85 YEARS AGO
October 28, 1940
New Grays Harbor Olympians directors for 1940-41 were elected Saturday night following an annual banquet at Pacific Beach hotel, attended by 114 hikers.
Directors include Retiring President Arnold Russell, Ed Maxey, Elton Bennett, Gertrude Erickson, Stanley Erickson, Peggy Cameron and Emil Yuri. They will meet soon to elect officers.
October 30, 1940
The days of the Willapa Harbor lighthouse are numbered, North Cove coast guardsmen said today. It is feared the light will not survive one more good storm. So far no provisions have been made for a substitute light.
The shore at the foot of the light washed out for a depth of 20 feet in the past two tides, and high water now laps at the very foundation of the coast guard lookout tower, which is about 50 feet from the lighthouse itself.
October 31, 1940
When Midway island, that tiny, sandy dot in the middle of the Pacific, blooms with Uncle Sam’s newest naval air base, Grays Harbor will have had much to do in building it.
Next week the Harbor will start loading the big scow Nisqually for her long tow to Honolulu and Pearl Harbor and again to Midway. The Nisqually will load 130,000 feet of clear lumber from the Anderson & Middleton mill and three carloads of plywood from the Harbor plywood plant. In addition the Nisqually will load 130,000 feet of “wolmonized” (treated) lumber from Weed, Calif., 800 tons of sheet steel piling and 75 tons of paint from Pennsylvania, 200 tons of asbestos siding, plaster board and other miscellaneous cargo.
November 1, 1940
Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was booed at a Republican political rally in the heart of Harlem last night, but he took it like a champ.
“You boys,” said the imperturbable brown bomber, “can boo ‘til you get blue in the face … but I’ll just keep talking.”
He was up there to urge the election of Wendell L. Willkie. Police estimated 3,500 to 4,000 jammed into the ballroom to hear him and that 3,000 to 4,000 waited outside.
“I endorse Mr. Willkie because he knows what $15 a week will do,” Louis said. “You boys who are booing are boys under 21 who don’t know … you don’t know what your mother went through.”
“If Mr. Willkie is elected,” he continued, “he has promised in writing to put over the anti-lynching bill. Roosevelt has been in office for eight years and done nothing about that. The people in the north don’t know how long is eight years.”
60 YEARS AGO
October 26, 1965
The Beatles smiled for cameras as they displayed the Member of the Order of the British Empire medals presented to them by Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony in Buckingham Palace in London today. Observers said they captured the palace, charmed the Queen and in turn got mothered by Her Majesty.
October 27, 1965
Separate industrial accidents took the lives of two area loggers in the Willapa region before noon yesterday.
A Cosmopolis logger, James Walker, 28, was killed shortly before noon in a logging accident on Dike Road west of Raymond. Walker, an employee of the Weyerhaeuser Company’s Twin Harbors Branch operation, died as the result of injuries received when he was caught under a rolling log. He was working as head loader.
Karl F. Coates, 28, was fatally injured about 10:15 a.m. when he was struck by a cable. Coates was employed by the Grays River Logging Co. and had been loaned to the Zellar Co. to do some rigging work. He suffered a fractured skull.
Annual homecoming activities at Ocosta High School have begun. Thursday night’s activities will feature a freshman football game with South Bend at 7 p.m. to be followed by a bonfire rally at which Sammy Seagull, an effigy of the rival Raymond team, will be burned. Introduction of the queen and presentation of flowers to the court is scheduled for halftime of the game Friday.
October 28, 1965
Sloppily dressed Grays Harbor College students, wearing their worst to mark Grubby Day, will begin the annual homecoming festivities tomorrow at a general assembly. A semi-formal dance will be held Friday night and Saturday activities include a motor parade through downtown Aberdeen. The parade will disperse at the H Street bridge and students will meet at the student union hall for coffee until the burning ceremonies at 6:30. The Homecoming game at Stewart Field matches GHC and the Wenatchee Valley Knights.
• Iron workers inched a 10-ton keystone into place at the top of the Gateway Arch, 630 feet above the Mississippi River in St. Louis today.
The “topping-out” climaxed 32 years of planning and three years of construction on the nation’s tallest monument which symbolizes American’s thrust across the Western wilderness a century ago.
October 29, 1965
Aberdeen was visited this week by the mother of a celebrity, Mrs. Lena Weaver, whose son is Dennis Weaver of “Gunsmoke” and “Kentucky Jones” fame.
Mrs. Weaver was here to visit her brother, Dennis Prather (for whom the TV star was named) and his family home in the 2300 block of Simpson Ave.
“Dennis is a good solid citizen and a fine family man,” said Mrs. Weaver.
Elsworth Ray (Pop) James, 79, early-day baseball pitcher, died early this morning at his Aberdeen home, 707 W. Market.
Before coming to the Harbor in 1923, Mr. James pitched for the Minneapolis Millers and the Chicago White Sox. On the Harbor he played with the Hoquiam Loggers in the old Timber League.
November 1, 1965
The REA (Rural Electrification Administration) today opened up the way for the Grays Harbor PUD to purchase the Quinault Light Co.
The Board of Commissioners of the PUD received notice by telegram from the REA that it is transferring the assets and liabilities of the Quinault Light Co. to the PUD. The commissioners authorized PUD Manager J.J. Stein to proceed with the consolidation.
35 YEARS AGO
October 26, 1990
The Luck of the Irish just seems to follow Tom Brennan. The ebullient Aberdeen retailer made his annual (well, almost annual) visit to his alma mater last weekend.
And just like his visit two years ago, it happened to be the weekend that Notre Dame was at home playing Miami. Best of all, just as they did two years ago, the Irish won.
In fact, we’re told, Brennan has a perfect record on his pilgrimages to the sainted sod and South Bend. The Fighting Irish have won every time he visits.
It’s been suggested (principally from me, Ray Ryan) that he should get into the habit of following the Irish to their bowl games as well.
October 27, 1990
Two months after a devastating fire destroyed Mike Maine and Fred Elder’s auto parts store in Aberdeen, the partners have found a new location and re-opened.
“It’s kind of like starting over again,” Maine said this week as he surveyed the spiffy new surroundings of Mike & Fred’s Auto Parts at their new location, 607 W. Wishkah Ave.
Their business was one of two located in a building at 510 W. Wishkah that went up in flames Aug. 15. The building, owned by longtime real estate agent Fred Potts, burned to the ground, destroying the auto parts store, R&M Equipment and home for about a dozen apartment dwellers.
October 28, 1990
The Assembly of God will merge old and new today in a ceremony to dedicate its new facilities and to celebrate 51 years of service at Malone.
The new Assembly of God building includes a larger sanctuary, a kitchen, fellowship hall, additional Sunday school classrooms, office space and a nursery.
But the dedication won’t be a grand opening of any sort.
Church services have continued at the site throughout the demolition and construction work, with the service moved to whichever part of the building wasn’t under construction. The process took about two years, said Pastor Kim Kruger.
“Virtually all of the labor on the building was volunteer,” he said. “That’s probably why it took so long — people were still doing their regular jobs and working here on their off time.”
October 29, 1990
Tracy Walthall, who transformed a Heron Street tavern with a leaky roof into one of the Northwest’s best restaurants, died Sunday of kidney failure. She was 33 years old.
An exuberant perfectionist who worked 18-hour days, Walthall saw every meal at Misty’s as a celebration. That was a tragic irony. Her gauntness was the giveaway that she had been struggling with an eating disorder for 20 years. She could be overpoweringly effervescent — using exclamation points like croutons — and intensely private. She rarely shared her anxieties, even to her closest friends.
Tracy graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1975, had won more than 30 trophies for oratory and debate and as a violinist was concert mistress of the AHS orchestra.
October 30, 1990
A young man suspected of killing an elderly woman affectionately known in the close-knit community of Taholah as “Auntie Mary” was being held this morning on suspicious of homicide, authorities say.
The 23-year-old Taholah man, who tribal authorities say is related to the victim, was taken into custody this morning after Quinault Tribal police and officers with the Bureau of Indian Affairs set a massive dragnet over the tiny village.
Deputy Louis Linich this month celebrated 30 years with the Grays Harbor Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Dennis Morrisette said it’s rather uncommon to find someone who has worked for the same employer 30 years, particularly in the law enforcement profession.
“Louie exemplifies many years of service to not only Grays Harbor County but in particular the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s office,” Morrisette said.
Linich has worked under sheriffs Dick Simmons, Pat Gallagher, Harold Sumpter and Morrisette. When hired 30 years ago the Sheriff’s Office averaged approximately 12 positions. It now has about 90.
November 1, 1990
Inside that City of Aberdeen’s inch-thick $8.7 million budget proposal for 1991 there’s a cartoon of a rabbit poking his head out of a magician’s hat.
The rabbit is a cheeky message to council members that it’s anybody’s guess how next year’s revenue picture will shape up.
“It’s a crapshoot,” said Fred Thurman, the city’s finance director — and also the wag responsible for the rabbit.
Mayor O’Dean Williamson’s proposed $8.7 million spending plan was presented to the city council Wednesday night. It compares to $8.3 million this year.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom, Editorial Assistant at The Daily World. You can contact her at karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com or call her at 360-537-3925.
