Laura Lee Rider

Laura Rider, 60, passed away Wednesday, December 25, 2013 at her home in Medford, Ore. In lieu of flowers please send a donation to the Southern Oregon Humane Society. A memorial service will be held at Ruch Community Church Saturday, January 4, 2014 at 11:00 a.m.

Her Life
Laura was born October 1, 1953 to Raymond and Gladys Skeels in Corning, California. Her grandparents owned a cattle ranch in nearby Los Molinas, where she spent a lot of her younger years. At the ranch she had a horse named Ladybug that she loved to ride.
Once her Grandfather took her to a hog farm, where she fell in love with one of the day-old piglets. After much persuading, her Grandfather let her take the piglet home, with the understanding that she had to bottle feed him every few hours. She named it Piggly Wiggly.
Every time she would tell us the story, and all the antics that the two of them got into, it would leave us in stitches. On the ranch, her love and devotion to animals blossomed.
After her Grandfather passed away, they moved to Antioch California where she graduated from Antioch High School in 1971. She started Beauty School, and found out that she enjoyed the work, but did not like the gossip that went along with the job.
She had various other jobs from working as a car hop at A&W (no she didn't wear the roller skates) to being a property manager for a Real Estate Investor.
Rashelle came into Laura's life on September 27, 1974 and was the joy of her life.
In the summer of 1979, Laura meet Bruce camping at Lake Berryessa in the Napa Valley (Bruce thinks roughing it is Motel 6, so it must have been fate). A year later, they were married in their backyard in Pittsburg, California.
Bruce was in the process of buying a printing company, at the time, in Oakland, California. After buying the company, Laura figured she would come and work with him because of the long hours he was putting in; this meant that she could see him throughout the day. Laura took to printing like a cat takes to catnip, she was a natural.
She managed the sales for the company, while Bruce did the printing. They worked together fine, as long as Bruce stayed in the back of the shop and left Laura to doing her sales and marketing.
On their 5th anniversary, they took a second honeymoon to Hawaii. Three weeks after they got back, Laura found out that she was pregnant with Kirby.
While in pre-school, Kirby performed in a Sunday service at the local church. About a month later, she was still attending services and went forward to accept Jesus. She was baptized shortly afterwards.
They lived in Oakland, and ran their printing business for 16 years. On a trip to Washington D.C., when Kirby was 8, they saw a picture of a baby alpaca in the airline's magazine and thought it was the cutest thing they had ever seen.
They spent the next two years learning everything they could about alpacas, while traveling up and down the west coast going to different alpaca ranches.
Her father always told her to find a place where the pines meet the oaks. When they decided on the Rogue Valley, they were told by everyone the Applegate Valley was the place to be, and that is how they ended up in Ruch (away from the valley fog).
Bruce was pretty much a city boy when they moved to the ranch, he relied on Laura for a lot of the setup for the animals. She commuted back and forth to Oakland, for the first year, as they were in the process of selling the printing company.
Her love for the animals made the ranch prosper. She was with the alpacas at all their births, and cared for them in their sickness. She would be the one out there all hours of the day and night, feeding the baby alpacas if their mothers were having a hard time. Much like the piglet in her youth.
She loved teaching about the alpacas, giving tours, and spinning their fleece. She also loved to play her piano, which was always her way to release her stress. You could always tell how her day had gone, just by the type of music she was playing.
Other things she did besides drive Kirby back and forth to Medford, she was the Mail Tribune Carrier for the area and drove over 120 miles every night delivering the paper.
When Kirby joined the Army in 2006, Laura and Bruce sold the ranch and moved into Medford. Laura always thought of Ruch as her home, still going out there to see Dr. Watson, going to Ruch Dental, or fly-fishing in the Applegate River. While learning to fish, Laura lost so many flies, she was limited to a three per trip limit. This was increased as her skill progressed.
She tried staying at home, but became very restless and went back to printing. She accepted a position with CDS Publications.
Laura was so loving and selfless, she left her job to take care of her daughter in Portland, while Rashelle was recovering from an illness. While she was up in Portland, she fell in love with the area. Wanting to give back to the community, she started rehabilitating old houses.
She was back in Medford, taking a break from the rehabbing houses for the holidays. On Christmas Day, while watching a movie with Bruce, she had a heart attack and passed away. She was on her way to heaven in only moments.
Laura is survived by her husband Bruce, father Raymond, children Kirby and Rashelle, daughter-in-law Samantha, and sister Christi.
To all of us who were a part of her life, we will miss her laughter, her sense of humor, storytelling and the love and joy that radiated from her. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the southern oregon humane society at 2010 Table Rock Rd. Medford, Oregon 97501 please put in loving memory of Laura Rider and include this address 14818 SW Scholls Ferry Rd Apt T301 Beaverton, Or 97007