25 years ago this week — 2000

PENDLETON — Government studies supporting the theory that blacks were inferior to whites were the basis for Congress’ decisions to segregate the military during World War II.

William T. Booker criticized those studies before a gathering at the office of Umatilla National Forest on Wednesday. Booker was the featured speaker in honor of Black History Month.

As a Tuskegee Airman, Booker served as a flight engineer on B-25 bombers in the all-black 477th Squadron at Godman Field Ky., during World War II. Booker said the Tuskegee experience allowed African-Americans to prove their abilities as airmen.

“Back then, blacks were known as negroes. We’ve been given a long list of titles,” Booker said, noting that most of those titles were assigned by people who considered blacks second-class citizens.

“Most of us, including myself, resented that,” he added.

Blacks, Booker stressed, have made significant contributions throughout America’s history. During World War II, African-Americans longed to serve their country just like every other red-blooded American.

“I graduated from high school in June of 1941. By Dec. 26, I was in the service. I felt I needed to do my bit to make this country safe for my grandmother and my brothers and sisters,” the Kansas native said.

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Martians. Extraterrestrials. Little green men.

The red planet has always held a fascination with science fiction writers as a likely plane to make contact with alien life forms.

In his 1898 novel “War of the Worlds,” H. G. Wells sent invaders from Mars to destroy the earth.

If life actually exists on Mars, however, it’s not likely to build spaceships anytime soon. Man will have to go up there and search for it.

Ray Bradbury colonized the planet in his series of short stories called “The Martian Chronicles,” and the notion of humans living on Mars is closer to reality than one might expect.

Although a United States-backed mission to Mars must start with a presidential decree, a two-phase mission to send the first human to Mars could be ready to lift off within the next decade, said Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

“This will be the mother of all R.V. camping trips,” Lee said. “The make or break of the mission is how well it’s planned.”

The essential component of a Mars mission is a “habitat” station capable of sustaining a small research crew for 18 months. Using the habitat station as their base, a four to six person crew will study the planet, including its geology and biology.

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PENDLETON — From classical guitarists to cloggers, performers from all over the region came to the Vert Auditorium Saturday to audition for the Kiwanis Club’s annual talent show.

Nearly 60 people took the opportunity to shine in the limelight during auditions for the event, known as the Kiwanis Kapers. About 10 years ago, the talent show went from a scripted performance with local talent to a standard talent show, where people from the community choose the type of acts they want to perform.

“The last 10 years have been a challenge to get all the people signed up for auditions,” Kiwanis member Rodney Rogers, who has been the talent show’s main coordinator for 42 years.

The three-day talent show this year is scheduled for March 9-11 at the Vert Auditorium.

On Saturday, Heppner rock band “Final Warning” performed its original number “English Love Song.”

The band is made up of Heppner High School students Meghan Bailey on drums, guitarist Jeff Currin, bass player Travis Bellamy and Blue Mountain Community College student and band frontman David Bates.

“We did this last year and got beat out,” said Bates, who sings and plays guitar.” “We wanted to show them maybe we’ve got something better this year.”

When asked what kind of music they like to play, Bellamy said it’s a blend of classic rock and country.

“We don’t like to admit that we like country,” he said. “But we’re from Heppner and that’s what everyone listens to.”

50 years ago this week — 1975

RUFUS, Ore. (AP) — River traffic stacked up at the John Day Dam on the Columbia River today after a barge damaged a navigational lock gate.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the locks could be closed for up to six months while repairs are made.

The broken lock could create problems for wheat farmers upstream who depend on river barges for fertilizer, equipment and transportation of wheat to ocean ports.

The accident, which also damaged two machinery houses, happened at 7:13 a.m. when a tugboat pulling five barges moved into the lock heading upstream.

The spokesman said a barge hooked under the upstream gate as the water level rose, ripping one end of the gate from its underwater slot. He said the broken gate prevents the lock from holding water.

A floating bulkhead will be installed at the upstream gate to block water so the barges and tug — the Leland James owned by Tidewater Barge Lines of Vancouver, Wash. — can back out of the lock and allow officials to inspect the damage.

As an emergency measure, engineers could activate petroleum bypass facilities used by barges when the dam, completed in 1968, was being built, the spokesman said.

No estimate is yet available on how long that would take.

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The two most important reasons for the recent increase in burglaries and larceny in the City of Pendleton are unemployment and narcotics.

That’s what Pendleton Police Chief Ernest E. Gallager told the City Council Tuesday night where he appeared for an hour to talk about recent crime in Pendleton.

Gallaher said the problems of crime and crime prevention are complex and there is probably no single answer to it, but that unemployment accounts for a rise in crime in the winter months.

People also are stealing more to support narcotics habits, he said. Either in stealing the drugs directly or stealing items and selling them to get money to buy drugs.

Gallaher pointed out that a big percentage of criminal activity involved juveniles and he said he thought the juvenile code should be re-examined.

He said that juveniles have the feeling that nothing is going to happen to them if they are caught, so they have developed a “so what” attitude.

“Kids are playing a numbers game. They know if they get caught, so what,” he said.

The police department has a list of 30 known burglars in the city, he said. Six are in custody, two in Eastern Oregon Hospital and Training Center and the remainder are on the streets, he pointed out.”

“One time or another we’ve caught all of them, but they are back out on the street quicker than the officer,” he said.

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“There aren’t that many Larry Mahans around,” a cowboy said as he watched another contestant tumble off a bucking bronc at the Pendleton Round-Up last September. Nor, he could have added, are there that many Tom Fergusons around.

The conversation had drifted to the boycott of the Round-Up that had been threatened two weeks earlier. Some cowboys had complained that the Round-Up didn’t offer enough money. The boycott didn’t come off, however, because the Round-Up had been approved the previous January by the Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Mahan, the former Oregonian who now resides at Dallas, Tex., was the six-time all-around champion of the RCA and probably has earned more from rodeo, in and out of the arena, than anybody else.

Ferguson, the 24-year-old flash from Miami, Okla., and the all-around champion in 1974, made more than $90,000 last year.

100 years ago this week — 1925

Three men, ranging in age from 16 to 40, are in the county jail facing charges of contributing to the delinquency of minors, as a result of an alleged wild ride and a liquor party that took them and three young girls over the south and west end of Umatilla county Sunday night and Monday.

The arrest of the three men was effected last night in Pendleton through the cooperation of members of the sheriff’s office and the city police after Deputy Sheriff Bennett had chased the sextette from Umatilla into Pendleton. The names of the girls were not divulged at the sheriff’s office.

The men arrested included “Shorty” Fields, about 40 years old, or Irrigon; Bishop Wisdom, 24, of Irrigon; and Jake Helmick, 16 who gave his home as Pendleton.

A party marked by the consumption of liquor began here Sunday evening, according to Deputy Sheriff Bennett, and at 9 o’clock all six of the celebrants got into a small car and went to Pilot Rock. The party included the three men and three girls, one of them 16 years old and two 15 years old.

They left Pilot Rock Sunday morning about 1 o’clock and drove to Umatilla, where they arrived at between 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning. Here one of the men arranged for rooms in a rooming house and the girls were taken in at the back door. The sextette remained in Umatilla until Monday afternoon and then started back to Pendleton.

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Echoes of the war in China are found in letters received by friends of Miss Marguerite McKlveen, formerly a member of the high school faculty, who is now teaching at Shanghai, China. Her letter, in part, is as follows:

Excitement regarding wars is again on our trail, and as one of the teachers said “The battle of Tungwaga, Bekawei and Avenue Petain is on.” I was nervous last fall then fighting came as near as seven miles but it is even more a shivery sensation to be awakened by machine guns and firing, and to know that the fighting is not more than a quarter of a mile away, and to reflect that the French settlement is not as well protected as it was last fall.

Many of the French and all the American troops, have left. If the soldiers should come into the settlement they would loot us of all we have. Such are my cheerful meditations to the accompaniment of a siren calling out volunteers.

One of the teachers went out yesterday morning for a stroll to Tungwaga, Pagoda, about a mile and a half away. He said there were thousands of soldiers and refugees and as he was looking about near the arsenal—zing! A bullet whizzed by his ear to be followed by another which shot over his head. He didn’t remain longer but took to his heels and didn’t stop until he reached the campus.

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MITLON, Ore., Feb. 7. — Samuel Freemont Harrington, prominent retired rancher of Milton, died there yesterday at 12:30 p.m., death being due to heart disease.

Mr. Harrington was born in Sullivan county, Missouri, December 25, 1854, and came with his parents to Walla Walla at the age of seven. He was married to Miss Alice McGrew of Dayton, Washington, May 22, 1870.

They settled above Milton on the Walla Walla river where they lived until nine years ago when they moved to Milton. Mr Harrington is survived by his widow and the following children: James, Jesse and Dean Harrington, one of Dayton, and Mrs. Mary Cotten of Wallenbrook, California. Two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Neace and Mrs. Susan Richardson, living in Washington and a brother, Isaac Harrington, lived at Brogan.

Funeral arrangements are awaiting word from the daughter of the deceased. The services will be at the Christian church and Rev. Marion McQuary will officiate, with interment in the Walla Walla cemetery.