75 years ago

November 20, 1943

Ensign Clarence E. Vammen, Jr., Aberdeen, navy torpedo plane pilot shot down in the Battle of Midway and listed as missing since that time, has been declared “presumptively dead,” according to information received from the navy department.

Ensign Vammen has received a posthumous award of the purple heart for “military merit and for wounds received in action resulting in his death,” according to word received by his father, Clarence E. Vammen, Sr. of East First street in Aberdeen.

Ensign Vammen was born in Aberdeen and graduated from Weatherwax high school in 1938 where he was popular with his schoolmates and played basketball and football.

November 21, 1943

Sunday, no newspaper published

50 years ago

November 20, 1968

Sally Ann Solan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Solan of Aberdeen, recently was awarded the national Eagle of the Cross award at a convention of the Catholic Youth Organization.

Criteria for the honor include moral integrity, apostolic action, Catholic leadership and high regard in school and in the community.

November 21, 1968

The Aberdeen Young Men’s Christian Association will seek $300,000 in a Capital Fund campaign January 21 to February 10, it was announced today by Wally Waugh, YMCA board president.

Objective of the campaign is to provide funds for the expansion and refurbishing of the present facility at 322 W. Market. Architectural plans call for an instructional swimming pool, two regulation handball courts, a recreation lobby, a health club with complete facilities and equipment for men and women, an exercise gymnasium and land acquisition.

25 years ago

November 20, 1993

It may be historic. It may be grand. But Aberdeen School officials say the district’s oldest elementary school, McDermoth, is also uncomfortable and dangerous.

The day-to-day operations of the school are cramped said Principal Jim Sawin. Of the district’s six elementary schools, McDermoth has the second largest population — 462 — and the smallest site (1.9 acres), as well as the smallest gym.

It doesn’t have a blade of grass for children to play on and there’s not even enough room in its tiny library to seat an entire class.

The six-decade-old building hasn’t been condemned but the potential for disasters such as earthquakes and fires are a serious threat district officials say.

That’s why the building is the first on the list for replacement in a facilities plan that the district is considering.

November 21, 1993

One was a young Republican sitting in an English class at Hoquiam High. The other, an accomplished 51-year-old Democratic politician.

They had little more than geography in common. But the news from Dallas than John F. Kennedy had been killed by an assassin left each coping with shock and grief.

John Pearsall was serving his second stint as a Grays Harbor County Commissioner. He had already served two terms in the state Legislature.

Jack Durney was a 15-year-old sophomore at HHS and an active Young Republican. He would later switch political parties.

The two met with a reporter as the 30th anniversary of JFK’s death approached.

Radio reports were played over the intercom at HHS, Durney remembered. “We stopped learning and just listened.”

“At that stage of life, when you assume you’re going to live forever, you assume your president is going to live forever,” Durney said. “I was too young to be in his generation. But he gave a lot of spirit to all of us. … Kennedy rejuvenated our spirit. It was a crushing blow when he died.”

Pearsall was working in his store, the Cat and Kitten, a hangout for the kids at nearby Aberdeen High.

Word of the assassination “hit that hotdog stand like a bomb” he recalls. “Kids came in and they just couldn’t eat that day.”

Pearsall says Kennedy’s legacy is still influencing the nation today. “The health plans you’re seeing today go back as far as Kennedy,” he says.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom