A4
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, MAy 1, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Graveyards speak if we listen
T
he dead are always with us. That
is especially so in a town as old as
Astoria. Our cemeteries are a walk
through history, the human comedy and
sorrow.
We are accustomed to seeing change
agents in Clatsop County. Mike and
Lynda Leamy, as profiled by Katie Fran-
kowicz in the April 27
edition, are change agents
of a different sort. Their
project is not urban
renewal; it is cemetery
renewal. Having pur-
chased Greenwood Cem-
etery — located off state
STEVE
Highway 202 — in the
FORRESTER
1980s, the Leamys have
set about restoration of its
oldest section, established in 1891.
Astoria’s first graveyard was a potter’s
field downtown. Then burials occurred at
the top of the hill. That hilltop cemetery is
the site of another renewal project. It will
gain new signage and interpretation, and it
will revert to its original name. In an April
7 article, Edward Stratton reported the
Astoria City Council’s decision to change
the name of this graveyard from Pioneer
Cemetery to Hillside Cemetery, as it was
previously known.
The best news is that students in Clat-
sop Community College’s historic pres-
ervation program are doing much of the
interpretive and restoration work.
Hillside Cemetery, located at 15th and
Niagara, is a mystery or a puzzle to many
Astoria newcomers. Some 20 years ago,
I asked the architectural historian John
Goodenberger and the archivist Liisa Pen-
ner to give me an interpretation of the
cemetery.
I had long been intrigued with the
small mausoleum that houses the remains
of Susan Shively in the cemetery’s north-
east corner. Because of her philanthropy
and her willingness to endure a jury trial
to gain a divorce, Shively is an interest-
ing character in early Astoria. I remember
Goodenberger’s describing how towns-
people strapped coffins with rope and
pulled them through the mud, up the hill
to get to Hillside. He also noted there
were likely bodies buried under the sur-
rounding streets.
Cemeteries are fascinating and often
heartbreaking places to visit. There is a
slope at Ocean View Cemetery in War-
renton that contains a number of graves of
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
A stone plaque marks Astoria Pioneer Cemetery.
MOVING ASTORIA’S BuRIAL GROuNdS
OuTSIdE OF THE CITy ANd INTO THE
COuNTRySIdE WAS PERHAPS A FAINT ECHO
OF THE RuRAL CEMETERy MOVEMENT.
IN THEIR LABORS AT GREENWOOd CEMETERy,
THE LEAMyS HONOR THAT LEGACy.
infants and young children.
Talking Tombstones — the autum-
nal event started in 2004 by McAndrew
Burns of the Clatsop County Historical
Society — has drawn hundreds to inter-
pretive tours of the county’s cemeter-
ies. With actors playing the roles of the
deceased, the humanity of a cemetery
springs to life. It is our version of Thorn-
ton Wilder’s play “Our Town.”
Some of America’s most fascinat-
ing real estate is cemeteries. If you are in
southwest Portland with a few hours to
kill, River View Cemetery — off Mac-
adam Avenue and near Lewis & Clark
College — is a jaw dropper, for two rea-
sons. Riverview is Portland’s social reg-
ister brought to life. All of the city’s street
names are there in their family plots. The
suffragist, newspaper founder and prolific
writer Abigail Scott Duniway lies about
200 feet from her brother, Harvey Scott.
Abigail has gained more immortality than
Harvey, but hers is a humble gravestone,
while Harvey’s is a monument.
River View Cemetery’s other great
attraction is its foliage. The size and scale
of its trees and shrubs are dramatic. That
emphasis on landscape and nature are
part of the rural cemetery movement of
the 19th century, which began in New
England, inspired by the transcendental-
ist movement, evoked by the writings of
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Mount Auburn
Cemetery outside Boston, in Cambridge,
is a stunning example of that movement.
Moving Astoria’s burial grounds out-
side of the city and into the countryside
was perhaps a faint echo of the rural cem-
etery movement. In their labors at Green-
wood Cemetery, the Leamys honor that
legacy.
Steve Forrester, the former editor and
publisher of The Astorian, is the president
and CEO of EO Media Group.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A bold decision
W
e always feel a deep sense of respect
and admiration for citizens who step
up to serve their community in elected
positions. These are often thankless jobs,
and are often caught up in controversy and
criticism.
Saying all that, we are thanking all of
the candidates for the Sunset Empire Park
and Recreation District: five incumbents
and five challengers who have been will-
ing to step up to serve.
We will be voting for the five incum-
bents in this case: Su Coddington, Celeste
Tuhy Bodner, Michael A. Hinton, Erika
Marshall-Hamer and Katharine Parker.
These five directors made a bold deci-
sion to purchase the old Broadway Middle
School in an effort to preserve this land for
public use and to expand the recreational
and child care needs of the district.
A controversial decision for sure. Some
think irresponsible, others think bold and
farsighted.
The district now owns that property and
what we haven’t heard from any of the
challengers is what their plan or strategy
is to develop and utilize the property the
district now owns. Do they plan to give it
back to the school district?
On the other hand, the SEPRD board
and their executive director are proceeding
with aggressive plans and financial anal-
ysis on how best to utilize the facility to
best serve the taxpayers in the district.
We, as taxpayers in the district, would
like to give the directors and the leadership
of the district the opportunity to see this
project out to its full potential.
Let’s not change horses in midstream.
JAY and JAN BARBER
Seaside
A beautiful component
I
appreciated the update article on wolves
in northeast Oregon (“New report shows
wolf population continues to grow,” April
24).
I’ve had the privilege of seeing four
wolves in the wild in Alaska, and in every
case they were doing their best to create
distance between us. A friend and long-
term resident of Alaska knows of a hand-
ful of wolf attacks on humans over sev-
eral decades, a small number compared to
attacks from bears and moose.
I think wolves are a beautiful com-
ponent of wild areas, and should be pre-
served, as our state is doing. And, I hope
that our attempts to make money in natural
areas will value the lives of wolves along
the way.
FRANK SATTERWHITE
Astoria
Risk
H
ere we are on April 22, up in the
COVID-19 high risk in Clatsop
County (“County to move into high risk for
virus,” The Astorian), and the tourists keep
coming out to the coast for the weekend.
Meanwhile, Astoria city councilors
have, for a second time, denied Mark Hol-
lander a permit extension to build a four-
story hotel on the Columbia River water-
front. (“Astoria again denies hotel appeal,”
The Astorian).
What if every room in every existing
hotel in Astoria were occupied and the
occupant(s) arrived in an auto looking for
a parking place, the town would be one
giant traffic jam.
Let’s hope the City Council makes a
final denial at an early May meeting for
any Hollander permit extension.
JUANITA B. PRICE
Astoria
Constructive, positive change
E
lection signs and tulips are popping up
around the neighborhood. It must be
time to get serious about our local election.
There is a pressing need to replace
the present Sunset Empire Park and Rec-
reation District Board members. Only
one board member has been elected. The
rest were appointed without serious past
experience.
I feel they have not fully used their
positions and, instead, relied upon others’
directions and opinions. This may account
for what happened when they purchased
Broadway Middle School.
One member tells us we don’t see “the
vision.” This is weak, and cannot be sup-
ported by common sense. What was
needed was a willingness to take profes-
sional advice and comments from the pub-
lic before they allowed the purchase of the
old building.
We need to look at the five extremely
qualified citizens who are offering their
service. Steve Morrison is an example of
one of the business people bringing life-
time skills in strategic planning and finan-
cially sound decision-making.
Steve, and the other candidates, will
use their business expertise to bring order
to both the board and the management
structure. Logical thinking that is mis-
sion-driven, based on facts, will bring
order and practicality to this middle school
purchase.
Steve is new to the community, but will
support best business practices and pro-
grams that provide for the needs of all
members of the community.
Time-tested professional, responsible
and educated leadership is being offered.
What a wonderful opportunity for the
future of the SEPRD.
Vote for a constructive and positive
change.
KATHY SAMSEL
Seaside