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SANDY. OREGON THURSOAY, APRIL 1, 1982
The Srfndy Post
Area News
People
Home & Garden
Features
Kindness, cruelty greet woman on street
by SCOTT NEWTON
The first time I talked to Ovella
Weimer was m February I helped
her move some boxes and plastic
buckets from in front of the Double
Dragon on Pioneer Boulevard to a
place on the sidewalk in front of the
Coast to Coast Store, about 20
yards away.
During an hour long conversa
bon a man stopped to tell her that
she was, as always, welcome to
stay at he and his wife's home if
she got cold.
A short time later some high
school-aged boys drove by. One of
them rolled down the window and
yelled, “ It's the bag lady.'*
It isn’t exactly complimentary,
to be called a bag lady, is about all
Weimer said of the incident
I asked if I could interview her
for a story, and she said that she
couldn't keep me from doing a
story, but that she doesn't seek
notoriety,
I didn't take any notes, and left
after awhile as I had another bliga-
tion
Friday morning I stopped and
talked to her, again on Pioneer
Boulevard
After talking for a few minutes I
again asked if I could interview her
for a story Again, she told me that
she does not seek notoriety.
We talked for about an hour as
cars whizzed by. I still had not
taken any notes.
During that time we talked about
Portland Mayor Frank Ivancie’s
“ w ar on crim e," just announced
that morning in The Oregonian.
I will tell you that that plan is un
constitutional, Weimer said.
Weimer, a Jehovah’s Witness
during the time the Witnesses
fought a number of freedom of
speech and worship cases (and
won favorable rulings from the
Supreme Court time and again),
talked about the constitution.
She also talked about life on the
street, and assured me it is more
difficult than I could imagine.
I told her that I would make that
point if she would let me interview
her, and she reluctantly agreed
I went to my car and got a
notebook.
We walked to T .J .’s and sat in a
comer booth by the w indow
Weimer said that she was 'forc
ed'' out o( her home in Salem about
three years ago
She said that she had to sell off
possessions in order to keep paying
the rent, and also that people in the
neighborhood were being harassed
via high-frequency sound waves.
She said she had to laugh when
one neighbor had a moving sale
and put up a sign that read: “ Mov
ing sale hear ”
She was selling cosmetics, she
said, and two people placed large
orders One of them worked for the
state and the other’s husband
worked for the county
The delivery service would not
deliver her orders, she said, saying
that they could not find her home,
though she went down one time and
drew a map for them
The management of the com
pany changed shortly after that,
she said
Since the merchandise didn’t
come, the women reportedly
demanded their money back
Weimer got the money, in part by
selling a sewing machine, but it
was the final straw, financially.
She said that, going door-to-door
selling cosmetics, she had talked to
people about what was going on in
the state institutions The women
who demanded their money back
were trying to get me put in jail,
she said.
“ I was told that if I kept talking
about the state institutions I would
be put in the penitentiary myself,"
Weimer said.
She was born in West Virginia
At five, her parents separated and
her father “ took" the children
when her mother was away.
They “ gradually migrated" to
Carbonado, Wash., “ 10 miles from
Mt. Rainer as the crow flies."
She lived there until 1937, when
the coal mine closed
“ It was a lovely place, and
similar to the Mt. Hood area," she
said
“ Mt. Ranier was like a big ice
cream cone up above us," Weimer
said.
They moved to Buckley, seven
miles away, where she was due to
attend high school anyway.
In 1938 she was baptised a
Jehovah's Witness
In March of 1939 she quit school,
during the second half of her
sophomore year
“ I had gone as far as that school
could school me, as far as what I
wanted to do with my life."
She said that she had liked
school, and had always done well.
She didn’t tell her father until
after she’d received an assignment
from the Pioneer Ministry.
She was assigned to the Tacoma
business section. “ And I was still
wearing bobby socks at the time,
so that kind of shook me."
He father cried when she told
him. “ He said, Whatever made
you think I would have stood in
your w ay."’
When asked if that was a gutsy
thing to do, she said, “ It was the
thing for young people (Jehovah’s
Witnesses) to do.”
Being a Jehovah's Witness dur
ing that tim e was not easy,
although Weimer said it caused
few problems at her school.
One incident did bother her,
though There was a teacher that
she liked, who would joke and talk
with her. That was, until he observ
ed her not saluting the flag during
an assembly
About two years later Weimer
saw this teacher on the street, and
he spoke to her.
She had teachers who tried to
talk her out of quitting school, she
reports.
After three months in Tacoma
she moved to Seattle, where she
lived for three years and attended
a “ missionary school," learning
history and the scriptures
The work was enjoyable, she
said. She was “ planting a lot of
seed," going door-to-door, talking
to fa m ilie s , teach ing th em ,
"reaching people "
In 1942 she moved, on her own, to
Portland She was ill and had been
told to rest.
With the war on, everyone was
working, and Weimer stayed with
and took care of a woman who
would later die of cancer
A year later she sent for her
sister, who moved to and lived in
Portland until she married.
“ I realiy liked it in Portland,"
Weimer said.
She also spend some time in St.
Helens, but was required to earn
her own keep, and so had to take
jobs in Portland.
Weimer, with blue eyes and
blonde-gray hair, is Germ an,
Scotch, English, Irish and, “ sup
posedly," one-sixteenth Cherokee
Indian.
Her tendencies are Scotch, she
said.
In 1953, in New York, she was in
terviewed for a position overseas,
but a heart condition disqualified
her before the training program
ever got underway.
“ That was the dark time, when I
couldn’t do what I ’d wanted to do,
m in is try w ork in a foreign
country.”
That was also before, she said,
she realized that she was needed in
this “ so-called civilized, Christian
country."
Some time after that she drifted
away from the Witnesses, although
she said she'd rather not go into it,
except to say that there had been
changes in the organizational
structure of the church. She still
observes some Witness holidays,
however.
She brought up the Armageddon,
and said that Jehovah will bring a
third of the people through the fire,
with people of all nations having a
chance to survive.
Jehovah will begin at his own
sanctuary, Weimer said.
She added,“ God knows the
heart. You are judged by what is in
your heart "
Before, and after, the 1953
assembly in New York, Weimer
worked in Wisconsin. After the
assembly, when it got “ too cold,"
she moved to Roseburg, where she
worked at a state bank
She
was
“ c h e c k in g
en
dorsements,” and knew she'd go
from bookkeeping to cashiering.
“ I hated it," she said.
She’d worked in a bank before,
and also as a bookkeeper What she
wanted to do was work with people,
and she felt she could have some
success as a salesperson
She worked at Penney’s, in the
Hollywood district, for some time,
and then took a job at Charles F
Bergs.
Later she worked at another
fashion store
And, she said she was a good
salesperson
Because of illness, equanil was
prescribed. She said they’re called
“ don't-give-a-damn pills," and the
name fits.
She said, “ If I ’d known then what
I know now I never would have
taken the medication."
She then sold dry cleaning
coupons (advertising) in Salem,
later worked at Penney’s in Cor
vallis, for a ladies store in Salem,
and then at a Meier and Frank
In 1960 she started working for
Avon, and was made a district
manager in three months, but
Weimer said she was not manager
material.
After a few other jobs, and
following the death of her father in
1962, she took a job in a ladies store
in Salem.
In 1968 she had to have surgery,
and when she was ready to go back
they were laying people off.
She
then
took
over
a
400-customer magazine renewal
file, and built it up to 4,000, even
tually to the point where she was
making $5 to $10 an hour. She did
this for eight years.
In March of 1975 she had a heart
attack, and though she tried to go
back to the magazine renewal
8 mg. "tar". 0.7 mg. nicotine
av. per cigarette by FTC method.
Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined
That Cigarette Smoking Is Oangerous to Your Health.
business, she was forced to give it
up
She moved into low-income hous
ing, and when she got well began
selling cosmetics.
She said she sold a good line, and
was beginning to build her
business up when she was forced
out of her home
Her father taught her compas
sion for the poor, she said Her
principles were magnified by join
ing the Witnesses
About the plight of the poor, she
said, “ I had no idea it was so bad
till I was out on the street, and I
haven’t felt the brunt of it because
I get a social security check."
She gets her exercise, walking,
and may breathe easier since she’s
been living outside, she said
And there are people, from Mt.
Hood, through Sandy and Gresham
and to the coast, who've helped her
in many ways.
Still, she assured me, it ’s a dif
ficult life for those who are forced
out on the street.
We had entered T .J .’s about
12:30, and at about 2:30 Weimer
had said that she needed a break
from the conversation. Still, she
kept allowing me to ask what I said
would be just a few more ques
tions.
About 3:15 she said that she was
uncomfortable. She rubbed a spot
on her head and said that she was
being hit by a laser beam, that she
had been uncomfortable since we
had arrived
As we got up to leave she told me
she was aware of the pressures
that would be on me from my
editor or publisher at The Post
I assured her I wouldn’t be
pressured to sensationalize.
But again, she told me that she
would understand.
I paid for the coffee, and she slip
ped out the door ahead of me.
She walked about a block ahead
of me, in the gentle rain, back to
the boxes and plastic buckets,
which were covered with a piece of
plastic.