100 years ago — 1921

When Rathie and Owens, sentenced to hang for complicity in the death of Sheriff Til Taylor, meet their deaths Friday morning at the state penitentiary at Salem, at least two Umatilla county men will be present. They are W. R. Taylor, brother of the officer who was killed, and Glenn Bushee, special agent of the O. W. R. & N. It is possible that other men will be invited to go from here by Warden Compton. Bushee was with Til Taylor at Rieth the day the two of them captured Owens, who was wanted for the robbery of Eugene “Happy” Lyman of the Dean Tatom company store. “I’d have shot Owens that day if Til would have let me,” Bushee said today, his eyes misty with tears as he talked about the incident. “I wish to Go now that I had shot him. Then Til would have been alive today.”

50 years ago — 1971

One of the wettest periods in Pendleton history continued through Nov. 29. Occasional rain was expected to continue today but should end tonight. It has rained every day since Nov. 23. From Nov. 26 through 10 a.m. Nov. 29, Pendleton received 1.95 inches of rain. On Nov. 26, 1.35 inches fell. Only in 1947 when 1.49 inches fell has more rain fallen here in one day, at least since 1935, when records began being kept at the Pendleton Airport. The downpour on Nov. 26 was the most in a 24-hour period since 1.23 inches on Dec. 10-11, 1958. While it has been raining here, the Blue Mountains were getting more snow. On Nov. 29, Meacham had four inches of new snow and 29 inches at roadside, and Tollgate had 14 inches of new snow and 44 inches roadside.

25 years ago — 1996

When foster parent Debby Zinn of Pendleton counsels a child to forgive, she understands how difficult it can be for a wounded person to grasp the fruit of forgiveness. Zinn was in her early twenties when her younger sister, Sandra Good, met Charles Manson. Looking back, Zinn believes Sandy found with Manson what they lacked at home — a sense of family. Zinn found the same when she married Gene Zinn. “Revelations of the things they did at the ranch that came out at the trial caused me great agony, remorse and hatred,” Zinn said. “I really hated Sandy.” Becoming a Christian was “the first step” toward lifting the burden of hatred, she said.

Through her pastor’s counseling she “began to understand that forgiveness was a conscious decision, not an emotion.” The foster boys Zinn and her husband provide a home for are too young to know of Charles Manson, but they believe it when Debby Zinn tells them that forgiveness is “key to our own healing.”