Born Alta J. Chaffee, in Adrian, MI in 1890, Alta was the daughter of Frank A. Chaffee and one of his several wives. Alta is about 18 years old in this photograph, which we obtained from Delaware, and holds a bouquet of hope and promise. She married Roy Deville Boomer, also from Lenawee County, and for many years they lived in Adrian and Ann Arbor, where Roy would work as a carpenter for the railroad or in construction, and Alta would take in laundry in order to help make ends meet.
Later, the dreams would catch hold, and they moved to the fertile Yakima valley of Washington to pursue farming. Enduring a hard life, Alta died in 1938; only 47 years old. Roy lasted until 1947, at the age of 59; and both are buried in the Old Sunnyside Cemetery, in rural Yakima County, WA.
