English Cemetery ~ Tracy Black ~ part of the Polk County Pioneer Cemeteries of Oregon
Black, Tracy
LAST: Black FIRST: Tracy MID: 
GENDER: F MAIDEN NAME:  TITLE: 
BORN: 8 Feb 1947 DIED: 11 Oct 2011 BURIED:  (English Cemetery)
OCCUPATION:  
BIRTH PLACE:  Cleveland, Ohio
DEATH PLACE: 
NOTES: 
OBITUARY: 
Tracy Black, February 8, 1947-October 11, 2011
RICREALL – Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Tracy followed an unpredictable, at times romantic, path to the American West, ending up in Oregon for her last twenty years. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology, the young idealist traveled to Liberia to serve her country in the Peace Corps. Returning afterwards to Pittsburgh she found employment in a medical office. The work was administrative, but it prefigured a lifelong career as a medical technologist. After advance training at Antelope Valley College in California, she worked in this capacity in community hospitals in California and in Dallas, Oregon, as well as the Veterinary Science Department at Oregon state University, finally retiring from a private medical clinic in Salem. Unsatisfied with ordinary hours and neat labeling, she mixed this major career early on with a minor in Library Science, running more or less simultaneously. In this field she graduated from UCLA and held a daytime librarian job at Antelope Valley College while working graveyard in the medical lab of Lancaster Community Hospital. Her non-professional interests included a love of flowers, birds, dogs, horses, llamas, and coffee (black). Intellectual immersions included the New Yorker, the NY Times, mystery fiction, sewing, embroidering, and fine cooking. Tracy is best remembered for her generosity, her loyalty and concern for friends and family, and an ability to endure hardship without complaint. She suffered health problems from her earliest years. This included a bout with poliomyelitis as a child, which she largely won by escaping its paralyzing effects. It continued with asthma as an adult, multiple sclerosis in later years, and finally a rare cancer of the gall bladder noted for its aggressiveness and inexorable mortality. Her bravery and continued involvement with life, home, and friendships despite her advancing illness, were tribute to a rare, unbreakable spirit. Her gentle presence will be missed by throngs of neighbors, friends, and relatives, including her loving husband, Curtis Selph, mother, Margery Black, sister Pamela Creelan, brother Webster Black, cherished in-laws Gary Cook and Gigi Black via these siblings, nephews Benjamin and Tyler Creelan, aunt Mary Raker, and five cousins: Sarah and Adrian Raker, Danielle Poole, Mary Alice Malkamus, and Linda Kooistra (an honorary sister in closeness). Her memory will last forever in the hearts of those who loved her.
Statesman Journal, Tuesday, 25 Oct 2011, 4C
INSCRIPTION: 
Tracy Black
Feb. 8, 1947-Oct. 11, 2011
Forever In Our Hearts
SOURCES: 
SJ, 25 Oct 2011, 4C
CONTACTS: 
ROW: 27-6