100 Years Ago

Oct. 5, 1921

That the municipality of Pendleton will forthwith start a campaign looking toward the voting of bonds of approximately $400,000 was presaged last night in the action taken by the members of the Pendleton Commercial Association. Included is support of the increase of the mill tax levy from 11 mills to 15 mills. The mayor called attention to the fact that at present Pendleton has the lowest millage rate of taxation of any city in the state. He declared everyone would agree one necessity which the city must have is a septic tank to refine the sewage of the city before it is emptied into the river. In doing so Pendleton will be merely obeying the laws of the state, which have been openly violated for many years. The city has been promising to remedy the situation as it now exists and the state board of health has been put off innumerable times. That the body’s patience has been sorely tried was a statement of Dr. McNary, head of the state institution, which Mayor Hartman quoted last night.

50 Years Ago

Oct. 5, 1971

One suitcase isn’t big enough to hold all the blue ribbons Mrs. Jack Woodhall has won in exhibits of her hobbies. There are ribbons for her flowers, her flower arrangements, her cookies and cakes and jams and jellies. Mrs. Woodhall brought her suitcase full of ribbons, a flower arrangement and a prize-winning decorated cake to her husband’s dental office one day recently for purposes of the interview. Bernice Woodhall, a native of Milton-Freewater, takes care of Dr. Jack Woodhall’s appointment book every day, ushers in the next patient and answers the telephone every five minutes or so. She maintains her cool in the busy office. “When you have nine children you get used to confusion,” she said. “I’ve always been a kook. Jack and I were married when I was 15, and I never once went home to mama.” Her bridegroom was 20, a sophomore in college, when they were married in 1933.

25 Years Ago

Oct. 5, 1996

Marlene Parsons doesn’t discuss politics with her mother anymore. Parsons, the city of Weston’s court clerk who is running for mayor, avoids the topic. That’s because her mother, Opal Barnett, is busy with her own mayoral campaign just a few blocks away. The four-way race for mayor, which also includes Richard Zellner and Barbara Byerley, is a touchy subject when it comes to Parsons, 45, and Barnett, 70. But hurt feelings have been set aside as both duke it out over such issues as enforcing the town’s codes prohibiting livestock next to residential homes, fixing the water tower and repairing the pockmarked streets that twist through the city of 650. Barnett, who has sat on the City Council for the past 12 years, is a grandmotherly bulldog when it comes to city politics, but she insists no bitterness would come between her and Parsons, should her daughter win. “I would be happy for her,” she said. “I still have two years on the council.”