WEEKEND EDITION
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NIXYAAWII TOPS
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145th Year, No. 108
Nixyaawii’s Dakota Sams (11) competes
in the Oregon 1A State Basketball
Tournament on Thursday, June 24, 2021,
at Baker High School. The Nixyaawii
Golden Eagles defeated the Damascus
Christian Eagles 50-29.
REGONIAN
JUNE 26-27, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Tom Tangney honored fallen brother’s memory
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Like the Aretha Franklin song,
all Tom Tangney wanted was a
little respect. While Aretha sang
of a personal relationship, Tangney
wanted respect for all those who
serve our country.
Tangney, who died Wednesday,
June 23, at age 89, often spoke at local
events about remembering the sacri-
fi ces of veterans. “By honoring the
nation’s veterans,” he liked to say,
“we preserve their memory, their
service and sacrifi ce.”
Tangney, of Pendleton, knew
something about sacrifi ce.
At age 19, he joined the Marines
and headed to Korea. He was a high
school football star, and admitted that
Barry brings
Round-Up
to life on
poster
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Rowdy Barry
is well known in the sport of rodeo
as a bullfi ghter.
He spent the better part of 33
years putting himself between
angry bulls and bull riders, and has
dozens of broken bones and scars
to prove it.
Barry, 54, also is a respected
cowboy artist, and the Pendle-
ton Round-Up Board of Direc-
tors commissioned him to create
the official poster for the 2021
Round-Up that will take place Sept.
15-18.
“It’s a pretty cool honor to be
part of that history,” Barry said.
“Hopefully I can build up my name.
Most know me as Rowdy Barry the
bullfi ghter, not Rowdy Barry the
artist.”
Barry’s design puts a twist on
Wallace Smith’s iconic 1925 saddle
bronc rider that is synonymous
with the Pendleton Round-Up.
“I looked at a lot of old posters
and researched what I was going to
do,” Barry said. “I wasn’t going to
do the Let ‘er Buck horse, but the
more I looked at it, I wanted to do it
with the black background.”
Barry did a rough sketch of
his design, complete with Native
American designs in all four
corners and a tuft of grass beneath
the horse, and presented it to the
board for approval.
See Poster, Page A9
a recruiter swayed him by telling the
teen he had a good chance of play-
ing on the Marine football team. He
had been awarded a full-ride schol-
arship to play at Pacific Univer-
sity but realized he would soon be
drafted, so he closed the deal with
the Marines rather than having the
branch chosen for him. The young
man soon found himself in the gritti-
est of environments during the three-
year confl ict in Korea. In the frigid
cold, the men dealt with frostbite, icy
terrain, jammed weapons and frozen
rations. They wore multiple pairs of
pants to cut the cold and used snow to
Contributed Photo
make coff ee. Tangney was pulled out Tom Tangney joined the Marines at
of combat two weeks early after his age 19 and fought in Korea.
brother, Clarence, died at the Battle
of Heartbreak Ridge in 1951. He offi - been removed behind enemy lines.
cially confi rmed the identity of his The sight of Clarence’s face, half
brother, whose Army dog tags had gone, shook Tom.
Clarence had supported his
younger brother by doing Tom’s
chores on the family’s Prineville
farm so that Tom could play football
and run track. Tom never quite got
over losing him, say family members.
Tangney sometimes spoke about
the diffi culty of returning home from
war, about feeling jittery and drink-
ing too much. Post-traumatic stress
disorder wasn’t yet a term, he said.
Rather, returning war veterans strug-
gled with “shell shock” or “combat
fatigue.”
“Or you were crazy as hell,” he
told a group in 2017. “Society at the
time did not understand psychologi-
cal eff ects of war trauma.”
After six months, the jitters faded
as he pushed his war memories to the
far reaches of his mind. He married
his high school sweetheart, Maxine,
HEAT WAVE
National Weather
Services predicts
temps in 100s late
into next week
By JADE MCDOWELL, BEN
LONERGAN, BRYCE DOLE
and PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
U
MATILLA COUNTY
— Residents across
Eastern Oregon can
expect some of the
highest June tempera-
tures in decades start-
ing Sunday, June 27.
The National Weather Service
forecasts temperatures to peak June
28, and June 29, with highs of 107
degrees in Boardman, 111 in Pend-
leton and 114 in Hermiston.
The conditions could prove
unprecedented for the month of
June. Rob Brooks, a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service
in Pendleton, said June tempera-
tures in Umatilla County typically
range in the upper 80s.
The federal agency predicts
temperatures in excess of 100 to
stretch well into next week. Bran-
don Lawhorn, a forecaster with the
National Weather Service in Pend-
leton, said temperatures could
range to as high as 103 degrees
through next Friday. Forecasters, he
said, are predicting a possible triple-
digit Fourth of July throughout the
Columbia River Basin.
Take precautions with heat
Steve Hardin, the emergency
department manager at St. Anthony
Hospital in Pendleton, advised
people to stay out of the heat and
remain vigilant on the signs of heat
exhaustion and heat stroke.
“Limit activity, especially stren-
uous activity during the hot times,”
he said. “If you want to do yard
work, get up at 6 in the morning,
go outside and do yard work when
it’s cooler.”
Hardin advised people to limit
their consumption of alcohol and
stay aware of their hydration and
water intake when temperatures
are high.
“Typically people will consume
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A motorcyclist rides along Airport Road in Pendleton on Thursday,
June 24, 2021, as heat waves shine across the surface. The National
Weather Service predicts Pendleton and Hermiston are in for tem-
peratures north of 110 on June 28 and 29.
a large amount of beer and they’ll
think they’re staying hydrated, he
said. “In all reality they’re dehydrat-
ing themselves.”
Hardin said the most common
issue for people to be on the look-
out for is heat exhaustion, which has
symptoms such as headache, light-
headedness, profuse sweating and
cold, clammy skin. People also can
experience nausea or vomiting and
increased thirst.
“You need to hydrate yourself,”
he said. “Drink water and sports
drinks intermittently.”
If someone begins to show signs
of heat exhaustion, Hardin recom-
mended moving them to a cooler
place, off ering water and sports
beverages, such as Gatorade, and
using cold compresses or a cold
shower to help cool down.
“Don’t put it off , once you start
getting symptomatic you need to
get out of the heat,” he said. “If
you don’t, it will progress to heat
stroke.”
Heat stroke is a much more seri-
ous condition and requires imme-
diate medical care, Hardin said.
Heat stroke presents with delirium,
confusion or loss of consciousness
as well as nausea and vomiting.
People experiencing heat stroke
cease sweating and their skin will
typically be hot and red. Hardin
advised anyone suffering heat
stroke to seek emergency medical
attention.
“Heat stroke is a true medical
emergency, and you need to come
to the ER for it,” he said. “Do not
give them fl uids, they’re confused
or altered, they’re in or out of
consciousness, you don’t want them
to choke.”
The Oregon Occupational
Safety and Health Administration
on Thursday, June 24, warned that
heat illness poses a serious threat to
workers who are not prepared for
hot weather.
“Employers need to take the
threat of heat illness seriously,
which means acting sooner —
not later — to put the appropriate
safeguards in place,” said Penny
Wolf-McCormick, statewide health
enforcement manager for Oregon
OSHA. “And they don’t have to go
it alone. Oregon OSHA is ready to
help with free expert advice and a
variety of educational resources.”
Oregon OSHA recommends
employers create a heat illness
prevention plan that can include
training employees to recognize
the signs of heat illness, perform-
ing work during the coolest part of
the day and providing water, rest
and shade, particularly for those in
labor-intensive jobs.
Keeping cool inside
If anyone thinks their air condi-
tioning unit isn’t working property
or is on the verge of failing, they
should call immediately, said Seth
Draper, service manager for Bruce
Heating and Air, which has loca-
tions in Hermiston and the Tri-Cit-
ies. HVAC technicians are stretched
thin right now, and aren’t available
to show up at a moment’s notice.
See Heat, Page A9
LET'S GET VACCINATED
VISIT SAHPENDLETON.ORG
TO FIND OUT WHERE TO GET
YOUR COVID VACCINATION
and started work at a sawmill. A
job at Mid-State Lumber Company
brought the couple to Pendleton in
1955. The couple had three children,
one of whom died at age 2. He drove a
milk truck for Carnation Dairy for 22
years and eventually he and Maxine
operated the Daisy Milk Company in
Pendleton for another 22 years.
Those who knew Tangney best
say he lived to serve. He served with
Veterans of Foreign Wars Let ‘er
Buck Post 922, the Elks, the Main
Street Cowboys and in many other
ways. He was honored as Pendleton’s
2006 Man of the Year. Tangney was
the milkman who shared a friendly
greeting and a joke at every doorstep,
said grandson T.J. Tangney. He was
also the guy who did something just
See Tangney, Page A9
PENDLETON
HOLDS RECORD
FOR HOTTEST
TEMPERATURE
The National Weather Service is
predicting peak temperatures
Monday, June 28, of 112 in Pend-
leton and 114 in Hermiston.
The last time Pendleton
reported hotter temperatures
was 1961, with 113 degrees.
Temperatures have never
reached that high in Hermis-
ton, according to the National
Weather Service.
But all of those temperatures fall
below the hottest temperature
ever reported in Pendleton. On
Aug. 10, 1898, the city reported
119 degrees Fahrenheit, accord-
ing to the National Weather
Service and the East Oregonian
physical archives. That also is the
hottest temperature recorded
in Oregon, tied with Prineville’s
temperatures that same year.
The region had been “treated
to a spell of weather the like of
which has never been known
heretofore,” the East Oregonian
reported the day after the
record-high temperatures. Back
then, however, the thermom-
eters only went up to 115
degrees, so the additional four
degrees had to be “measured
by the observer,” the newspaper
reported.
The heat became central to
several stories the newspaper
reported that day.
A fi re extended more than a mile
and a half and destroyed more
than 11,000 bushels of wheat
and barley on a farm just east
of Pendleton. The likely cause
was matches someone dropped
that were “ignited by the warm
rays of the sun,” the newspaper
reported.
A 14-year-old boy named Louis
Fletcher had been working his
father’s harvest fi eld that day
when the heat knocked him
unconscious and left him in “a
very serious condition” for sev-
eral hours before he eventually
recovered.
The local “woolen mills and wool
scouring mills” closed and sent
workers home due to tempera-
tures that topped 122 in the
facility’s shade.
Meanwhile, the “ladies of the
Christian church” planned an ice
cream social on the courthouse
lawn the following day to sup-
port the “Ladies Aid Society.”