Kenneth Bruce Hall's Obituary
Kenneth "Bruce" Hall, Sr. of St. Helens died peacefully at his home June 1, 2011.
Mr. Hall was born Oct. 4, 1917, in Portland, Oregon to L.C. Lynn Carl & Beulah Post Hall.
He attended the Deer Island Elementary School, and St. Helens High School when it was, what is now the old John Gumm School building. He graduated there in 1935.
He married Wanda L. Bunnell, also of St. Helens, on December 31, 1951 in a ceremony in Longview, Washington on her night off & honeymooned at the Monticello Hotel there.
His dad was in the trucking business & established the L.C. Hall's Truck Lines, Inc. when Bruce was 3 years old. The family moved to this area in 1926 and lived in Deer Island, Columbia City, and St. Helens. It became a family business that grew & thrived for many years. Bruce learned to drive at 7. He got his driver's license when he was just 15. That was legal back then. The police even do a double take when they see his 5 digit license number. At that time, he had one of the few cars that were driven to high school, so he was pretty popular. He continued driving up until the last couple weeks of his life. He worked his whole life trucking. When he was 65, the freight portion of the company was sold to another trucking firm which is still in existence as L.C. Hall's, to this day. When most people his age were retiring & taking it easier, he and his wife took the moving & storage side of the company, and established a new company, New Way Moving & Storage Mayflower agents , which they ran for 11 ½ years before selling. That company is also in existence today. Together, they remained busy, working & taking part in their community.
Bruce was a born again Christian and active in the Sunset Park Community Church. He was also still an active member of Gideons International where he had spoken in churches and continued to distribute Bibles at every opportunity. He was Past President of the Kiwanis Club, Past Mason, and most recently, loved being part of the St. Helens Historical Society. He had so much history in his head & loved sharing stories of life & times from early St. Helens & the surrounding area. He could rattle off the street names, in order, of Portland when they were still cobblestone & still could. A wealth of knowledge & history go with him.
He is survived by his wife of 59 ½ years and his children, Barbara Adams & her husband, Jim, of St. Helens, Kenneth B. Hall, Jr. & his wife, Amelia, of Sandy, Utah, Susan Carstens of Tallahassee, Florida & Rhonda Potter, Melbourne Australia. Rhonda had been a foreign exchange student who lived with the Halls in 1973. Also, survived by brother, Donald Hall of Pensacola, Florida & sister, Florence Cramer of Longview, Washington. He had 11 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, several nieces & nephews, and his brother & sister-in-law, Ralph & Mickey Bunnell of Castle Rock, Washington.
He was preceded in death by his sons, Charles, Richard & Randy, his parents, brother, Lynn & great-grandson.
Viewing & visitation with be held at Columbia Funeral Home, Thursday, June 9, 2011.
Service will be held at 3 p.m. at Sunset Park Community Church, 174 Sunset Blvd., St. Helens, Oregon with a reception to follow.
Memorial Contributions may be made "In remembrance of Bruce" to Gideons International.
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