Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 2004)
Page 12 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, June 9, 2004 ...Marion Olevia Empson, “The Ornament Lady,” who makes decorations from old Christmas cards and gives them away. Where are you from? Brea, Calif.; down in Orange County. I was born in 1916. I moved here almost 30 years ago when my husband retired after 50 years of working as a newspaper pressman. He worked at the “Times,” the “Examiner;” pretty much all the papers. How did you end up in Cave Junction? Well, my husband wanted to come up here because his sister lived here. I’m a Cali- fornia girl. All my life I lived there until I came up here. Summer is my favorite season because it reminds me of where I was born. In California, we had summer almost all the time. Up here, you have the rain and the snow and all that; it doesn’t go for me. Where did you used to work? Well, I never really had to work; my husband didn’t want me to, and he had a good job. I only worked because I wanted to. I worked in a dress shop and Benny’s hot dog stand in California. I only worked for him once in a while when he wanted a day off. People talk of the ornaments you make for Christmas, how did that begin? It started a long time ago in California when someone gave me an ornament. I liked it so much, I started making them. Now, people come all the time and leave old Christmas cards on my porch, or I get them in the mail. I’ve been doing it for more than 30 years now. I don’t sell them; I just give them away to anybody who wants them. I guess I needed something to do; I just can’t sit here doing nothing. One of my ornaments was on an Oregon tree that was sent to the White House. Been married long? Fifty years before my husband passed away. I was 18 when we married. His folks lived next to me. He came home to stay a while and that’s when I met him. The first time I met him, I was out in the street with the other kids playing baseball. I had to teach him how to play. He didn’t know how to throw a ball or anything else. I played it all my life, even after I got married. We had two boys who also work as pressmen. Are you a sports fan? I bowled for about 50 years in a league. I did everything. My husband started long before I did. I started bowling with him and his brother. I got better and better until fi- nally my brother-in-law quit. When my husband asked him why, he said that women aren’t supposed to be in a league. After moving here, I bowled for a Cave Junction team. I bowled in many different leagues. I had a 300 once in a league. I got all kinds of gifts and trophies. I like pretty much any sport. I like football, but I don’t get into it like a lot of people do, I just watch it to see what they’re doing. The Rams are my favorite team; that’s where I’m from. The Angels are my favorite baseball team, down in Anaheim. What is your favorite flavor ice cream? Vanilla with chocolate covering it. I like the fudge. I’m not a dark chocolate person. ~Interview and Photo by Shane Welsh (Continued from page 7) *Someone with a base- ball bat, upset about being evicted, was to be coun- seled after a complaint from the 2000 block of Caves Hwy. Monday, May 17 *Unconscionable peo- ple used glue and paint to place graffiti on windows, walls and doors at Illinois Valley High School. *Two bicycling boys with unknown names (for now) were told to leave Evergreen Elementary School and stop harassing students. *On a Downtown CJ parking lot, four people in a beater pickup truck were warned to stop drinking beer on the premises or face trespass charges. *After asking for a welfare check on his granddaughter in Selma, a complainant was not satis- fied when told that she is fine and attending school. *People keep cutting a lock to get onto private property at Waldo and Samarkand roads, a com- plainant said. *Although it was re- ported that threats were made in Selma, it was “verbal only.” *In Kerby an intoxi- cated man said he would have his Cuban friends kill a man, who wanted the drunk warned about har- assment. *Two boys hitting a moving bus at Sawyer Avenue and Stevenson Street scattered before a deputy could arrive. *Some sort of assis- tance was sought in CJ, but one person involved said she’d been divorced for 40 years and didn’t want to speak with a man. *A child playing with a telephone was said re- sponsible for a 911 hang- up call from W. River Street at 6:43 p.m. *Eugenijus A. Kaulius, 62, was cited in Kerby on a charge of driving 68 mph in a 45 mph zone. Tuesday, May 18 *Following a report of theft from a vehicle at I.V. Visitor Center, neither ve- hicle nor victim could be located at 7:29 a.m. *Upon finding a man and a dog sleeping in his van on Browntown Road, a man said, the dog tried to bite him. The man was located and warned. *Animal Control was to be advised of a woman’s complaint in the 24000 block of Redwood Hwy. that dogs attacked her sheep, and that earlier they had killed her guinea hens. *Two young boys were contacted at 9 a.m. in Jubilee Park. *Property damage was reported in connection with a rollover accident at 9:05 a.m. near 4589 Dick George Road. *Checking a report of a couple screaming at each other in Jubilee Park at 10:39 a.m., a deputy ar- rested Robert J. Myers, 33, under six warrants, all list- ing FTA on charges of dis- orderly conduct, first- degree animal abuse, fourth-degree assault, and third-degree theft. *Damage was esti- mated at $200 after a door was broken in on W. Lister Street. *Charles D. Brooks, 56, was cited in CJ on charges of DWS, DUII, expired tags and failure to carry proof of insurance. *After expressing con- cern that a certain man, who had met him at the door with a baseball bat recently, was going to fight him, a complainant on Caves Hwy. said it was a different man. (Continued on page 14)