HOW TO MAKE BIG
BUCKS DURING
ROUND-UP
MILWAUKEE
SHERIFF DAVID
CLARKE RESIGNS
REGION/3A
Letter to the editor:
“What is going on with
this stupid railroad?”
OPINION/4A
NATION/6A
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
141st Year, No. 229
HERMISTON
Your Weekend
Welder, mother turns 109
Catch a movie
InYo Entertainment
Indian-made indie fi lm
“Neither Wolf Nor Dog”
shows at Wildhorse.
For review and showtimes
see Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
94/60
Sat
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Sun
100/65 100/66
Watch a game
vs.
La Grande vs. Pendleton
Friday, 7 p.m., at Pendleton
Murder
suspect
Dayton does
not contest
bail hearing
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Conor Michael Dayton is
staying put in the Umatilla
County Jail on charges of
murder and more.
The
24-year-old
Milton-Freewater man did
not contest
his bail at
a hearing
Wednesday
in
Pend-
leton.
Dayton
appeared
in court via Dayton
video from
the Pendleton jail, Herman
Bylenga of Intermountain
Public Defender Inc. by his
side while the fi rm’s director,
L. Kent Fisher, was in court.
Dayton
confi rmed
for
Circuit Judge Christopher
Brauer that he agreed the
state did not need to show
the strength of its evidence
against him.
The district attorney’s
offi ce charged Dayton
with the murder of Marcos
Gutierrez Rodriguez, as well
See DAYTON/10A
Geneva Eddings
celebrated her
birthday Thursday
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Geneva Eddings turned
109 on Thursday, but if you
want to know the secret to
living a long life you’ll have
to ask someone else.
“I haven’t the foggiest
idea,” she said.
Her children, who are all
older than 80, have a few
ideas.
“It’s the genes, I guess,
and good honest living,” her
son Ralph Eddings said.
He and his sister Muriel
Eddings celebrated Gene-
va’s birthday with her at
Regency Hermiston Nursing
and Rehabilitation Center,
along with staff and a few
other family members. They
said their mother never
smoked, rarely drank and
placed an emphasis on fruits
and vegetables that was
ahead of her time.
Parts
of
Geneva’s
memory are fading, but
one can’t blame her for not
recalling some details from
her childhood or exactly
how her husband proposed.
She was married before
many peoples’ grandparents
were born.
Still, she always recog-
nizes family and can recall
hiking, picnicking, fi shing
and other activities with her
children as they grew up.
“We played games,” she
said. “I just enjoyed being
with them. I love them.”
Geneva was born in
1908, just a month before
Henry Ford unveiled the
Model T automobile. Her
father had left Virginia to
work on the railroad in the
Pacifi c Northwest, and her
mother soon followed in a
cross-country train while
eight months pregnant. After
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Mitch Eddings, of Snoqualmie, Washington, helps his grandmother, Geneva Eddings, with her birthday cards
during her 109th birthday party on Thursday in Pendleton.
off from the railroad and
traveled the country for
a while until he found a
For video visit
job as a longshoreman.
eastoregonian.com
When World War II
started, Benjamin was
brother to a cold house and
they would have to start the too old to be drafted and
fi re and dinner while their Ralph, their oldest child,
mother was at work. Geneva was too young.
“Mother wanted to know
eventually dropped out of
high school to help support from Dad what was the best
job for a woman that could
the family.
She met Benjamin Ralph make the most money, and
Eddings at a dance hall, and he said that was as a welder,”
remembers thinking how Muriel said.
So Geneva learned to
good-looking he was. They
married when she was 20 weld and began working on
and the couple had three Navy ships in Tacoma. She
was one of the only female
children.
“I don’t know that they welders around, but it didn’t
expected me,” Muriel, the faze her.
“I was so busy that I
youngest, said. “I was a
didn’t have time to have it
surprise.”
Muriel was born in the bother me,” she said.
midst of the Great Depres-
See GENEVA/10A
sion, and her father was laid
More online
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Geneva Eddings raised her family in the Tacoma area
with her husband Benjamin Ralph Eddings.
Geneva was born in Troy,
Idaho, the family moved to
Pullman, Washington, and
then Colfax, Washington,
where she spent most of her
childhood.
Geneva’s father died of
the Spanish fl u when she
was 9, forcing her disabled
mother to go to work in
a laundry to support the
family. Muriel said Geneva
would come home from
school each day with her
“It’s the genes, I guess, and good honest living.”
— Ralph Eddings, son of Geneva Eddings, on the secret to living a long life
PENDLETON
Main Street Cowboys decline
confederate fl ag vendor’s application
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Round-Up week’s most
visible purveyor of the Stars and
Bars will not be back on Pendle-
ton’s Main Street this year.
The Main Street Cowboys, the
organization who hosts vendors
and entertainment on Main
Street during Round-Up, did not
accept the vendor application
of Liberty Flags & Gifts. Last
year the Douglas County-based
vendor drew controversy for
prominently displaying and
selling Confederate fl ags and
the Cowboys drew their own
for driving up and down Main
Street with Confederate fl ags
affi xed to their vehicles.
Johnny Blagg, the vendor
director for the Main Street
Cowboys, said the current
political climate and the media
scrutiny were factors in the
organization’s decision to pass
on the vendor’s application.
Liberty Flags & Gifts
owner Viola Moody said the
business has set up a booth on
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
the vendor’s top selling fl ag,
accounting for 75-80 percent
of the business’ fl ag sales in
Pendleton last year, according to
Moody.
Moody thought that she
SALEM — A task force appointed
by Gov. Kate Brown has come up with
some early ideas for reducing the state’s
unfunded pension liability, but it’s not
yet apparent how far they could go.
Some proposals fl oated at the task
force’s most recent meeting Monday
involve substantial policy changes, and
Oregon’s House Republican leader has
already criticized certain proposals.
Brown, a Democrat, has asked the
task force, which includes representa-
tives from both the private and public
sector, to reduce the unfunded actuarial
liability of the Public Employees Retire-
ment System by $5 billion.
The unfunded actuarial liability is the
amount by which the pension system’s
future obligations exceed its ability to
pay.
Most of the $24.2 billion unfunded
liability has already been earned by
public employees. According to a 2015
Oregon Supreme Court opinion, benefi ts
already earned cannot be modifi ed by the
Legislature.
So the state must pay down most of
See FLAG/10A
See PERS/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The vendor Liberty Flags and Gifts out of Douglas
County will not be back selling fl ags on Main Street during the
Pendleton Round-Up. The vendor’s application was not
approved by the Main Street Cowboys.
Main Street during the past
two Round-Ups, but didn’t
receive negative attention until
“liberals” complained about the
booth when it was placed on the
400 block of South Main Street
in 2016.
Confederate fl ags were
PERS task force
solutions have
uncertain future