75 years ago

March 28, 1944

Mrs. Joseph M. Johnson, former Aberdeen resident now living at Gold Beach Oregon, has been notified by the army air corps that her son, Sergeant Merle Willumsen, was killed in action over Germany on February 10, 1944. He was a gunner on a Flying Fortress.

Early this month, Sergeant Willumsen had been reported missing while on the same flight.

He was graduated from Aberdeen high school in 1942 and joined the army air corps in February, 1943.

March 29, 1944

Those demons of the South Seas — mosquitoes in other words — can deliver a terrible wallop according to Staff Sergeant Robert Espedal, Marine air corps, who arrived home this week as a result of a mosquito attack.

“One of the germ-infested buggers infected me with filiarisis, for which there is no permanent cure,” Espedal said. “I was sent back to the states when my arm started swelling and the doctors say I will recover in due time — if I don’t get bit by any more mosquitoes.”

Espedal was stationed 10 miles from Pango Pango and helped repair aircraft. He is an aviation metalsmith and did his first metal work at Boeing’s in Seattle following his graduation from Weatherwax high school in 1941.

50 years ago

March 28, 1969

Fifteen Northwest Plywood mills shut down today, including Hoquiam Plywood Company, Woodlawn, as prices skidded from recent record highs.

The list of mills planning to close included mostly independents in the area from Northern California to the Canadian border.

“We’ll be shutting down after the swing shift today,” said Peter Majar, general manager of Hoquiam Plywood. “We have scheduled a board meeting for next Friday to determine what our policy will be for the future.”

Hoquiam Plywood employs about 140 persons.

The basic price on the sanded plywood index, as reported Thursday by Crow’s Lumber Digest, was $110 per thousand square feet. This was a drop of $34 from the record price three weeks ago.

March 29, 1969

Saturday, no newspaper published

25 years ago

March 28, 1994

Johnny Green, the lively Swede who for years lived in the tiny yellow house on the Hoquiam dike that now bears his name, died Sunday, March 27. He was 94.

Since May of 1992, after suffering a fall, he had lived at Pacific Care Center nursing home in Hoquiam.

In the winter of 1923, with other immigrants from Northern Sweden, he came to the United States, moved to Hoquiam and lived in a rooming house. Through the Great Depression he worked as a construction laborer, and in lumber mills and from 1937 to 1964 he worked at Blagen’s Mill. During the depression he built the little yellow shack himself. He paid $36 a year rent to ITT Rayonier, which owned the old railroad right of way.

After the Blagen mill closed in 1964 he spend his retirement watching the log booms on the river for ITT Rayonier, raising ducks and feeding pigeons, sharing a drink and conversation with occasional visitors to his home.

March 29, 1994

The retirement of Capt. Alan Marrs triggers a shuffling of positions within the Aberdeen Police Department.

Capt. Bob Maxfield, who oversees the department’s patrol division, takes Marrs’ place as supervisor of the special assignment division.

Dave Timmons has been promoted from sergeant to captain and takes over the patrol division.

Capt John Delia remains in charge of the investigations department, Chief Bill Ellis said.

Detective Tom Siress has been promoted to sergeant and transfers to the patrol division.

Officer Vince Morales, who is one of the department’s two gang prevention officers, will fill a newly created position called juvenile/school resource officer.

Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom