Page 10A
NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Friday, May 6, 2016
Sisters inally meet after 70 years
Long-lost siblings meet
for irst time in Astoria
By ERICK BENGEL
EO Media Group
Tears illed Marti Johnston’s eyes
when she saw her big sister, Patricia
Kibby, among the passengers
disembarking from the Norwegian
Jewel cruise ship as it unloaded
Wednesday morning in Astoria.
It was the irst time the women,
now 70 and 85, had ever met in
person.
Born of the same mother but
different fathers, Johnston, of
Longview, Washington, spent most
of her life completely unaware of
her sister, and then many more years
not knowing how to connect with
her.
All of that changed earlier this
year when Johnston’s niece — the
daughter-in-law of a third half-sister,
Dolly Musante — tracked her down.
In late winter, Johnston had her very
irst phone conversations with her
two older sisters.
When she and Kibby sat down to
begin catching up on two lifetimes’
worth of stories, “I cried the irst
time,” she said. “It went really well.”
As the cruise ship approached
in the Columbia River, Johnston
found herself pacing the pier with
her husband, Bill — more excited,
she said, than a child on Christmas
Eve. When the tenders docked, she
studied the passengers’ faces and
held up a sign reading, “Hi sis.”
Then the sisters saw each other,
and seconds later they were holding
each other — momentarily frozen in
an embrace that made up for all the
hugs they couldn’t share during the
decades of confusion and separation.
Asked how she felt, Kibby’s
voice caught on the emotion of
the moment: “I’m just excited —
nervous, excited, thrilled.”
Johnston, Kibby and Musante
are the last-known living offspring
of a woman named Thelma Faye
Darling, whose habit of having
children, sending them away, then
having more children and sending
them away kept many of the siblings
from knowing one another while
growing up in California.
“Our mother tossed us all out
with the bathwater when we were
babies, and that was kind of our
story,” Musante said. “There were
six of us, and we were all tossed
out.”
Kibby — who lives in California
and has worked in many professions,
including commercial pilot and CEO
of a machine shop — was raised by
her grandparents, and Musante by
an aunt. Two boys were placed in
foster homes. A third brother died in
infancy.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Marti Johnston, 70, tears up as she hugs her sister, Patricia Kibby, 85, for the irst time Wednesday.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Marti Johnston holds a sign
while waiting for her sister to
disembark from a cruise ship.
“Mother had a way of getting rid
of the kids,” said Johnston, an insur-
ance broker and former paralegal.
When Johnston was adopted, her
new parents changed her birth name
to prevent her biological family
from inding her.
Family accounts paint Darling
as an abusive and unstable mother.
Kibby declined to talk about her.
An article in The Anniston Star in
Alabama from April 1948 describes
Darling dropping off the boys —
then 10 and 8 — at a San Francisco
bus station with a sack of clothes
and a quarter and telling them to ind
the adoption agency.
After the brothers died later in
life, Johnston thought she’d seen the
last of her siblings. But rumors of
two older sisters remained with her
until she dug through court records
several years ago and conirmed
their existence.
“That’s how I found out,” she
said. “Then I didn’t know what to do
about it.”
Johnston put it out of her mind —
until Musante’s resourceful daugh-
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Ship tenders bring passengers, Patricia Kibby among them, to the
shore.
ter-in-law brought them all together.
“This is something that should
have happened a long time ago,
for her to get acquainted with her
sisters,” Bill Johnston said. “They
bonded immediately.”
Sitting side by side on a bench
inside the Columbia River Maritime
Museum, the sisters relected on
their day, one of the most important
in their long, eventful lives.
“I inally have a big sister I can
pick on,” Johnston added, putting
her arm around Kibby. “And I do,
too — it’s all I did, all day.”
At the Seaside Carousel Mall,
they bought each other gifts: Kibby
got Johnston a sign that reads, “I
smile because you’re my sister. I
laugh because there’s nothing you
can do about it.” And Johnston
By KRISTENA HANSEN
Associated Press
AP Photo/Don Ryan, File
In this 2014 ile photo, a driver drops off their ballot
outside Multnomah County election headquarters in
Portland.
the Democratic primary in
Indiana, although Hillary
Clinton’s lead in delegates is
seen as almost insurmount-
able.
So for most of the dozen
remaining primaries through
June — especially in small
states like Oregon, where
102 delegates are up for
grabs — political observers
say their impact is now
more symbolic than actual.
Oregon’s primary, one of
four in the next two weeks,
could serve as a “petri dish
for a national conversa-
tion” about the changing
dynamics of the two parties
heading into the general
election, said Jim Moore,
professor and director of
the Tom McCall Center for
Policy Innovation at Paciic
University.
“Does the Republican
party begin to gather around
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Bill Clinton makes
second Portland
stop for Hillary
PORTLAND (AP)
— Former President Bill
Clinton was in Portland after
visiting Bend to campaign
for his wife and Democratic
presidential frontrunner
Hillary Clinton.
His Thursday afternoon
Portland visit drew hundreds
of people near downtown,
marking his second Oregon
campaign stop ahead of the
state’s May 17 primary.
Hillary Clinton so far
hasn’t made a campaign
stop in Oregon, where she’s
clinched several of the state’s
13 superdelegates, although
support for her opponent
Bernie Sanders is strong in
Oregon. Sanders came to
the state for a third time last
week.
Bill Clinton’s Thursday
visit comes the day before
presumptive Republican
nominee Donald Trump’s
rally in Eugene, which will be
his irst campaign appearance
in Oregon.
Refuge occupier
apologizes for
video rants
found Kibby a wooden carving of
two sisters hugging with the inscrip-
tion, “Sisters are forever.”
“We tried not to tell everybody
that we were sisters,” Johnston said.
“Every store we went in…”
“… We told them, over and
over,” said Kibby.
The Norwegian Jewel set sail at 5
p.m., but the women said they would
meet up again in July in Idaho, where
Musante lives, for a family reunion.
Some of their own children may be
present, giving the family’s younger
generations a chance to know each
other in a way their parents couldn’t
until late in life.
“The whole family is very, very
excited,” Johnston said. “You never
know when you’re going to ind out
something more about your family.”
Unprecedented number of people register for Oregon primary
PORTLAND — A whop-
ping 111,000 Oregonians
gave themselves a voice by
changing their voter regis-
trations to Democrat and
Republican this year ahead
of the state’s presidential
primary.
That
igure
dwarfs
registration change numbers
during President Barack
Obama’s 2008 primary
campaign more than three-
fold.
The bulk of these voters
— who previously weren’t
registered with either party
and wouldn’t have been
able to cast a presidential
ballot this month — made
the switch in the weeks
before the April 26 primary
deadline, when excitement
was building over the state’s
potentially key role in
deciding the nominees.
The data, obtained from
the Oregon Secretary of
State, suggested the May
17 event could have been
a record-breaking voter
turnout — at least it did until
this week.
Things shifted after
Tuesday, when Donald
Trump became the presump-
tive GOP nominee: He
won Indiana’s Republican
primary and his two oppo-
nents dropped out of the
race. Bernie Sanders won
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Donald Trump ... or are we
going to see an electorate
that’s still pretty cranky and
fractured over the Trump
candidacy?” Moore said.
“The Oregon primary on the
Democratic side is going to
continue to be that conver-
sation about where the party
needs to go, but not really
with the hope that Bernie
will be the nominee.”
How that’ll dig into
the psyche of voters, and
possibly change the record-
breaking turnout many were
anticipating in Oregon, is
unclear, especially for the
GOP.
Of the 111,000 voters
who joined the two major
parties this year — more
than
three-quarters
of
whom were previously
nonafiliated — the biggest
chunk, about 84,800, went
to Democrats.
Moore said they likely
lean
toward
Oregon’s
“Bernie-mania” electorate,
although it’s less clear
who they support on the
Republican side. The only
GOP poll, released last
week, showed Trump with a
double-digit lead in Oregon.
Additionally,
100,900
new Oregon voters were
added to the rolls this year
through April — up 42
percent from the same time
in 2008, when primary
turnout was the highest
since then 1970s — and
nearly half registered with
the two major parties, but
mostly Democrats.
Oregon Secretary of State
Jeanne Atkins estimates a
new “motor voter” law —
which automatically signs
up drivers to vote when
they get a new or renewed
license — resulted in half of
those new registrations. But
she doubts the law had an
effect on the party afiliation
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changes, which means this
year’s election is drawing
attention and interest “like
never before,” she said.
Even after Tuesday’s
damper
on
Oregon’s
primary, Moore said it’s still
possible voter turnout could
come out strong, at least for
Sanders.
“The Republicans are
another thing because all of
a sudden the drama is gone,”
he said. “And in fact, if you
go in and vote for somebody
other than Trump it’s simply
a protest vote ... so we don’t
have a sense as to what that
does to Republican turnout.”
Campaigning in Oregon
is continuing, despite the
changes this week.
Bill Clinton was making
his second Oregon visit on
Thursday — Hillary Clinton
herself has yet to do so.
There was no word from
Sanders about a fourth visit.
Trump is reportedly
paying his irst visit Friday
evening in Eugene, which
his local campaign manager,
Jacob Daniels, conirmed
with the Associated Press.
The rally hasn’t been
oficially announced by the
national campaign.
PORTLAND (AP) —
One of the defendants in
the armed occupation of a
national wildlife refuge in
Oregon earlier this year has
apologized for video rants he
made that were widely seen
during the standoff.
Sean Anderson, 47, told
a federal judge Wednesday
he was “embarrassed” and
“ashamed” by the videos
from the occupation of the
Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge. In one Anderson
told supporters if police
stopped them on their way to
the refuge they should “kill
them.”
The Oregonian/
OregonLive reported
Anderson spoke at the urging
of U.S. District Judge Robert
E. Jones, who said he wanted
to hear directly from the
defendant before reviewing
a magistrate judge’s order
calling for Anderson’s release
before trial.
The judge ruled that
Anderson could return to
Riggins, Idaho. Jones urged
Idaho County Sheriff Doug
Giddings, who wrote a
letter to the court in support
of Anderson, to monitor
Anderson’s release.
The armed occupiers
took over the refuge on
Jan. 2, demanding that the
government turn over the
land to locals. Twenty-six
were indicted on federal
charges of conspiracy
to impede employees at
the wildlife refuge from
performing their duties.
Pot shops to sell
recreational edibles,
extracts in June
EUGENE (AP) — Recre-
ational marijuana users will
be able to purchase more than
just lowers next month.
The Register-Guard
reports that starting June 2,
medical marijuana dispen-
saries will be able to sell
low-dose edibles and extracts
to recreational customers.
The edible products are
already available to medical
marijuana cardholders
in varying dosages. For
recreational users, edibles will
have to contain no more than
15 milligrams of THC and
extracts can have up to 1,000
milligrams of the psychoac-
tive chemical in marijuana.
Dispensary operators say
15 milligrams for a single
brownie or cookie is a very
low dose. Currently most
stores sell edible products
with 100 to 200 milligrams
of THC.