SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015
3 B
FloTones perform
M ILITARY H ERITAGE C HRONICLES —
‘Glory of Love’ in May
World War II icon passes
Shakespeare’s words, “The
course of true love never did
run smooth,” provide the
foundation for Billy Hill’s
song, “The Glory of Love,”
also the theme of the
FloTones concert being pre-
sented at the Florence Events
Center (FEC) on Friday and
Saturday, May 29 and 30.
The songs specially select-
ed by the FloTones producers
are classic American tunes
that provide some insight on
why the lyrics of “The Glory
of Love” would be appreciat-
ed by The Bard.
The lyrics include lines
such as “You’ve gotta laugh a
little, cry a little, before the
clouds roll by a little.”
Folks who are now, or ever
have been, in love know
“You’ve gotta win a little,
lose a little and always have
the blues a little.”
“Married I Can Always
Get,” “All of Me” and “Just in
Time” provide a bridge
between that line and the
musical explanations.
“Anything You Can Do,”
Irving Berlin’s show-stopper
from “Annie Get Your Gun”
and the Gershwin Brothers’
“Let’s Call the Whole Thing
Off” cover the first two parts
of that line while the perfect
finishing lament is “The
Meaning of the Blues” by
composer, jazz pianist and TV
star Bobby Troup.
With more than 20 audi-
ence favorites and musical
accompaniment by pianist
Marty Adams, trumpeter Ron
Green, percussionist Randy
Curtola, reed player Lou
Invernon and bassist Lynette
Kristine, attendees at “The
Glory of Love” are sure to be
humming along with the
FloTones.
Tickets are on sale now at
the FEC box office for $15,
and seating is limited.
Both performances start at
7 p.m.
B Y C AL A PPLEBEE
Special to the Siuslaw News
Back in 2010, when the
Oregon
Coast
Military
Museum was first gaining
momentum after its start just
a year earlier, I wrote an arti-
cle about the passing of a 92-
year-old woman named Edith
Shain.
She was acknowledged to
be the nurse in the iconic
“Times Square Kiss” in Life
magazine, a moment in histo-
ry caught commemorating VJ
Day — the day Japan surren-
dered on August 14, 1945.
My article was written to
promote a museum event cel-
ebrating that day, and one of
the speakers in our program
was Margaret Thorngate, her-
self a WWII Veteran.
Margaret was a 21-year old
U.S. Navy Wave on August
14, 1945, and recounted how
she and her late husband,
Fred, a First Lieutenant in the
U.S. Army who was on a 30
day leave, were on their hon-
eymoon in Pennsylvania with
his family.
Fred had been scheduled to
report for duty and be in the
first wave of attacks on Japan
scheduled for that November.
As relieved and joyful as they
were that the war was over,
they would have preferred to
be with their comrades in
arms for the celebration.
In later years, Margaret
boasted “that 30-day leave
turned into 65 years of mar-
riage.”
During that 65-plus years,
Margaret accomplished a lot
of things, typical of a member
of the Greatest Generation.
Both of her sons went on to
serve in the military and her
daughter married into the mil-
itary.
She and Fred moved to
Florence in 1985 and she
formed the local Coastal
Women Veterans Group,
which she remained active in
while still living in Florence.
She found time during
those years to also author a
novel, “When Flags Flew
High,” a 771 page fictional
account of life on the home
front during WWII — much
of it based on both personal
experiences as well as obser-
vations. It’s still one of my
Margaret Thorngate
favorite reads.
Margaret was also a proud
participant of our Veterans
Day Parade here in Florence,
which is where I first met her.
I could always count on her
and Fred showing up each
year to line up and represent
the Coastal Women Veterans
Group.
My proudest moment was
having her ride shotgun in my
U.S. Army truck in 2013.
Sorry it wasn’t Navy,
Margaret!
Margaret and Fred were
both ardent supporters of the
Oregon
Coast
Military
Museum over the years, not
only contributing financial
support, but with their time
and talents as well.
Margaret
herself
was
anxious for us to get complet-
ed and open, but unfortunate-
Fred Thorngate
ly, neither she nor Fred lived
long enough to witness
that.
Fred Passed away in 2014
and Margaret passed in
February — ironically, almost
identical in age as Edith
Shain.
In my mind, Margaret
Thorngate is as much of an
icon as Shain was.
We just said farewell to
Margaret here in Florence last
week. You will be missed
Margaret — thank you for
your service, for your support
of the Oregon Coast Military
Museum, and for having
touched and been a part of my
life.
To learn more about mili-
tary heritage in general, visit
the Oregon Coast Military
Museum
website
at
www.ocmhm.com.
City Club to hear about community visioning project
The Friday, May 15, City
Club meeting will feature
Becky Goehring and Meg
Spencer, who will address
the community visioning
project currently under-
way.
The project is sponsored by
the Ford Family Foundation
and involves community
members who first met in
November 2014.
The group has been holding
community dialogues to
develop a community vision
for the Siuslaw region which
includes Florence, Dunes
City, Mapleton, Deadwood
and Swisshome.
“We have a working team
that has been meeting to
explore a community vision,”
Goehring said. “What will
we look like in ten years,
maybe 20 years? We will be
reaching out to focus groups
and community members for
insight and feedback.”
The presentation will also
include an overview of the
Ford Family Foundation’s
work throughout rural Oregon
and Siskiyou County in north-
ern California.
The Foundation is com-
mitted to supporting and pro-
moting rural community
vitality through programs,
grants and training opportuni-
ties.
The City Club meets at the
Ocean Dunes Golf Course.
Lunch is provided at 11:30
a.m. and the program starts at
noon.
For more information, con-
tact Sharon Hobart at 541-
914-7784.
Conference
the adaptation of both
evidence-based and promis-
ing strategies as groups look
to develop preventative
strategies.
The afternoon was spent
exploring the debut of “What
Would We Do?”, an approach
to opening the discussion
around child abuse and
prevention.
Local actors depicted, both
in live dramatizations and in
video shorts, local and
real scenarios where child-
ren were at potential risk.
Discussions
followed
to decide what helpful
responses could be to
each scenario.
“Those of us who work
in the field of child abuse
prevention and intervent-
ion are constantly having
people ‘run things by us’
at work, at parties, on planes
and trains, at the grocery
store or wherever we might
be,” Barkhurst said. “Most
often these situations are
those where the person
involved was uncomfort-
able at witnessing some
interaction
where
they
thought a child was neglected
or was in potential harm.
They wanted to intervene
but weren’t sure what to
do.”
Barkhurst explained how
the group has collected
real life scenarios and
embarked on a three-year
project to have Lane County
residents act out scenar-
ios.
“We will film these and
then make them available
so that we, as communities,
will figure out what some
helpful
solutions
might
be,” said Barkhurst.
Final workshop topics
focused on protective fact-
ors, including supporting par-
ent resiliency, increasing
social connections, under-
standing and knowledge of
parenting and child develop-
ment and concrete support
for families in time of
need.
At the end of the confer-
ence, participants were treat-
ed to an ice cream social
and the opportunity to meet
90by30 participants from
throughout Lane County.
For Kaczenski, that was a
highlight.
“The
conference
was
a great opportunity for people
to hear what 90by30 is
all about, who’s behind it
and to understand why we’re
using
these
strategies,”
Kaczenski said. “There were
people attending who work
in the field of child abuse
prevention, public health
and even some who are com-
pletely new to the conversa-
tion and wanted to learn
more.
“This allowed for a great
environment for people
to learn about each other and
the role they can play
in preventing child abuse.”
The West Lane team
was instrumental in placing
the Blue and White pin-
wheel gardens throughout
Florence and Mapleton dur-
ing April, which was
Child Abuse Prevention
month.
More work lies ahead with
team members collecting
baseline surveys to measure
community perceptions about
child abuse and neglect
and begin examining pro-
grams that would be most
beneficial to children, family
and community in West Lane
County.
“We still are looking for
more volunteers to help,” said
Rose Wilde, outreach coordi-
nator
for
the
90by30
Initiative. “The team meets
every other month and people
can be as involved as they
want.
The next meeting of the
team is scheduled for Friday,
May 15 from 11:30 a.m. to 1
p.m. at Siuslaw Elementary
School.
There will be a discussion
about
the
conference
and what the next steps for
the team will be.
Anyone who is interested
in learning more about the
90by30 Initiative or who is
ready to volunteer is encour-
aged to attend.
For more information, con-
tact Wilde at 541-953-3643.
from 1B
Shalom Outreach Center
Assistant Director Teresa
LaNasa agreed.
“The Australian team
brought with them years of
expertise which is going to
profit this effort greatly,”
LaNasa said. “I was amazed
at the turnout. I am encour-
aged by the interest and sup-
port that 90by30 is getting
from the people in Lane
County.”
Conference participants
also heard from Dr. Charles
Martinez, director of the
Center for Equity Promotion
at the College of Education,
University of Oregon.
Martinez spoke about the
concept of culture and
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