PENDLETON — Rose Murphey of Pendleton is in her seventh decade and said her drive for life has led her to have an interesting one so far.

Murphey said she was born on a poor farm and lived as a child in a Hermiston migrant labor camp, working in the fields. At 12, she picked strawberries in Parkdale, hoed mint and cut seed potatoes.

“I could see the mighty Columbia River,” she said. “(Then I worked) nights in a hot potato chip factory and (canned) asparagus at Rogers in Walla Walla. I was always hungry for a better life than the one I grew up in, always dreaming of the white picket fence and a nice little white house. No living in a trailer with a few kids hanging (on) my knees, was never going to be my life plan.”

Murphey, 71, moved to Pendleton as an emancipated minor at 15. She got a job as a dishwasher for B&K Donut shop.

“Bob called me ‘Mighty Mouse’ because I only weighed about 90 pounds, but I was a hard worker,” she said. “Later I worked at the Rivoli Theater and the Ranch Cafe. At age 21, not wanting to be trapped into waitress work, I joined the Women Marines. I wanted to go to college, but on my own with no family support, it would never happen.”

In boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, Murphey said she had an allergic reaction to some vaccine shots. She was medically discharged from the Marine Corps after 18 months.

“I presented with big welts all over my body,” she said. “I had orders to go to Okinawa to serve my first KP duty. But after spending weeks in the Balboa Naval Hospital, because the fever blisters and welts kept recurring, I was discharged instead.”

Murphey said she still suffered health issues after discharge at 23.

“I continued to have outbreaks and blisters on my skin coming from inside me,” she said. “Usually stress or getting a cold or flu, herpes around my mouth, which later led to fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, Epstein-Barr system, sleeplessness and so much more.”

Despite these medical conditions, Murphey activated her life plan.

“I was smart, motivated and a real hard worker,” she said. “To prepare me to return to civilian life, my IQ, which was 125 that day, I was told I had more in common with a judge or politician. I said, like that is ever going to happen. See, I can’t spell and have dyslexia and my last math class was in the seventh grade.”

The GI Bill and federal vocational rehabilitation funds enabled Murphey to graduate from Blue Mountain Community College in 1975 and Eastern Oregon State College in 1977.

Murphey said she became a licensed clinical social worker, was a vocational and educational counselor in Pendleton and at 30 had her only daughter.

“Because in life I had more than my share of ‘15 minutes of fame’, then I was gifted with the most amazing, musically gifted daughter, Jaclyn Penner Sites,” she said. “She goes by Jacie. My brother, cowboy Dave Murphey, and his then wife Bobbie Beers, along with a couple in California, started the WSRRA.”

Jacie is a championship fiddler, living in Idaho. The Western States Ranch Rodeo Association allows everyday, working cowboys and cowgirls to compete in sanctioned ranch rodeo events.

Murphey said she looks back on her life with satisfaction.

“I did not waste or throw away my life,” she said. “I do not drink, do drugs or gamble. I was born a child of God, and try to live my life the way Jesus and my mom … and her mom taught me. Kindness, compassion, empathy, caring about my fellow man and women, helping my neighbors, giving back and now paying it forward. Every human and animal on Earth is important to me, no matter how insignificant others find them. My personal life is a mystery to most, because that is the way I want it to be. Gossip and bad talk hurt people. If I have nothing good to say about a person, I just do not say anything at all.”

Murphey’s husband, Art Merriman Jr., died in 2018.

“I have had just the most wonderful and amazing life,” she concluded. “I am not running for any elected office, maybe town crier or most loved and respected woman in town. I’m amazed at all the people I’ve been able to help and all the rock solid work I’ve done. I’ve gone from the poor farm to a federally certified attorney.”