A6
COMMUNITY
East Oregonian
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Desmond Tutu’s visit to Eastern Oregon remembered
By DICK MASON
The Observer
COVE — A leather fi sh-
erman’s cap worn by Angli-
can Bishop Desmond Tutu
saved the day for a party he
was traveling with on Inter-
state 84 in Baker County four
decades ago.
The South African was
riding in a car with Rustin
Kimsey, then the bishop of
the Eastern Oregon Diocese
of the Episcopalian Church,
and his wife, Gretchen, on a
hot August day in 1983. The
three had left the Ascen-
sion School Camp in Cove
a half hour earlier. They
were bound for the airport
in Boise, where they were
supposed to pick up Tutu’s
daughter, M’Pho, before
returning to Cove where Tutu
was making presentations
during a week-long confer-
ence.
The trip to Boise was
going well until the car over-
heated because of a malfunc-
tioning radiator. The vehicle
was stranded on the side of
Interstate 84 and the situ-
ation looked bleak before
Tutu spotted a drainage ditch
below the road.
“Undaunted by the steep-
ness and while wearing his
leather fi sherman’s cap, he
scampered down the ravine,
dipped his hat into the drain
ditch and brought enough
water to our overheated radi-
ator to cool it. Soon we were
on our way again,” Gretchen
Kimsey said.
The three, after a stop in
Baker City for repair work,
made it to Boise to pick up
Tutu’s daughter and soon
returned to Cove.
Gretchen Kimsey has
fond memories of that day
and of Tutu. Kimsey’s
husband, Rustin, had become
a good friend of Tutu’s after
getting to know him at inter-
national meetings of Episco-
palian church leaders. Tutu,
who had just attended a meet-
ing of the World Council of
Churches in Vancouver, B.C.,
had come to Cove to speak at
the Ascension School Camp
at Rustin Kimsey’s invita-
tion.
‘He spoke straight to
the heart’
The Kimseys were among
about 70 people who attended
the 1983 conference Tutu
spoke at. Tutu, who died
Dec. 26, 2021, at the age of
90, was well known but not
yet in the international spot-
light in 1983. He was a year
away from being awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for
his nonviolent opposition to
apartheid in South Africa.
Tutu, on the verge of major
celebrity status, was able to
move about freely in North-
eastern Oregon.
“He was not well known
yet. I think it was fun for him
to be anonymous,” Gretchen
Kimsey, who lives in The
Dalles, said.
Kimsey marveled at
Tutu’s ability to connect and
communicate with people
using plainspoken brilliance
at the conference in Cove.
“He never spoke in
complex terms. He spoke
Ascension School Camp/Contributed Photo
Churchill Pinder is ordained as a deacon in the Episcopal
Church by The Most Rev. Desmond Tutu, left, and The Rt. Rev.
Rustin Kimsey at the Ascension School Camp in Cove in 1983.
straight to the heart,” she
said.
Kimsey was also struck by
Tutu’s sense of humor, which
he displayed during his visit
to Northeastern Oregon and
throughout his life.
“He brought laughter to a
lot of people’s lives, and we
There’s no place like home
for the holiday album
all know how healing laugh-
ter can be,” she said.
Kiimsey said her husband
shared Tutu’s sense of humor.
“That is what drew them
together,” she said.
A great spirit
Jim Hayes, of Joseph, then
an eighth grader, was among
the younger people who
attended the 1983 confer-
ence at the Ascension Camp
in Cove. Hayes said he was
struck by the sense of happi-
ness Tutu exuded.
“He was joyful, a great
person,” he said.
The Wallowa County resi-
dent grew more impressed
with Tutu following the
conference when he learned
what he had endured while
fi ghting apartheid in South
Africa.
“I didn’t understand
how, after what he had gone
through, he could have such
great spirit,” Hayes said.
The Rev. Churchill G.
Pinder, of the Episcopal
Church, who then lived in
Baker City, was impressed
with stories Tutu shared of
his life in a close-knit setting.
“We all had the privi-
lege of sitting at the feet of
Desmond as he shared his
experiences with the strug-
gles in South Africa as well
as his journey of faith,” he
said. “I clearly remember
him describing his experi-
ences of being very sick as a
young child in a hospital and
the impression he had when
an Anglican priest came and
visited him and prayed with
him. Desmond shouted with
glee, ‘For me. What a wonder
God’s love is.’”
Pinder said the magnitude
of the experience is hard to
put into words.
“How can I explain the
wonder of enjoying all the
activities of Family Camp
including playing softball,
singing around the camp-
fi re, and eating meals with
Desmond Tutu and his family
and many of the members
of the Diocese of Eastern
Oregon,” he said.
Pinder was ordained a
deacon in the Episcopal
Church at the Ascension
School Camp during a cere-
mony conducted by Tutu and
Rustin Kimsey.
Sarah Moore, a former
reporter for The Observer,
who attended the conference,
said that Tutu was always
accessible.
“It was such an inti-
mate setting. Everyone had
access to a famous person.
He was always willing to
sit down and talk at meals
and outside,” said Moore,
who now lives in Orcas
Island, Washington, with her
husband, David, who was the
rector of St. Peter’s Episco-
pal Church in La Grande 40
years ago.
Moore said Tutu accepted
the invitation to come to
Cove because he knew
Rustin Kimsey so well.
“His friendship with
Rustin Kimsey is what made
it happen,” she said.
Rustin Kimsey died in
2015, and Tutu was among
those who attended his
service in The Dalles.
Tutu came unannounced,
Gretchen Kimsey said,
because he did not want to
take away attention from his
friend.
“We were so happy to
see him,” Gretchen Kimsey
said. “It was such a wonder-
ful gesture.”
Lovely weather for sledding for two
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — In the
era of COVID-19, a group
is trying to keep a Pendle-
ton holiday tradition alive
by turning an annual concert
event into a recorded album.
On Thursday, Dec. 23, the
Pendleton Jazz Club released
its “Holiday Pageant (The
Album) Vol. 2” a collection
of local musical acts sing-
ing a combination of Christ-
mas classics and seasonally
appropriate deep cuts.
The album is meant to
evoke the spirit of the Holi-
day Pageant, an event that
usually occurs the Sunday
before Christmas at the Great
Pacifi c Wine & Coff ee Co.
While the Holiday Pageant
album is related to the hiber-
nating live event, it’s origins
stretch back to a different
holiday: St. Patrick’s Day.
The album is officially
credited to “Jazz Club &
Friends,” a reference to the
fraternal organization that
contributes signifi cantly to
the album and the group that
will benefi t from the record’s
proceeds. Jazz Club member
J.D. Kindle said the Jazz Club
was founded in the 1960s as
a private club where local
musicians could congregate,
practice their craft and enjoy
each other’s company. True
to their name, they mostly
played jazz and big band
songs.
“It was a place to get
together, smoke, drink and
get away from the wives for
a while,” he said.
As time went on, members
gravitated toward more
contemporary genres like
rock, but the aim of provid-
ing space for Pendletonians
to play music, either privately
or for an audience, stayed the
same.
Kindle said the Jazz
Club’s main fundraiser each
year is organizing a day-long
concert during St. Patrick’s
Day at the Rainbow Cafe.
But in 2020, St. Patrick’s
Day arrived just as the onset
of the coronavirus pandemic
spurred the state to shut
down indoor dining. With
their main source of income
on hold, the Jazz Club began
to explore how to replace the
revenue March 17 usually
brought in.
The pandemic proved
resilient in 2020 and when
Great Pacific canceled its
Peter Walters/Contributed Image
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Pendleton Jazz Club released “Holiday Pageant (The Al-
bum) Vol. 2”, a collection of local musical acts singing a com-
bination of Christmas classics and seasonally appropriate
deep cuts.
Danny Mize, left, age 11, and Haezin Mize, 12, have some fun in the snow at Aldrich
Park in Pendleton on Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021.
Holiday Pageant, “Holiday
Pageant (The Album)” was
born, with the money gener-
ated from the album sales
used to help the Jazz Club
pay its bills.
Addison Schulberg, a Jazz
Club member and a manager
at Great Pacific, said the
Holiday Pageant was meant
to be welcoming to all kinds
of performances, including
rock bands, string quartets
or spoken word poems. The
Jazz Club wanted to preserve
that eclectic spirit on the
album and began calling their
friends.
Schulberg said assem-
bling the musicians, record-
ing them and then mixing
and mastering their perfor-
mances was a great deal
of work, but the sales from
the resulting album kept the
Jazz Club in the black and the
group had enough fun that
they began planning Volume
2 after Christmas 2020.
The second volume
features some holdovers
from the previous year.
Kindle returned to play
“Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank
Williams with a country
band and “The First Noel”
with a cello accompaniment.
Another second timer was
Ian Summerfield and his
7-year-old son, Harry.
Summerfield has been
playing in the Holiday
Pageant since he was in high
school. Whether it was with
friends or solo, Summer-
fi eld said he loved how the
pageant’s audience was
always warm and support-
ive, regardless of the perfor-
mance.
In recent years, Summer-
fi eld had begun incorporat-
ing his young son Harry into
performances. Harry loved
Christmas music but would
also suff er from stage fright.
When the pageant moved
to a pre-recorded format,
Summerfi eld and Harry got
another shot at performing
together.
Father and son followed
up “Last Christmas” and “12
Days of Christmas” in 2020
with “Angels We Have Heard
on High” and “Up on the
Housetop” in 2021. Summer-
fi eld said many of the songs
aren’t his personal favorites,
but it’s been a bonding expe-
rience between the pair as
they learn how to put their
own personal spins on the
venerable material.
Summerfield said he’s
trying to share his love of
music with Harry with-
out imposing it on him, and
although he would love to
perform with him again once
live music returns at the GP,
he only wants to do it with
Harry’s approval. Even if
Harry eventually loses inter-
est, Summerfi eld may have
another young partner to
play with. Summerfi eld said
his 1-year-old son, August, is
already starting to show an
early love for music.
“Holiday Pageant (The
Album) Vol. 2” is available
for download at thejazzclub.
bandcamp.com.
COMMUNITY BRIEFING
Gubernatorial candidates
forum on hold due to weather
PENDLETON — The Umatilla County
Republican Party is postponing its forum of
Republican gubernatorial candidates due to
weather.
The party planned to host the event
Monday, Jan. 3, at the Pendleton Convention
Center. But Suni Danforth, Central Commit-
tee chair, in an email announced the decision
to postpone because of the latest onslaught of
snow and cold temperatures.
The local GOP does intend to reschedule
the forum, she stated.
For more information about the local
Republican party, contact Danforth at 541-215-
9389, ucrpchair@gmail.com or search www.
facebook.com/groups/85685613647.
— EO Media Group
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