News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Longtime Sisters-area resident Lei Durdan died October 23, just short of her 87th birthday.
Durdan was one of the great personalities of Sisters for decades. Words like "grace" and "class" are common descriptors, and she combined those qualities with an engaged spirit that she brought equally to pursuing her passion for the equestrian lifestyle and service to others.
She recalled her early connection with Sisters when she was chosen as Sisters Rodeo Grand Marshal in 2007:
"We were living in Hawaii and friends suggested that we needed to travel with our three children," Durdan said. "We saw an ad in Sunset Magazine for Donna Gill's Guest Ranch out on Indian Ford Road. That looked interesting, so we spent some time there. We liked it so much so we came back a second year. On that trip, we learned that Donna Gill wanted to sell about 200 acres next to the ranch. She quoted us a price at so much an acre. In Hawaii, land was selling at a price a square foot, so I encouraged my husband, Scott, to buy it."
The family spent time in Sisters each year, and her daughter Kanoe recalled that "literally within minutes of my high school graduation in 1978, we were packed up and moved here full time."
Kanoe said her mother's love of horses began when she was a girl in Hawaii, but came to full flower in Sisters Country.
She joined a couple of women's riding organizations and went on lengthy trail rides, camping under the stars.
"She did that stuff up into her 70s," Kanoe recalled. "I think she just loved the horses, the camaraderie of the women ... she loved this area and getting out and seeing it."
Durdan also liked to drive, and took up combined driving, a sport her daughter still pursues.
Long-time Sisters Rodeo Association member Bonnie Malone admired Durdan's equestrian activities.
"When I moved here, Lei was my idol," she said. "She was everything I wanted to be as I aged. I just thought so much of Lei. I never met anybody with so much class."
Durdan's association with Sisters Rodeo goes way back. In a 2007 interview she recalled:
"We first went to the Sisters Rodeo even before we had a house here. At the time, the rodeo was held downtown. We stayed at Brownie's Motel, and it was so cold. We would go back to the motel and take the blankets off the bed to wrap up in and watch the rodeo. Once we lived here, we were very active in the parade. We would invite many of the local homeowners to ride into town with us to be in the parade and then ride back home."
In the mid-1970s, the rodeo was in serious trouble.
"We were about to close the rodeo, and she was one of the people who showed up to make sure this didn't happen," Malone recalled.
Durdan served on the rodeo board of directors and Malone later asked her to serve on the SOAR (now Sisters Park & Recreation District) board.
Her daughter Kanoe recalled that "she was very committed to SOAR and providing opportunities for children." (She didn't like the term "kids." "Kids were baby goats," Kanoe said).
She was also a member of Sisters Rotary, which fulfilled a lifelong ethic of service to others.
Lei Durdan was old-school stylish.
"She conducted her life with such grace," Kanoe said. "I don't think she got out of bed without putting her lipstick on and she never left the house without her pearls on - it didn't matter if she was going to the barn or going to town."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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