LIFESTYLES
Zeppelin settles
‘Stairway’ origin
question/3C
How to make
doughnut
puffs/4C
WEEKEND, JUNE 25-26, 2016
Fishermen
face warming
world/8C
Beauty
after
death
Verla Jean Zielke provides inal styling
Staff photo by Jennifer Colton
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
The canvas bag is packed and
ready to go, tucked away behind a
sofa in an immaculate living room
dotted with family photos, artwork
and memoirs of a life well lived.
When the call comes in, Verla Jean
Zielke gathers her bag of tools
— combs, curling irons, brushes
— and heads out the door, ready
to provide a service to a family in
need.
For most of her life, Verla Jean
cut, washed and styled hair for
thousands of people in the Herm-
iston community. Now retired, she
only styles hair when she is asked
to by her lone employer: Burns
Mortuary of Hermiston.
Now 90, Verla Jean continues
to pass on her skills to families in
grief.
“As long as they call me, I will
go,” Verla Jean said. “As long as
I can please the people, I’ll keep
doing it. That’s all that matters.”
Verla Jean radiates a soft energy.
Her smile is infectious, and the
skill of her hands is undeniable.
Originally from Wallowa, Verla
Jean came to Hermiston in 1952
when her husband, Fred, took
over the industrial arts program
for Hermiston schools. While Fred
kept busy in education and around
the house, Verla Jean set up shop as
a beautician, eventually converting
the garage of their home into a
beauty shop.
Four years after she moved to
Hermiston — and 60 years ago
this May — a neighbor asked Verla
Jean for a favor. The neighbor’s
daughter had cancer, and when the
mother asked Verla Jean to help
with the girl’s hair, she agreed.
When the daughter died, Verla
Jean received a phone call that
would become the irst of many:
Joe Burns told her the family had
requested that Verla Jean do the
hair for the funeral.
“I’ve always felt that if I was
needed, I can do it,” Verla Jean
said, tearing up. “This is what God
has given me, so I feel I should use
it.”
Over 60 years, Verla Jean’s
work has preceded more than 100
funerals.
Ken Huber, of Burns Mortuary,
said having Zielke in the commu-
nity is a blessing.
“A vital part of helping the
family in their grief and recovery
is to see that everything is just the
way Mom would like it,” he said.
“I have had so many families that
were discussing how to do Mom’s
hair and then felt at ease once
they found out Verla Jean was
still doing it. Literally thousands
of families have been touched by
Verla Jean’s years of expertise.”
Verla Jean understands loss all
too well. She provided the last hair
styling for her mother, her grand-
mother, her aunt and many friends
over the years. For the beautician,
the experience is a service, a inal
gift to a family lost in grief.
“I do this to help people face
a dificult time losing someone
special to them,” she said. “If I can
please the family, then that’s my
goal.”
But Verla Jean does ask for
something from the family — a
photo of their loved one. She
uses her experience and her bag
of tools to re-create the hair style
and, occasionally, manicure, the
family would like. Each sitting
takes between 30 and 45 minutes,
depending on the length of the
hair and the complexity of the
style. Zielke pretends the person
is sleeping. She works quickly and
quietly so as not to disturb them.
Over the years, she has served
men, women and even teenagers.
“The dificult ones are the
teenagers and the young people,”
she said.
Fred passed away in 2013, but
Verla Jean continues to live life
fully. She makes greeting cards,
she paints, she embroiders. She
loves to spend time in her garden
and with her Dachshund, Scooter.
She makes a personalized, hand-
made ornament for each of her
grandchildren every Christmas
— and she has more than 20
grandchildren and almost as many
great-grandchildren.
Zielke keeps herself busy, but
she always has time when the
mortuary calls.
“If they still need me, I’m avail-
able,” she said.
She passed on her beautician
skills to a daughter and a grand-
daughter; her other descendants
work in different ields from home
health to teaching. All have taken
on roles of service, much like their
mother and grandmother.
“Her heart is in it for the right
reasons — to help families,”
Huber said. “We don’t even talk
about retirement. We have been
blessed.”
———
Jennifer Colton wrote this
feature while working for the East
Oregonian. She is now the news
director for KOHU Hermiston.
Verla Jean Zielke quietly styles the hair of a deceased person in March at Burns Mortuary, Hermiston,
in preparation for funeral services.
Staff photo by Jennifer Colton
Verla Jean Zielke is the beautician for Burns Mortuary in Hermiston, where she performs inal styling
by family request before a funeral.
OUT OF THE VAULT
Gang escapes after robbing card game in downtown Pendleton
F
ifteen men gambling in
the back room of the Maze
Saloon in Pendleton lost their
shorts — to a gang of holdup men
who crashed the party and shook
them down for whatever they had.
A group of men was enjoying
an evening of faro and roulette on
Sept. 23, 1901, in C.L. McGinnis’
saloon on Pendleton’s Court
Street, where Hamley’s Western
Store now stands. Dick Lawrence
sat in the lookout chair, and Bud
Robinson was acting as dealer.
Bartender E.D. Murphy had just
exited the room to replenish the
supply of beverages, but it was
more than alcohol he brought
back to the gaming room with
him. Five masked men holding
revolvers followed Murphy
through the swinging bar doors
and immediately demanded that
everyone reach for the sky.
The lookout was told to get out
of his chair and stand aside. Then
two of the robbers produced bags
and cleaned out the banks of the
faro game ($850) and the roulette
wheel ($400). Another man riled
the pockets of the gamblers, and
a fourth demanded that McGinnis
open the safe. The bar’s owner
couldn’t remember the combina-
tion, and the bartender, who was
told to try his hand, was able to
turn the combination so the safe
could not be opened.
A Chinese man, who had lost
$40, saw an opportunity and
dashed out the back door of the
bar. One of the men guarding the
swinging doors ired a shot at him,
but missed. The bullet whanged
off the barber shop next door,
sounding the alarm. Realizing
that the law would soon show up,
the robbers made their exit to the
street. Bud Robinson, the dealer,
grabbed his pistol and gave chase
and started shooting as soon as
he made it outside. Twelve shots
were ired down Court Street, two
by Robinson and the rest by the
gang, shattering a plate glass store
window and lodging another bullet
in the door frame of a second
storefront.
Three hundred people had
gathered outside the bar by the
time the shooting was over.
Sheriff J.A. Blakely soon arrived
with his deputies, all armed with
Winchester riles, and a posse was
saddled and pursuing the gang
within an hour of the holdup.
Their tracks were followed
down Cottonwood Street
(present-day Southeast First) to
the river levee, where Colt .45
shell casings were found. The trail
continued up the Lee Street grade
and through a plowed ield, but
showed the tracks of only three
horses, indicating the gang had
split up. Sheriff Blakely and his
deputies (including Til Taylor)
chased the men for miles, across
ields and through barbed wire
fences that had been cut, but lost
the trail near Echo. None of the
holdup men was ever caught.
■
Renee Struthers is the
Community Records Editor for the
East Oregonian. See the complete
collection of Out of the Vault
columns at eovault.blogspot.com
ODDS & ENDS
German man recovers
treasure lost in loods
BERLIN (AP) — German
authorities say an elderly man in
Bavaria has recovered his fortune,
which he’d hidden at home for
safety only to have recent loods
make the building uninhabitable.
Police in the town of Simbach am
Inn said Thursday the 81-year-old
initially told them he’d hidden the
money in his house, which is now
in danger of collapse. When they
didn’t ind it there, he told them he
had buried the cash in the garden.
They brought in heavy machinery to
dig through the garden, eventually
coming across the treasure in a
metal box some 6½ feet below the
surface.
They say the “ive-digit sum” of
cash is being deposited in the man’s
bank account.