75 years ago
Dec. 22, 1941
• The names of seven more Grays and Willapa harbor youths were added today to the list of American service men killed or missing in the Pacific war. They are Arvid “Bill” Anderson of Hoquiam, Frank Hoag Jr. of Aberdeen, Henry Ochoski of Aberdeen, William Mann of Fuller, Bethel Nichols of Willapa, Clarence Koenekamp of Raymond and Stanley Domin of East Willapa.
• Sale to soldiers of any kind of intoxicating beverage, including beer and wine, has been banned by army order, Aberdeen police said today.
The army orders make all tavern and beer parlors as well as liquor stores “out of bounds” for the troops.
The order was prepared and issued by the army’s sub-headquarters before the shooting Friday night of an Aberdeen woman outside the El Paso Tavern.
Dec. 23, 1941
• The Poppy club a Finnish women’s organization, Sunday raised more than $25 for the Red Cross at a tea at the Finnish-Lutheran church. The dining room was decorated in Christmas and patriotic motif. A large cake was the centerpiece and was decorated as an American flag.
• Mrs. Grace Whitesel, shot through the chest Friday night in front of the El Paso tavern, still was “holding her own” at Aberdeen General Hospital today. Attendants said her condition was improved but still serious.
An army sergeant, who was with Mrs. Whitesel in a police patrol car when the shot was fired, remained in the city jail facing first degree assault charges.
50 years ago
Dec. 22, 1966
Karen Knutson, 23, daughter of Mrs. Vivian Knutson of Morgan Street in Aberdeen, will leave early in the new year for Kenya in Africa where she will distribute Christian literature for the next 18 months.
She will be part of a team from the Literature Crusades training center at Prospect Heights, a suburb of Chicago. She is sponsored on her tour of Africa by the Cosmopolis Gospel Chapel.
Dec. 23, 1966
The annual Christmas party and pageant was a great night for the kids of Camp Grisdale, one of the Simpson Timber Company’s most remote and famous operations.
Grade school and junior high age students from the community’s school staged an entrancing Christmas pageant.
Then came the moment the children had been waiting for. The audience breathlessly watched the hall’s back door. Everybody, adults and children alike, felt the suspense. Then the door opened, Santa swept in with a booming “Ho, ho, ho” and cheers filled the hall. He worked his way through a mob of adoring children to the stage where he dispensed candy, oranges and season’s greetings to all.
Camp Grisdale is located in the Wynooche Valley, 32 miles north of the Highway 410 junction just west of Montesano. Headquarters for 200 loggers, it is one of the last true logging camps in the Pacific Northwest.
25 years ago
Dec. 22, 1991
Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics on Saturday proclaimed the birth of a commonwealth and the death of the Soviet Union after seven decades of terror, then reform. Their pact effectively left Mikhail Gorbachev a leader without a country.
The Slavic republics of Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine formed the core of the commonwealth on Dec. 8. Saturday’s pact brought in eight members — Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgizia, Uzbekistan, Moldavia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The only republic that didn’t join was Georgia, which has pursued a fiercely independent policy since the August coup attempt that completed the union’s disintegration.
Dec. 23, 1991
Perry Crowell III of Hoquiam will ring in the new year more than $70,000 richer, thanks to his performance in a lucrative Ohio bowling tournament.
The owner-operator of Spare Time Bowl in Hoquiam captured both the scratch and handicap singles in the Million Hoinke Classic in Cincinnati. The 11-month tournament concluded over Thanksgiving weekend.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
