Morning Bible Circle.
Surviving include her husband, Claude of Payette; two daughters, Dara Lea Arvas of Albuquerque, N. M. and Margaret Ann Stoddard of Salmon; seven grandchildren, Alison and T.J. Arvas and Brenton, Eric, Kelly, Janie and Emily Stoddard, and a brother, Glenn Harper of Coulee Dam, Wash.
Memorials may be made to the Payette First United Methodist Church or a favorite charity, in care of Shaffer-Jensen Memory Chapel, P.O. Box 730, Payette, ID 83661.
Friends may call from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at Shaffer-Jensen Memory Chapel, Payette.
