The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Ten Years Ago

May 5, 2011

Early Friday morning, Helm and a dozen Waitsburg-area ladies joined an estimated 2 billion people around the globe to watch one of the biggest wedding ceremonies of all time. “Everyone has a Super Bowl party, so why not a Royal Wedding party?” said Helm, who stayed for Charles and Diana in the 70s and remembers seeing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on television when she was a young child.

Martha Lanman, of Lewiston, is Columbia County’s new public health administrator.

Waitsburg PE teacher Jeff Bartlow showed his ninth-grade students how to practice their bicycle skills on the tennis court as part of a bike safety unit. The school recently received a grant to purchase 30 bicycles for safety instruction to grades 5-8 this fall.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

May 9, 1996

Tom Carter of Team Video, the film production outfit that made a video of the February flooding in these parts, reports that he already has sold enough of the 60-minute videos to donate $600 to the Waitsburg Ministerial Association’s flood relief fund. Carter said people from as far away as Mercer Island, Spokane and New Mexico have ordered videos.

Two employees of the Walla Walla School District have been honored by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for “excellence in education.” Sharon Ford and Betty Gradwohl of Blue Ridge Elementary School will be awarded with a plaque and $2,500 as recipients of the 1996 Washington Award for Excellence in Education.

Bettie Chase, of Waitsburg, who launched a write-in campaign for City Council after she failed to be nominated for re-election this spring, was appointed to the council last week to fill the seat of Dennis Johnson, who was elected in April but has since left the council because of the illness of his wife. Mayor Tom Baker said it was tradition to name the sixth highest vote-getter to fill any vacancy. Chase won the unanimous approval of the other council members.

Fifty Years Ago

May 20, 1971

Phil Monfort reports that the Children’s Cannonball Express is ready to roll in the Days of Real Sport parade on Saturday morning. Any youngster in the area is invited to bring their wagon and hitch onto the train for a ride in the parade. Be at the starting area on the north end of Main Street by parade time on May 22.

Pat Mohney and Jerry Baker of Waitsburg High School, and Steven Gerkey and Clayton Stueckle of Prescott, will be attending Evergreen Boys State on the campus of Gonzaga University in Spokane June 13-20. Mohney and Gerkey are sponsored by Samuel W. Southard Post No. 35, American Legion while Baker is sponsored by the Waitsburg Lions Club and Stueckle by the Prescott Lions Club.

Stores in Waitsburg will close at noon on Saturday for the Days of Real Sport. They will be closed all day Monday for Memorial Day.

Seventy-Five Years Ago

May 31, 1946

For the first time in 16 years, the eight children of Mrs. Sam Wills were all home for a reunion last weekend. The family includes Roy Wills of Seattle, Sylvia Dill of Walla Walla, Thelma Babcock of Oakland, Ore., Harold Wills and family of Marysville, Cal., Helen Sanders of Tacoma, Lillian May Finney of Seattle, Mr. and Mrs. Don Wills of Seattle, and Sam Wills of Waitsburg.

Aubert Wisdom returned to his home at Camas Monday after spending the week here attending the races. While here he was a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Pearl Clark.

One Hundred Years Ago

June 3, 1921

James Archer has just completed the building of a modern 5-room house on his Pataha farm, near Chard Station in Garfield County.

Local dancers are looking forward with great anticipation toward the opening of the dance floor in the new Legion Home on Preston Avenue. Contractor E. M. Buroker has finished laying the maple floor, and the finishing is well under way.

Born Tuesday to Mr.s and Mrs. James Stonecipher, a son.

Misses Marjorie Spafford, Margaret Zuger, Lena Fox, Nellie Harrington, Nadine Gholson, Bessie Barnes are camping for a week at the head of Thayer’s Grade. They went up Monday, Mrs. A.C. Spafford is with them.

One Hundred Twenty-Five Years Ago

June 5, 1896

The populists of Columbia and Walla Walla Counties will give a grand two-days picnic at Mulinix Grove, in Waitsburg., on Wednesday and Thursday, Jun 10 and 11.

Decoration Day was very beautifully observed in this city. Rev. Barton Riggs delivered a very fine address.

A Union Sunday School picnic will be given at Shiloh campground tomorrow, Saturday by the different Sunday schools of Waitsburg, Huntsville and Dayton. Everybody is invited to come. Bring well filled baskets and have a good time.