75 years ago
April 30, 1943
Mr. and Mrs. L.C. Bloomingdale of Elma received word from the navy department Thursday that their son Leslie (Buster) Bloomingdale, reported missing after the fall of Corregidor, is a prisoner in the Manila Bay district.
He is a graduate of Elma high school and enlisted in the medical corps of the navy in November 1940. and his parents have not heard directly from him since Dec. 18, 1941.
50 years ago
April 30, 1968
Patrolman James E. Foley, a 25-year veteran of police work in Elma and Aberdeen, has been granted a disability retirement due to a back injury.
“Foley as a very conscientious officer,” remarked David Auer, police chief. “I hate to see him leave the department.”
Foley joined the Aberdeen department after seven years as chief of Elma’s two-man police force.
On one occasion, Foley disarmed a man who apparently planned to hold up the Wagon Wheel Cafe. When the officer turned the suspect’s two sidearms over the sheriff’s deputies, one deputy remarked, “Those are the sheriff’s guns.”
The subject turned out to be a trusty who escaped from the county jail, broke into Sheriff Mike Kilgore’s home and stole the two pistols.
Foley’s most memorable night on the Aberdeen force was the night that officers tried to nail the arsonist who was setting fires all across town. Foley saw a man fleeing from the 20th fire and fired six warning shots at him.
Foley and Pete Popovac, now retired, found the man in a doorway, his knees shaking and his hands over his face, muffling his sobs. Foley took him to the station and learned the suspect’s daytime occupation — fire alarm salesman. The arrestee was subsequently sentenced to 15 years in prison. `
25 years ago
April 30, 1993
Frances F. Rosenberg, who taught two generations of first-graders at Emerson School in Hoquiam, died Thursday at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen. She was 90.
Miss Rosenberg, known as “Rosie” to her friends, taught for more than 40 years before retiring in 1965. For the past 60 years she had shared a house on Emerson Avenue with another longtime teacher, Ruth Birks.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
