75 years ago
May 20, 1944
The destroyer escort U.S.S. Vammen will be launched at the San Francisco yard of Bethlehem Steel company Sunday. The sponsor will be Mrs. Earle Morgan of Aberdeen, aunt of Ensign Clarence Earl Vammen Jr. in whose honor the ship is named.
Ensign Vammen was born in Aberdeen October 17, 1919 and died as a result of enemy action in the Pacific area, the presumptive date of his death being June 7, 1942. He was officially reported missing in action as of June 6, 1942 when the plane of which he was pilot was shot down in the Battle of Midway.
50 years ago
May 20, 1969
Last winter’s freeze has given the Grays Harbor Board of County Commissioners a real he-man road headache.
With roads crumbling following the February thaw, the commissioners are facing a battery of problems with a diminishing budget.
D.W. Denton, North River school superintendent described roads in the area as almost impassable with chuck holes ranging from six inches to three feet across. It’s causing a problem with their teacher recruitment process too. Prospective teachers take one look at the road and go right back.
One women added, “We can’t close the school because the road’s so bad we can’t take the kids to Aberdeen.”
County Engineer C.C. Kirkwood explained bituminous paving was ruined by the freeze in many parts of the county especially at Garrard Creek and at Newskah.
The immediate solution in these areas, he said, is to plow the road and to reconvert it to gravel. And to settle the dust on gravel roads, Kirkwood said calcium chloride would be spread. A carload has already arrived and the Garrard Creek road will be the first to be treated.
25 years ago
May 20, 1994
Sophisticated. Bright, beautiful, charming. Caring, warm. Unshakable. Beloved by a nation. The perfect wife, mother, friend. Camelot.
Such were the ways friends and fellow historical figures remember Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The former first lady, whose glamour epitomized the administration of John F. Kennedy and whose dignity carried the nation through the shock of his assassination, died Thursday night of cancer after taking a dramatic turn for the worse in recent days. She was 64.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
