Reata Arlene Horney

May 5, 1927 - February 6, 2019

Reata Arlene Horney died February 6, 2019 at the age of 91. Memorial services will be held February 22, 2019 at 11:00 am at Attrell’s Funeral Chapel in Newberg Oregon. Reata was born May 5, 1927 in Fruitland, Idaho and moved with her family to Portland, Oregon when she was 13. Her mother, Bernice (Peck) Miles, had been born to homesteaders in Culver, Oregon and while visiting relatives there, Reata met her husband Erwin. They married January 20, 1946 and raised their two daughters, Jackie and Judy, on Erwin’s family homestead. In the 1960’s, Reata and Erwin started Circle H Youth Ranch and took in almost 40 foster children over the following two decades. They helped to bring Youth for Christ from Portland to the Madras area. Reata helped to start the Madras Day Care which became the Children’s Learning Center. They were members of the Oregon Association of Juvenile Judges and did volunteer probation and parole work. In 1991 Reata was presented with the Oregon Association of American Mothers Bertha Holt Award. Reata was a member of the Madras Conservative Baptist Church, the Jefferson County Historical Society and a charter member of the Culver Garden Club. She was known for her green thumb, and enjoyed oil painting, miniature doll houses and the compiling of her family’s history and old family photos. Survivors include her daughter, Jackie Finley of Culver; foster sons, Larry Neidigh of Florida and Alan Miller of Madras; granddaughter, Connie Gregor of Dundee and two great grandchildren, Rebecca and Ben Gregor and four foster grandsons. She was preceded in death by her husband Erwin, her daughter Judy, and foster sons Dennis Miller and Kent Bauer.