The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - It took a while for Pastor Mike Ferrians of the Waitsburg First Christian Church to figure out who had just made a very large bequest to the congregation.

Few at the church had heard of Charlene Buroker. But after some asking around, it became clear who she was - the widow of the late Fred Buroker, who grew up in Waitsburg before World War II.

The gift of $40,810 from Charlene Buroker of Colville was announced during regular church service on Sunday. She also made a large bequest to a church in Colville.

Although several of the Burokers - children of the brothers Ed and Harry - moved away from the Waitsburg area, Hazel Buroker Langdon remained and was active in the church until her death in 1997.

Many at the church knew Hazel very well, but weren't acquainted with other members of her family, congregation elders said.

However, the Buroker households were active members of the congregation before the war, local historian Bettie Chase said.

Church leaders were deeply moved by the surprise bequest, which is the equivalent of half the church's annual $80,000 budget and may be the largest gift it has ever received, Ferrians said.

"We receive from the past to live in the present," he said about the congregation's gratitude for the gift.

Ferrians and congregation board chair Susan Leathers said it's not as common these days for church communities to receive such large gifts, particularly ones with no strings attached.

Since the gift is recent, congregation leaders haven't yet discussed how the funds should be spent, Ferrians said.

The church, which has a congregation of about 60 families, recently completed an extensive renovation of its sanctuary, but a number of structural upgrades and repairs remain, including electrical work, plumbing, roof repairs and maintenance and bathroom renovations.

" We have to sit down and discern together how to spend funds like that," Ferrians said. "It's always an interesting 'burden' to have."

Chase, who was a classmate of Joe Buroker, a cousin of Fred, Johnny and Hazel Buroker, remembers Fred from school.

"They were just ordinary kids," she recalls. "They all went to the First Christian Church. I was a Methodist."

Fred Buroker graduated several years ahead of her at Waitsburg High School in the mid 1930s. She then lost track of him and several other Burokers by the 1940s, when many young men "were everywhere."

The home of Harry Buroker, the father of Fred, Johnny and Hazel, was on 8th and Coppei. Harry Buroker, who was a carpenter, helped built the grandstand at the fairgrounds.

"The church is darn lucky," to get the gift, Chase said. "I'm sure it will be well spent. That's an old church and you have to keep them up."

The beginnings of the church, the oldest place of worship in Waitsburg, go back to 1867, just two years after the town's founding. After meeting in the school house and later in the home of Hollowell family, the church itself was built in 1905 at the cost of about $15,000.