Page 14
Travel/Entertainment
October 2023
Lookingglass Grange Community Center,
7426 Lookingglass Road, Rosebu
Roseburg
Potluck pie & desserts from 1-5 PM. Bring an
item to share. Soft serve ice cream, coffee, tea &
lemonade provided.
Old-Time Fiddlers will perform from 2 to 4 PM
Come listen to great music and visit your neigh-
bors. Maybe even dance a little.
Everyone welcome!
FOR MORE INFO:
Anne Smith, drymountain@hotmail.com or
CALL 503- 541-5075
Tammy, lookingglassgrange@gmail.com
November Line up
Friday Night November 3rd
TimberWolf
Saturday Night November 11th
Karaoke
Daily & Weekly Food & Drink Specials
The Rose Bar & Restaurant
413 Umpqua HWY 38, Drain OR
If you have or know of an
Event, Get Together or Shin-
dig, let us know, send an email
to reports@ndherald.com or
send to ND Herald, PO Box
581, Drain OR 97435
Dessert Social and Old-Time
Fiddlers on Sat, Nov 4
On Saturday November 11th at 1 pm The
Mildred Whipple Library will host Adam
Miller, a folk singer and storyteller. Both days’
events will include giveaways, door prizes, and
lots of fun for all ages.
Drain Civic Center
205 West “A” Avenue, Drain OR
Friday the 10th at
1 pm we will wel-
come the Singing
Creek Center for
a Kalapuya Ways
presentation. Learn
about Kalapuya tra-
ditions in a dynamic
presentation
and
enjoy Native flute
music.
Drain Civic Center
205 West “A” Avenue, Drain OR
Church
Directory
DRAIN
Assembly of God Church
975 Drain Section Rd
541 836-2369
Sunday Service 10:30am
Gateway Family Fellowship
Church of the Nazarene
337 C Avenue
Sunday Sch 9:30am Worship 10:45am
YONCALLA
Assembly of God
1008 Hayhurst Rd
541 849-2800
Sunday 10:30am Wednesday. 5:30pm
Ray’s Food Place, the Grocery Chain Built by Ray
Church of Christ
225 Birch St
Sunday School 9:55am
Sunday Worship 10:45am
This story begins with Raymond (Ray) L.
Nidiffer coming out to Brookings, Oregon,
from Utah in 1956. In 1957, Ray bought
out C&K Market, buying out Kimberly.
Nidiffer replaced Kimberly and jointly
operated the 3,200-square-foot store with
Collins at its original location until 1963.
They then moved the business to a 10,000-
square-foot building close by in Brookings.
In 1967, the business incorporated as C&K
Market, Inc. The company incorporated in
1967, taking its name from the Collins and
Kimberly partnership, the new corporation
was set up as C&K Market, Inc.
In 1969, Collins decided to retire and sold
his interest to Ray. When Nidiffer took over
the business, Brookings had the reputation
of being a fairly insular community, run by
a few families and people. As the sole owner
of the corporation, Ray and a strong group
of employees began growing the company.
Although Ray was a relative newcomer,
the business took off under his leadership.
He built up the company’s administrative
and operations staff and began steadily to
acquire other stores in small communities
throughout southern Oregon.
Most of the stores that the C&K
Market leased or operated had been owned
by individuals who were retiring. The
company also became a member of United
Grocers, a retailer-owned wholesaler,
which supplied Sentry stores, and ran most
of them under the Ray’s Sentry Markets
ELKTON
Story by Milo Van Elder
Vital Statistics
Gilbert Allen
Yearous, a devoted
family
man,
passionate forester
and lover of life,
passed
away
peacefully
on
October 12, 2023,
in his birthplace
of Cottage Grove,
OR. He was born
on November 18, 1928. Gilbert was well
known for his sense of humor, kindness, and
passion for everything he set his heart on.
banner.
Nidiffer considered each new
acquisition in terms of its size, age, volume
of sales, and location, concentrating mostly
on small supermarkets in rural locations.
The strategy proved a wise one, and,
by 1988, C&K had become the 62nd
largest private company in Oregon, still
closely held and managed. C&K’s senior
management met in Brookings, Oregon,
every Monday, and Nidiffer, an amateur
pilot, frequently visited his 23 stores in his
Beechcraft Baron twin-engine plane.
In 1997, Ray decided to retire and
passed the responsibility of running the
company to his son, Doug Nidiffer. Raised
in the grocery environment, Doug has spent
most of his formative years in the industry.
Doug has continued his stewardship of the
company and the ideals set forth by his
father Ray, continuing to acquire and build
new store locations, while updating and
remodeling existing locations.
In 2005, Doug’s son, Alan Nidiffer,
re-joined the company after earning his
degree at Oregon State and has served in
various roles, most recently as Executive
Vice President. The company continues to
evolve and in 2014, Karl Wissmann joined
the grocery chain as its CEO and led its
more recent revitalization.
January 25, 2021 C&K Market
completed a transaction to become 100%
employee-owned through an employee
stock ownership plan (ESOP) trust. This
enables employees to receive retirement
benefits linked to the company’s future
equity value. The plan was established on
December 29, 2020.
“At our core, we’re a community grocery
store that proudly serves its neighbors,”
said Karl
Wissmann, president and CEO of C&K
Market. “We tailor what we offer to meet
the needs of each
community we serve. That commitment
continues through our Employee Stock
Ownership Plan
(ESOP), which allows us to maintain our
independence and lets employees benefit
from our success.”
C&K Market, Inc. now operates
about 38 supermarkets in small to mid-
sized rural communities with populations of
fewer than 10,000 in southern Oregon and
northern California, mostly under the name
Ray’s Food Place. Some stores are called
Price Less Foods and Shop Smart. The
chain’s competitive strategy is to operate
quality grocery stores in niche, underserved
markets. Stores are fully equipped with
grocery, meat, dairy, produce, and health
and beauty aid departments and offer
multiple brands at varying price points.
Currently, more than 1,200 people are
employed by the company, which is now
employee owned.
Obituary In Memoriam
He graduated from Cottage Grove High
School and went into the forest industry. He
managed timber where he oversaw the planting
and logging of trees, as well as the production of
firewood. He served in the National Guard, was
a long-standing member of the Moose Lodge
and Elks Lodge.
Gilbert is survived by eight children,
son Paul Yearous of Cottage Grove, daughter
Virginia Smith of Cottage Grove, son Mark
Yearous of Creswell, daughter Kathleen Moore
of Cottage Grove, daughter Yvette Blue of
Cottage Grove, daughter Madelyn Baker of
Idaho Falls, ID, daughter Gina Yearous of
Roseburg, OR, and stepdaughter Maria Goins
of Creswell, OR; 25 grandchildren; 50 great-
grandchildren and 14 great- great-grandchildren.
Gilbert is preceded in death by both his parents
Roscoe and Nora (Hull) Yearous, life partner
Ella Velasquez, daughter Connie Smith, ex-wife
Lorriane McConnell, stepdaughter Kathy, and
all his brothers and sisters.
A memorial service was held Sunday,
October 29 at 2:00PM at the Cottage Grove
Armory, 628 E Washington Ave. Arrangements
in the care of Smith-Lund-Mills Funeral Chapel
and Crematorium.
Elkton Bible Baptist Church
541 584-2808
420 2nd St
Sunday Worship 10am
Elkton Christian Church
344 3rd St PO Box 430
541 802-9506 www.elktonchristian.com
Sunday Sch 9:30am Worship 10:45am
If you would like to see your Church listed
in the directory, please send email to:
churchdirectory@ndherald.com.
Or send US Mail to:
ChurchDirectory
North Douglas Herald
PO Box 581
Drain OR 97435
Include: Name, address, phone & worship
hours - 4 lines only.
Vets Return to US
Continued from Page 12
dreamed of seeing, like the Grand Canyon
and possibly Mount Rushmore,” he said.
Hernandez said his deportation came after
unspecified “irreverent actions and mistakes I
made due to my PTSD.” He declined to give
more details. But he said after he was allowed
back into the country a year ago, he was deter-
mined to get his U.S. citizenship to be able to
go to the grocery store and not feel “terrified”
of being picked up and sent back to Mexico.
His 7-year-old daughter hugged him after he
was sworn in amid cheers from a crowd that
included more than a dozen veterans from
various branches. Then he turned and kissed
his wife.
“I’ve always been an American, the difference
is now I’m an American citizen and I have all
the rights that any American born citizen has,”
Hernandez said. “And it was important to me
to have those rights just to prove the point,
the point being that anybody that’s willing
to lay down their life, their sanity, and give
everything that they hold dear for American
freedom should be eventually at one point in
their lives considered a U.S. citizen.”
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Local Businesses