75 years ago
November 19, 1943
Ed Thayer, gunners mate first class in the navy, is stationed somewhere in the South Pacific. He is a graduate of Elma high school and is the son of Mrs. Rose Thayer of Elma. Two brothers, Glenn and Bill, also are in the service. Glenn, a veteran of the battle of Tulagi, and a private first class in the Marine corps, is now at home on furlough. Bill, a bos’n’s mate second class in the navy, also is in the South Pacific.
50 years ago
November 19, 1968
When you stay in your profession for 52 years, 45 of them in one spot, it’s hard to quit.
So it was for Dr. F.N. Berken, Aberdeen’s “grand old man” of the medical profession. He practiced in Aberdeen for 45 years until he reached the age of 80, retiring just two weeks ago.
His toughest cases, he said (of his early days) were children with earaches — the kind that developed after untreated colds.”There was no sulpha, no antibiotics then, they didn’t come until the 1930s so a child with a bad cold often came in with an earache.”
One girl he recalled developed a mastoid infection from an untreated sickness that required surgery. “She lived in spite of me,” he jokes.
Berken’s practice was first located in the Aberdeen Savings and Loan building on H street, moving later to the Finch Building and where he shared a practice with Leon Goodnow, Clayton Hartlett and Arthur Skarperud. In 1926 they moved to the brand new Becker Building, and Berken stayed there until his retirement.
25 years ago
November 19, 1993
Francis “Frenchy” Barre of Cosmopolis had the luck of the Irish on a recent trip to Reno. He hit a jackpot on Oct 27 in the Progressive Quarter Magic slot machine at Circus Circus for $185,956.36.
Barre and Ardene Holmes, his companion for the past four years, were “killing time” while waiting for a bus to take them and the other 80-some members of Joe Tolomei’s Italian Tour group to (of all places) Boomtown near Lake Tahoe.
“I just stepped into the lobby and pulled out a few quarters,” Barre said. “We never made it to the bus.”
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
