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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, August 28, 2013
the jail in the newly rented beds by the
Grants Pass Public Safety Department
(GPPSD) was a man caught stealing
food. All the burglars who are running
rampant through our neighborhoods
must have taken off to the coast to
avoid all the smoke.
While not arresting meth and
heroin dealers selling in broad day-
By DAN MANCUSO,
light, including one working out of a
Publisher
once green now white unlicensed util-
ity pick-up truck that has been report-
ed multiple times, three police officers
had more important things to do.
Many of you may have noticed that I’ve
What was so important you ask? Well,
been a little miffed at law enforcement late-
they watched our wonderful fire department put
ly. My reasons are many, so let me walk you
out a grass fire on Krauss Lane, Tuesday, Au-
through my thoughts and observations.
gust 20. Taking it all in were Sheriff Gilbertson,
The first person arrested and detained at
Life in the
Valley
of Riches
one of his deputies and a state trooper. They ap-
parently had time to blast through town as they
wanted the best seats for the fire. In doing so,
they missed a few real crimes.
This past Thursday, Gilbertson, along
with other local sheriffs, held a press confer-
ence where he cited some crime statistics. Bur-
glaries, he said, have increased 1,594 percent in
the last year. He went on to state that auto theft
has increased 1,714 percent.
According to the FBI, in 2011 Josephine
County had 237 burglaries. In that same year,
there were 70 auto thefts. Let’s put this into real
numbers. According to Gilbertson, 3,777.78
homes have been broken into in the past 12
months. In all of Josephine County there are
34,646 homes. So, that means that 9.17 percent
of households have had their home burglar-
ized. Now, on to the auto theft. According to
the sheriff’s figures, 1,199.8 vehicles have been
reported stolen. Again, that’s up from 70?
While these numbers seem staggering,
what I find most intriguing is that I cannot name
one person that I know who has had their home
broken into or vehicle stolen. Many of you may
be able to answer that differently, but I can’t.
This goes along with the increase of crime
in Grants Pass where they have 50 patrol of-
ficers employed by the GPPSD. With all the
crime, they arrest and detain a hungry man? If
you look at a law enforcement’s actions and ig-
nore the rhetoric, it really doesn’t make me feel
like we have a crime problem at all.
Have a great time this weekend at the An-
nual Lions Labor Day Jubilee! Thanks for pick-
ing up this week’s paper, enjoy! ~ djm
A moment with Mary: By Mary Halvorsen
The evenings are increasingly cooler, and orange some-
times emblazons the sky in a show of warmth, before daylight
melts into the hills. The last holiday of summer is upon us. To
some it is simply another long weekend. To others, it signals a
shift, a time to get back to routine. It means school buses slow-
ing the morning commute, of thinking about wood for the stove,
of maybe making one last trip to the swimming hole on a sunny
afternoon with no crowds and no traffic.
In town it is festival time, with three days of food, crafts,
and Tuff Trucks. It’s a dunk tank and Lion burgers, softball and
bingo, a greased pole and a Harley raffle, a kids train and a beer
garden. It is Cave Junction’s big weekend, culminating in a pa-
rade down main street Monday morning.
“Labor Day Festival” isn’t actually the contradiction in
terms it seems, with “labor” connoting “...those working for
wages, physical or mental work, esp. of a hard fatiguing kind”
and “festival” being defined as, “a periodic commemoration, an-
niversary, or celebration.” It is known as “the workingmen’s
holiday.” Ten thousand took unpaid leave to march from City
Hall to Union Square in New York City on September 5th, 1862,
holding the country’s first Labor Day parade. In 1894 the holi-
day became official, and a fight for breaks, days off, adequate
ventilation and sanitation, and the prohibition of children work-
ing the factories, mills, and mines ensued. To celebrate, or at
least think about what this holiday is, seems worth taking a mo-
ment for, in these waning days of vacation season.
My thoughts run to my father. With nine children to sup-
port, he went on strike in the 1960s against the city, for better
wages, benefits, and safer working conditions for its firefighters,
his With all who have come after, reaping the benefits of that
struggle 50 years ago. A man of few words, he sat one evening,
a few years after the strike, at the round, wooden table in our en-
closed back porch, listening to my twenty-something friend. She
was dismissing how she had crossed the picket line at the phone
company where she was employed, explaining that she had rent
and bills; that her going broke wouldn’t prove anything. I had
turned to follow her down the stairs and out to the driveway,
when I heard my father breathe the word “scab,” a term I had
never heard him use. She didn’t hear it, but I turned and looked
back at him sitting there, for just a second, before closing the
door behind us.
The sun goes down earlier, temperatures gradually drop,
and leaves on the tips of some branches are no longer green. To
compensate, the days close in faded red, streaking the western
sky, and leaves turn bright yellow overnight. Change is inevita-
ble, and some is hard won. It is good to have a history of people
who are not afraid to fight for it.
As we mill around the small festival that is big for our town,
we can “commemorate the anniversary” of that first Labor Day
109 years ago, then turn towards the tuff trucks, buy a chance at
a Harley, eat a Lion burger, and hop the train to the beer garden.
Work can come later.
Obituaries
Joan Marie Robinson,
age 78 , of Cave Junction, died Fri-
day, August 16, 2013 at Three Rivers
Medical Center with her family gath-
ered around her.
A gathering of family and
friends will be announced at a later
date. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors
are in charge of arrangements.
Please sign the family guest
book at www.since1928hull.com.
Joan was born April 8, 1935 in
Santa Monica, California to Marie
& William Lindsay. She grew up in
Josephine County Oregon and gradu-
ated high school in Hawaii. For 30
years she was married to Theron
Robinson. She worked hard all of
her life first in bookkeeping and later
as a U-Haul Dealer. She was a born
again Christian and a wonderful ex-
ample to everyone she knew. She
will be dearly missed. In 1978 she
moved from Coeur d Alene, Idaho to
Cave Junction.
For 20 years Joan and Theron
volunteered by helping children cross
Redwood Highway and River Street
while on their way to school.
Her hobbies included reading,
crocheting, needlepoint and sewing.
Survivors include her children,
Terry Litz of Crescent City, Califor-
nia; Kimberly Robinson of Albany,
Oregon; Loretta Richards and hus-
band David of Selma, Oregon; Carol
J. Hafen of Alturas, California; Gary
K. Litz of Grants Pass, Oregon and
Kerry Robinson and wife Elizabeth
of Saint Helens, Oregon; 16 grand-
children and 11 great-grandchildren.
Preceding her in death was her
husband, Theron L. Robinson and her
mother, Marie & step-father, Robert
Donaldson.
Donald
Griffith The
Edward
Illinois Valley has
lost another of the silent pillars of
the community, the unsung heroes
who step up when there’s work to be
done and stick to it until the job is fin-
ished.
Don Griffith passed into the
hands of the Great Architect with his
boots on, on the morning of August
17, 2013 after nearly 82 years on
Earth and 58 years of marriage. His
work here is done.
Survived by his much loved
wife, Hazel Pate Griffith; his children
and their spouses, Ruth de Jauregui,
Karen and Robert Blaettler, Donna
Thompson, and Edward and Joni
Griffith; grandchildren, James Erin
and Courtney de Jauregui, Lofeeya
Darden,
Terrence
Cheeseboro,
Thomas and Karen Blaettler, Krys-
tal and Walter Hulsey, Brian Griffith,
Becky Griffith, and Bruce Griffith;
great-grandchildren, Avellana Jolie
de Jauregui, Dominiq Hulsey, Rayna
Hulsey, and Khloe Hulsey; his broth-
er and his wife, Kenneth and Dioney
Griffith; and numerous other family
members, dear friends, and brothers
in Masonry.
Don went on ahead to join his
parents Edward Carter Griffiths and
Clara Oaks Griffiths Blanchard,
brother Ralph “Teddy” Griffith, step-
father Jack Blanchard, and great-
granddaughter Joselyn Hulsey.
Born in the original Rexford,
Montana, a town now under Lake
Koocanusa, Don moved all over the
Pacific Northwest with his parents
and brothers as a child until his fam-
ily settled in Point Arena, California.
He graduated from Point Arena Joint
Union High School in 1949.
Don was a Korean War Veter-
an, having spent 1952 to 1954 in the
Army.
As a young man, he worked in
the woods and lumber mills in Cali-
fornia and Oregon. While working
in Oregon, he met and married Hazel
Ione Pate in Brookings, Oregon, in
1955.
Don worked for CalTRANS for
33 years in Point Arena, San Diego,
Santa Maria and retired from District
7, Los Angeles, CA. Having retired at
midnight, January 16, 1994, he didn’t
miss the Northridge earthquake on
January 17 at 4:31 a.m., but he got to
stay home and take care of his fam-
ily and house in Downey instead of
going out to work on the damaged
freeways.
He retired to Cave Junction, Or-
egon, where he was an active mem-
ber of the community.
A 43-year Master Mason, Don
was the Worshipful Master of Belt
Masonic Lodge #18 twice and was
the current Treasurer. He was a re-
cipient of the Hiram Award. He also
chaired the annual Crab Feed, the
Bikes for Books program at Ever-
green Elementary School and the An-
nual Labor Day Breakfast at Jubilee
Park in Cave Junction.
Don was on the Board of Direc-
tors of the Kerby Union High School
Commemorative Park, the Medford
Gun Club, and the Pacific Interna-
tional Trapshooting Association’s
Hall of Fame.
He was the President of the Re-
tired Public Employees Association
of California, Chapter #102 of Grants
Pass, Oregon.
He was also a member of the
NRA and the Amateur Trapshooting
Association.
An avid trapshooter, Don re-
ceived his 50,000 target certificate
at the PITA Grand Pacific Trapshoot
in Evergreen, Washington, in July
2013.
Above all, Don was a dedicated
family man, who loved his wife and
family with all his heart. He will be
missed by all who love him dearly.
A Masonic Memorial will be at
1 p.m., Wednesday, September 25,
2013 at RCC/Kerby Belt Building.
Illinois Valley Funeral Directors are
in charge of arrangements.
Donations in Don’s memory
may be made to the Shriner’s Trans-
portation Fund/Emergency Transpor-
tation Fund, Attn: Margaret Bryan,
2425 Stockton Blvd. Sacramento, CA
95817 or to the Belt Masonic Lodge
#18 Scholarship Fund, PO Box 3091,
Kerby, OR 97531.
I llInoIs V alley F uneral D Irectors
www.since1928Hull.com
541-592-4110
Save the date
Aug. 29
H&R Block
210 W. Lister St.
Cave Junction
592-3667
Ted Crocker, LTC
Bob Litak, LTC
Licensed Tax Consultants B14914
Illinois
Valley
News
Published weekly by
W.H. Alltheway, LLC
Daniel J. Mancuso, Publisher
TIME FOR TALENT!
The TALENT SHOW is
just a few weeks away.
The I.V. Lions Club La-
bor Day Festival will
again host a TALENT
SHOW (amateurs only)
and cash prizes will be
awarded the winners of
each age group. Don’t
forget to sign up by Au-
gust 29. For more infor-
mation and/or to sign up,
please call Donna, (541)
596-2719 or Sue, (541)
592-2252 .
Sept. 1
Singer-songwriter
and choral director Carol
Valentine will lead an old
fashioned
community
sing-along in the beauti-
ful lobby of the Chateau
at the Oregon Caves this
Saturday evening from
7-9 p.m.. Open to singers
and listeners of all ages,
the songfest will focus
on the theme of nature
and our animal friends.
Lyric sheets will be pro-
vided.
“Remember,”
says Valentine, “singing
releases endorphins, and
POSTMASTER: Please send
address changes to P.O. Box 1370,
Cave Junction OR 97523
Illinois Valley News is published at
221 S. Redwood Hwy.,
Cave Junction, OR 97523
Telephone (541) 592-2541
FAX (541) 592-4330
Since 1937 periodicals postage
paid at Cave Junction OR 97523
P.O. Box 1370 USPS 258-820
singing together creates
harmony!”
Sept. 2
Coming
Monday,
September 2nd at 10
a.m., the Illinois Valley
Lions will hold its an-
nual Labor Day Parade.
The parade will start at
10 a.m. and will run from
River St. to Watkins. We
hope you all come out
and watch the fun.
Sept. 28
Saddle up! BCHO
Poker Ride, Sept. 28 in
the Illinois Valley. Call
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Oct. 19
G R AV E YA R D
TOUR
The Josephine Coun-
ty Historical Society is
once again presenting its
popular Graveyard tour
on Saturday, October 19.
The event will be held in
the Oddfellows/Masonic
cemetery off Foothill
Boulevard.
Once again the Liv-
ing History Players will
take you on a journey
into the past. Come and
listen as the pioneer sto-
ries come alive. Charac-
ters long forgotten will
entertain and amuse you,
as they retell the stories
of Grants Pass’ begin-
ning years. Many of our
ghosts are found here in
the cemetery, while some
others are just visiting
for the night. Either way
they will educate you
about the history of our
town.
The Graveyard Tour
will have two tours; at
4 and 6 p.m. Advanced
tickets will be $10.00
News - Dan Mancuso
dan@illinois-valley-news.com
Circulation - Kimberly Potter
office@illinois-valley-news.com
Advertising / Composition
Dan Mancuso
dan@illinois-valley-news.com
Mailroom - Millie Watkins
Office Manager-Laura Mancuso
office@illinois-valley-news.com
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please call the Histori-
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