William Byron Hawkins

William Byron Hawkins, better known by friends as Bill Hawkins, was born January 21, 1918, and died September 9, 2025, at the age of 107 and three quarters. His was married for 79 years to Camille Palmer Hawkins (deceased). Born in Fruitdale (La Grande), Union County, Oregon, Bill was the first of two children in the family of Ann Etta Halverson and William Martin Hawkins. Bill is survived by his brother, Sherman Hawkins (aged 102), two of his three children—Byron Hawkins (deceased), John Hawkins, and Claire Hawkins Averett—12 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren and 1.75 great-great grandchildren.

Bill grew up on a farm on Catherine Creek, near Union, Oregon, where Bill recalls he and Sherman spent many happy hours riding their horse Nellie, and getting into regular boy mischief and learning how to farm.

Bill attended elementary school in Union and high school in Union and La Grande. He began university studies in Eastern Oregon College and then served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the British mission. One notable event occurred after he finished his mission: In 1938, he and a fellow missionary companion traveled through Europe on their way home. While in Germany, he heard Adolf Hitler speak from a balcony to a crowd. Bill always said that he knew, at that moment, that a major war would surely start in Europe.

Bill then enrolled in Brigham Young University, courted Camille, graduated with a degree in Political Science and married his sweetheart, Camille in 1941. His plan was to go to law school but that was interrupted by World War II, so instead he went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad where his father also worked. The couple lived in La Grande where two of their three children were born, until they moved to Portland, Oregon, where Bill was an officer in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen labor union and their third child was born. Because of his education, experience, and senior position within the labor union, he was appointed by the Eisenhower administration as a “labor union attaché,” working in United States embassies with the Point Four Program (initially a part of the Marshall Plan to restore post-war Europe). This was America’s first foreign aid program and provided technical assistance to developing countries. From 1953-1960, the Hawkins family lived and worked first in Germany, then in Lebanon, and finally in Iran, after which they moved back to the Grande Ronde Valley and took up farming near Hot Lake in the fall of 1960. Bill and Camille farmed at Hot Lake for over 60 years while Bill continued to railroad.

Bill actively ran his farm until age 100, at which time he leased out the property. Indeed, Bill was a farmer’s farmer to the very end. In his last conversation with his daughter the day before his death, Bill imagined himself back on the farm he so loved and urged Claire to carefully supervise the crew greasing the combines, to insure that they lubed all the hidden zert fittings so friction would not cause a field fire and the combines would be ready for the harvest.

Happy harvest, Dad!