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137th Year, No. 44
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
WALLOWA.COM
Kathryn
Kemp
Enterprise
Big city life
isn’t her ‘jam’
ENTERPRISE — Kathryn Kemp
has lived in Wallowa County most
of her life, growing up in Joseph
and after she went away for college,
returned to Enterprise 2½ years ago.
A 2011 graduate of Joseph High
School, she fi rst did her undergrad-
uate work at Davis College in North
Carolina and then attended grad-
uate school for social work in New
York City. She has since put that
degree to work at the Wallowa
County Center for Wellness as a child
and family therapist and a mental
health coordinator for the schools in
the county.
Still single, she’s hesitant about
saying whether marriage is on the
horizon.
“You’ll have to ask my boyfriend,”
she giggled.
She recently shared her thoughts
about living in Wallowa County.
What’s your favorite thing
about Wallowa County?
I like how people look out for
each other here. In my work, it’s
much easier to coordinate support
for people because I know the peo-
ple who work at the other organi-
zations. We’re all community part-
ners and we all collaborate to help
people around here. That and I love
being in nature. I spent two years
in Manhattan and that was not my
jam.
What are you looking
forward to in 2022?
Doing yoga on my deck in the
summertime, and I just got a pair of
ice skates and I live near the skating
rink, so I’m excited to ice skate.
Do you have plans for
Valentine’s Day? What?
My boyfriend and I are going to
go to a cabin in Baker and hang out
in the snow and by the fi replace.
Are you getting cabin fever
yet?
Oh, yes. That is why I got ice
skates and cross-country skis
because I hate the winter and I hate
the cold and I really don’t like snow.
Last year, I spent way too much time
indoors, so now I’m trying out winter
sports to get myself outside during
the winter.
What’s your advice for
people who are thinking
about moving here?
For people in my age group —
I’m 28 — take advantage of all the
opportunities we have here and if
something doesn’t exist here, you
can create it … you can always fi nd
people who will help you create
something new with you.
— Bill Bradshaw
Wallowa County Chieftain
Bob and Shirley Crawford look over
an antique wood-fi red cook stove in
the kitchen of their Alder Slope home
Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. The Crawfords
have been married since Jan. 25, 1951.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Friendship is key
Couple of 71 years recalls decades together
First meeting
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
E
NTERPRISE — Friendship is the
key to a long, successful marriage,
say Bob and Shirley Crawford.
And they would know, having
recently celebrated their 71st wed-
ding anniversary, they said during a Wednesday,
Feb. 2 interview at their Alder Slope home.
“She’s been my best friend since we fi rst met,”
Bob said. “The defi nition of a friend is someone
who knows you and still likes you.”
Shirley had another key to success.
“I agree it’s about being best friends, but also
keep your sense of humor,” she said. “It’ll take
you through a lot of things.”
They both agree that having much in common
also helps. They both enjoy the outdoors, read-
ing, camping, hiking and having hobbies. Shir-
ley quilts and used to draw and paint. Bob likes
woodworking, fi shing and golf.
“We still do most of the things we’ve always
done, but much more slowly,” Shirley said.
The pair met while attending Wallowa High
School in the 1940s.
“I have to say that when I fi rst noticed you
early in the school year, you were wearing lip-
stick, a dress and high heels,” Shirley said to her
husband. “But all the other boys were, too.”
“That was for our freshman initiation,” Bob
quickly clarifi ed.
But his fi rst conversation with her in 1946
didn’t quite go as he’d hoped. It resulted in him
getting kicked and receiving the silent treatment.
“We didn’t have any further conversation for
about another year and a half,” she said. “(The
comment) was about my fi gure, so he deserved
the kick in the shins.”
But eventually — with a little help from a
friend — they became a couple. Bob didn’t drive
so he got a ride from a neighbor who was a friend
and fellow student to school from his home more
than 4 miles out of town.
“My friend had a crush on Shirley’s best friend
and he wanted to ask her best friend out, but he
was pretty sure that he wouldn’t get anywhere if
Shirley wasn’t included, too, so he asked me if
I would ask her out and I did,” Bob said. “I was
surprised because she was one of the ‘in’ people
and I was on the outside looking in all the time.”
The minute she said that she would go was the
point where Bob said he fell in love with Shirley.
Shirley didn’t exactly agree, but did go out
with Bob.
“There was no way I would’ve asked her out
if it hadn’t been for him,” Bob said of his friend.
The date was in early spring 1948 after prac-
tice for the junior class play. Bob’s friend had a
Jeep and the date consisted of riding the icy roads
where, as Bob tells it, “My friend would put on
the brakes at the intersection, he’d turn his wheel
and we’d go spinning around. … So, she went —
I think her girlfriend went once — but basically,
we’ve been together ever since, and that was the
nearly 74 years ago.”
Some of their early romantic encounters were
quite tame compared to what today’s culture
envisions.
See Friendship, Page A7
Family disputes OHA COVID-19 death report
The death certifi cate
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
SALEM — The family of a Wal-
lowa County woman who died in
December is disputing an Oregon
Health Authority
report that COVID-
19 had anything to
do with her death.
“Defi nitely not
a COVID death,”
said Josh Barnett,
a Salem resident,
Malec
of his mother, The-
resa Malec, a for-
mer resident of Wallowa.
Malec died at Barnett’s home in
Salem on Dec. 15, 2021, about two
weeks after being diagnosed with
liver cancer, Barnett said.
Barnett said there was a delay
in the processing of her death cer-
tifi cate, and when he received it, he
had some suspicion that her death
might be called a COVID-19-re-
lated death.
On Jan. 27, OHA reported the
death of a 70-year-old Wallowa
County woman in its daily COVID-
19 report. It said the woman died on
Dec. 15 after a positive test on Aug.
4.
While OHA does not provide
names on its report — and declined
to confi rm to the Chieftain if the
death it reported was indeed Malec
— Barnett said it’s not too diffi cult
to make the assumption that the
death in the report was his mother.
COVID-19, though, was not
what killed her, he said, and the
death certifi cate, which he provided
to the Chieftain, shows that.
Josh Barnett/Contributed Photo
Shown are the causes of death for Theresa Malec on a death certifi cate
provided to the Chieftain by her son, Josh Barnett. Barnett gave the
Chieftain permission to run the above portion of the document.
Contracted COVID,
but defeated it
Barnett said his mother — who
earlier in the year had defeated
breast cancer before the unexpected
liver cancer diagnosis — did indeed
have COVID-19 in early August,
but healed up only a couple days
after receiving treatment.
“She got ivermectin and the
(monoclonal antibody) infusion
therapy. She was tired for a couple,
three days,” he said.
Unprompted, Barnett also said
Malec had not been vaccinated.
“She didn’t want to be vacci-
nated, but she did fi ght it naturally.
She pulled through,” he said.
After overcoming COVID, Bar-
nett said his mom had returned to
much of her normal activities, and
had been driving weekly to Walla
Walla for treatment of her breast
cancer before defeating it.
“They had given her the all clear
on the breast cancer,” he said.
A new diagnosis
He said his mom sounded “really
tired, winded,” in a phone conversa-
tion with her Nov. 29.
The next day, she was in the
emergency room in Enterprise, orig-
inally given a diagnosis of pancreatic
cancer, Barnett said. She was Life-
Flighted that night to Walla Walla,
where it was determined, instead,
the diagnosis was liver cancer.
She also initially tested positive
for COVID while at Walla Walla,
Barnett said, but that positive test
was followed by two negative tests
for the coronavirus — the second
about a week later — which enabled
Barnett to get into the hospital to
visit her.
Barnett eventually took Malec to
his Salem home where she was put
on hospice and died about a week
later.
The text on the death certifi cate
made Barnett wonder if Malec
would be classifi ed as a COVID
death.
The certifi cate — Barnett
shared the document with the
Chieftain and gave permission
to publish the information in it
— lists cardiac arrest, respiratory
arrest and liver cell carcinoma as
the causes of death.
Below that, it lists anxiety and
breast cancer as signifi cant condi-
tions contributing to death.
Next to those, it states “history
of covid 19 (2 negative tests).”
The funeral home that worked
with Barnett said it had “never
seen this on a death certifi cate,
ever,” he said. “I had that feeling.”
His feeling was confi rmed
on Jan. 27 when OHA reported
the 70-year-old Wallowa County
woman’s death, which the Chief-
tain reported later that day. Bar-
nett reached out the following day
seeking to clarify the details.
Seeking answers
Barnett said OHA was not
forthcoming on details in an email
response to his brother, Ty, who
also had been seeking answers.
The OHA told the Chieftain it
could not comment specifi cally on
if Malec was listed as a COVID-
19-related death, and that it “can-
not provide any specifi c informa-
tion related to a person’s death
or death certifi cate,” accord-
ing to Tim Heider, OHA public
See Death, Page A7