PENDLETON – Deana Eckman is proud of the niche she has carved out for herself as the area’s only female owner of a used car lot.

Eckman is the owner of Deana’s Auto Biz, a used automobile business in Pendleton. She has run the lot on rented property for the past five years, and recently purchased her own property at 600 S.E. Court Ave., just across the street from her old digs.

“It’s a bigger lot,” said Eckman. “We’ll increase the inventory.”

Eckman said she deals in vehicles that are affordable for working-class families.

“Just being able to talk to the customers, to get a vehicle that fits their needs,” she said was the most enjoyable part of her job. “Having satisfied customers is real important.”

Eckman is a one-woman show, having no employees at this time.

“Sometimes I think about it,” she said. “But it’s sort of nice the way it is. I do everything – buying, financing – and I’m the janitor.”

Eckman isn’t all about work. She and her husband, Dave Eckman, enjoy time together as well.

“We both have motorcycles, and we like to ride in the summer time,” Eckman said.

She said her husband obtained his street motorcycle in 2003.

“I spent one summer on the back of his bike,” Eckman said. “Then I said, ‘That’s enough, I want my own.'”

In 2004, after she obtained her endorsement, her husband presented her with her own bike for their 12th wedding anniversary.

“It’s been fun,” she said. “We hook up with other people to ride and have a good time.”

There’s a downside to the motorcycles, however. Since the couple started riding together, their fishing has been neglected. Eckman said she and her husband enjoy sturgeon and bass fishing on the Columbia River.

The Eckmans have three daughters, and she said she enjoys time spent with her grandchildren above all else.

“We have seven grandkids,” she said. “They’re all young, so it’s crazy around the holidays. I love it.”