Terry Ann Conley
August 22, 1955 – March 26, 2019
Terry Ann Conley of Pendleton, Oregon, beloved mother of Nikolas Alexander Conley and loving sister, aunt, grand aunt, and passionate friend to many, died in the wee hours on the morning of Tuesday, March 26, 2019 from chronic complications of Lupus (SLE) and cancer. Terry was known for having many deep and bonding friendships throughout Oregon and Washington and touched the lives of many during her short 63 years of life. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois on August 22, 1955 to the late Dr. Robert Lee and Nancy Delleneck Conley where her father was completing residency at the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital. Her father, a native Oregonian, returned to Portland, Oregon to begin his medical practice and co-founding of the Portland Osteopathic Hospital (formerly known as Eastmoreland General) to raise her amongst the beauty of Oregon’s mountains, rivers, and wildlife where she thrived with her siblings hiking, backpacking, and exploring every nook and cranny of the State. She was a strong and spirited woman who had a love for fine clothes, fashion, and art while also being a Wild Woman of the West, feeling most grounded with cowboy boots on and fishing the Clackamas and Umatilla Rivers. With her parents and siblings, she was a world-wide traveller, circumventing the entire world and returning in her later years with her son to expose him to the glory of ship travel. At a very early age, travel was by train across the United States on the Empire Builder for many years. Often missing the first few weeks of school due to travel, her teachers would require her to write reports of geographical and cultural significance. She deeply loved the Caribbean but her heart was grounded in the rugged beauty of Eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains where she spent a lifetime each summer visiting or working at the Bar M Ranch owned by the Baker family in Bingham, Oregon. It is here where her ashes will be scattered amongst the wild cucumber vines that cling to the rocky rattlesnake hills, where earth meets heaven, where the sky has no end to the horizon, where wild horses still roam and eagles soar -- it is where the spirit is lifted in a way that can not be put into words. Terry was an incredible woman of strength as she challenged many physical obstacles of pain and surgeries after her diagnosis of Lupus (SLE) . At 17 years of age, she was traveling with her parents and siblings in Europe and had gotten severely sunburnt which activated the Lupus gene. She was immediately flown home and hospitalized and nearly died. She never could get over the fact that she missed school and her friends when she was hospitalized and recovering. It deeply affected her after she learned many did not know what happened to her or where she was. Thus began her proud but silent and private way of recovering lost friendships and building new ones. Terry was gifted with the art of watercolour painting having been taught and mentored by a family friend, the late Charles Mulvey who was renown for his incredible scenes of Oregon’s beaches and natural landscapes. She was also inspired by the art of nature and boulders and structure after the family’s home was landscaped by the late Barbara Vorse Fealy in Milwaukie, Oregon. Terry went on to sell several of her paintings to help with charitable causes and launched a small entrepreneurial business of selling her artwork as gift cards. Some of her fondest memories in life were prior to her illness with siblings and friends. A graduate of Rex Putnam High School in 1973, she thrived and loved to socialize and entertain. She went on to Business College where she received a certificate. Terry and her siblings were brought up at a very early age carrying 25 lb+. backpacks into many of Oregon’s wilderness areas.. She was most fond of the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area where they would cross country hike and find hidden, secret cold pure, high terrain tarns to soak their weary bones. Of course it would not be complete without a mud moss wrap before laughing and plunging into those tarns. These were the days before she discovered spas! The memories of high country camping and fishing were engrained in her for life and she rejoiced in passing on these traditions to her son. She was proud of her heritage of Russian-Irish ancestry and had the strong will and work ethic to prove it by single handily raising her son. She was devoted to every moment she had with him and when she could no longer physically play and explore, she “travelled” with him telling family stories so he would be aware of the strong Conley heritage which was passed on to him. Her father was a CCC boy who carried the blasted rocks of Mount Hood up to the mortar masons to build Timberline Lodge. Her grandfather was asked to be the caretaker of Spirit Lake Lodge at Mount Saint Helens before the late Harry Truman. This longstanding love and involvement with many of Oregon’s icons was to be passed on to her son so that he would feel grounded and continue the family tradition of a sense of purpose and place. She was fearless and spirited in her quest to not let her physical condition handicap her. Against the instructions of her doctors after a hip replacement surgery, she rode and owned horses and was an accomplished rider in both dressage and Western style. Again after a second hip reconstruction surgery, she escaped with her sister to the Umatilla River darting across rockbeds with crutches so she could cast her hook in hopes of catching a rainbow trout. She felt fulfilled in life when she had her son but almost lost her life with complications in bearing him. From that day forward, she was an avid philanthropist to the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital of OSHU in Portland, Oregon. Terry was an animal lover and had a mirage of different pets which had humorous names and personalities – everything from horses and cats to a dog, rabbit, rat, and a Myna bird. She will be sorely missed but now free from pain. She is predeceased by her mother and father, and a husband. Survivors include her son, Nikolas Alexander Conley of Vancouver, Washington; her brother Mark Joseph Conley of Eugene, Oregon; her sister Janet Esther Tobkin Conley of Parsonsfield, Maine; her sister Linda Elizabeth Swift of Vancouver, Washington; her niece Chloe Jeannine Swift and nephew Lauren Swift of Vancouver, Washington; and her precious Grand niece Aliyah Swift of Vancouver, Washington. At her request, she had arranged for her body to be donated to the Oregon Health Science University for research and education. There will be no services or funeral. Friends and loved ones who wish to honour her memory are invited to donate to the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital by emailing ohsufinfo@ohsu.edu or visiting their website at https://www.onwardohsu.org/kids. Those who wish to share stories or pass on condolences to the family are invited to send those via email to sprinkles@myfairpoint.net where they will be cherished, shared, and bound into a special scrapbook for her beloved son.