Doris Naomi Bateman

Doris Naomi Bateman of Bainbridge Island, WA and Tulelake, CA passed away peacefully early on the morning of January 6, 2023. After living in Tulelake for nearly 80 years, Doris spent the last five years of her life with family on Bainbridge Island enjoying time with children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. 

Doris drove school bus for the Tulelake Basin Joint Unified School District for over 30 years. If you attended school in Tulelake between the mid-1960’s and mid-1990’s you likely rode a school bus with her as the driver as she drove the regular school bus, the lunch bus, out-of-town athletic trips, FFA trips, summer swim bus and recreation trips, etc. She loved the interaction with the kids. She supported her husband Harve as he served the community tirelessly in many capacities including as a volunteer fireman, volunteer ambulance worker, on the Tulelake City Council, as Tulelake Mayor, and on the Tulelake park board. She kept the scorebook while he coached Little League baseball, Babe Ruth baseball, and Tulelake High School baseball, and not surprisingly wasn’t afraid to share her opinion when she felt it necessary. She had a feisty personality often answering the question of how she was doing with a snappy, “I’m fat, sassy, mean, and ornery!” Doris ran the scoreboard for high school basketball games for many years while her kids were in school. During football season she could be seen on the sidelines working the “chains” or up in the elevated booth keeping statistics for the Honkers.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints she devoted countless hours to serving the youth and adults of the branch in Tulelake as well as serving as a temple worker in the Portland and Medford Oregon Temples. Doris was born in Phoenix, Arizona on July 2nd, 1932, to George and Naomi Kurtz. She was the younger of two daughters. Within a month the family moved to Los Angeles. After about a year it was on to Klamath Falls, Oregon and then after roughly five years the family settled in Tulelake. Doris graduated from Tulelake High School, but not before being married! Her husband Harve moved to Tulelake in the late Summer/early Fall of 1948 moving there to work with his aunt and uncle on their farm and hoping for the opportunity to obtain a homestead. Shortly after arriving in Tulelake, Doris and one of her girlfriends invited Harve and his cousin to the Sadie Hawkins Dance at Tulelake High School. Three to four months later, on February 25, 1949, Harve and Doris were married in Reno, Nevada with their mothers acting as witnesses. Upon their return to Tulelake, Doris returned to high school and part time work at the corner grocery, and Harve went to work for Doris’ father and attended Oregon Technical Institute earning a certificate in diesel mechanics. Harve and Doris were sealed for eternity in the Los Angeles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 20, 1958. They were parents of three children: Debbie born in 1954, Harvey born in 1959, and Forrest born in 1966.

Doris was preceded in death by her husband Harve in 2011, and her daughter Debbie who died in 2006 of cancer. She is survived by her sons and their spouses; Harvey and Nancy Bateman of Bainbridge Island, WA, and Forrest and Nekki Bateman of Willows, CA as well as twelve grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren who all love her and will miss her feisty personality. Per Doris’ request, the family will hold a private memorial service. She will be buried with Harve at the Eagle Point National Cemetery in Eagle Point, Oregon.

Arrangements are entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island.