Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 1955)
LIBRARY U OF 0 EUGENE. ORE fcette I y T-" "n n ... Jin.. ..ni.. .T tttie$ ppet ONLY A PORTION of the more than 600 youngsters who visited Sunta last Saturday are shown in this picture. Somewhere in the center of the crowd Saint Nick is busy passing out bags of candy and talking to the boys and girls. This was one year when Santa could have come by sleigh as there was ample snow, how ever he arrived on a fire truck as he has in past years. , n n I fy a fits) EAGER YOUNGSTERS clambered all over Santa Saturday and for about a half hour he was hard-pressed to keep up with the hun dreds of outstretched hands waiting for the candy he brought for every kid. After Santa went on his way for a visit to another town, over S2S of the youngsters traipsed to the Star Theater to attend its annual free children's show. (GT Photos) Chamber Picks NewKXVX.. Board; President To Be Named Soon Seven new chamber of com merce directors were chosen at the annual election of the organi zation Monday and the full board will meet within the next two weeks to name a new president to serve during 1956. Elected for two-year terms were Jack Bailey, Jack Angel, Jack Flug, James J. Farley and Brad ley Fancher. Chosen for one year terms were Dick Brunner and Dr. Wallace H. Wolff. Carry ' over members of the board are Phil Blakncy, Newt O'Harra and Al Lamb. According to the by-laws of the chamber, the membership elects the board of directors who name the president from the member ship of the board. Officers who have served during the past year include Jack Bedford, manager of the First National Bank, presi dent; Phil Blakney, vice-president; Eradley Fancher, secretary and J. H. Huffman, treasurer. The chamber is completing a very successful year having car ried on numerous civic projects week, after speaking to the sen including several programs to.iors of lone and Heppner high raise money for repayment of the school on educational and living rodeo field lighting bonds, the facilities available at Oregon in- Durchase and installation of Christmas decorations, sponsored Santa's visit last Saturday; aided with numerus projects during the fair and rodeo and many other activities. The membership now totals over 60 persons and it is open to any resident of the county. At Monday's meeting, Mrs. Vel ma Glass, county health nurse, explained the duties of her office and told of many of the accom plishments since she took over the position early this year. Meetings are held each Mon day noon, but none will be held until January 9 because of the coming holidays. o Al Lamb Named State Co-op Head Al Lamb.manager of the Mor row Countv Grain Growers, was elected president of the Agricul tural Cooperative Council of Ore gon at the organization s annual meeting held last week in Port-j land. Lamb replaces Harry Rohe, Portland, manager of the Oregon Poultry Producers Association. Lamb has served as vice-president of the council for the past two years. It is composed of about 95 percent of the agricul tural co-ops of the state. Other officers elected for the coming year include Walter Steele, manager of the Polk county Farmers Co-op, Rickreall, vice-president; Paul Carpenter, Corvallis, reelected secretary; and Mary Holthouse, Corvallis, reelected treasurer. Mr. and Mrs. Roice Fulleton have as their guest, her mother, Mrs. G. O. Baragar of Los Ange les, California. From World Trip Two Morrow county couples, Mr. and Mrs. Franklyn Lindstrom of lone and Mr. and Mrs. O. W. Cutsforth,' Lexington, i returned during the past week from a round-the-world trip during which they covered over 40,000 miles. Mr. and Mrs. Lindstrom arrived in Pendleton last Thursday, and the Cutsforths on Sunday. The two couples were part of a group of 28 persons who left Los Angeles on September 10 on a chartered plane which took them to the near east, Asia, Africa, across Europa and back home via New York. They were gone 100 days and covered approximately 36,000 miles by air, 3,500 by car and 2,000 by train. Included on their itinerary were 27 days in the Holy Land. o Heppner and lone Seniors Hear About State Schools Francis Nickerson, son of Mrs. Grace Nickerson visited his mo ther here on Thursday of last .Simmons oi nigner learning. Nickerson, executive secretary of the state system of higher edu cation, travels throughout the state to acquaint prospective col lege students with the programs of study available at the various schools. RHEA CREEK TO HAVE DANCE The Rhea Creek grange will hold a dance Friday, December 30 at the grange hall. The dance was originally sche duled for December 17 but was postponed due to weather conditions. Ik r"x CLUB TREASURY GROWS by $25 as Miss Shirley Kononen, president of the Future Business Leaders of America, a Heppner high school organization, accepts a check for $25 from Dr. E. K. Schaffitz, one of the sponsors of the group. The check being presented by Dr. Schaffitz is from the chamber of commerce for the Job done by club members in tieing streamer boughs used for Heppner street decorations. The group also packaged the Candy Santa Claus gave to the youngsters during his visit here last Saturday. The club has also undertaken many other projects since Its formation a year ago. (GT Photo) Copies 10 Cents 'respect Area Churches Announce Special Christmas Programs Nearly all churches in Heppner, Lexington anj lone have an nounced plans for special Christ mas services to be held during the next two or three days. With Christmas falling on Sunday, most regular morning services will be held according to sche dule with special observances of Christ's birth planned for that time. Many churches are also plan ning special Christmas programs for Sunday school classes with some held Friday evening. At the Heppner Methodist church special Christmas music will be presented at the regular morning service which will also include baptism and reception of new members. Hope Lutheran church will have a special Christmas eve pro gram at 7:30 and Christmas day services are scheduled at 9:30. Valby Lutheran will have a Christmas program at 7:30 Fri day evening and regular services Sunday at 11:15. The Assembly of God church will hold its Christmas program Friday at 7:30 which will include special numbers by Sunday school classes and a birthday cake and refreshmens. The regu lar Sunday morning and evening services will feature special music. Christmas services at All Saints' Episcopal church will be gin Saturday at 11:45 p. m. with a sung celebration of the Holy Communion with the Rev. George R. S. Little as the celebrating priest. A low celebration of the Holy Communion will be held at 11 oclock Christmas morning. - Friday evening: the- children's Christmas service will be held in the church at 7:30 followed by a party in the parish house. Church school will not be held Christmas day. Wednesday, Dec. 28 there will be Holy Communion at 10 a. m. and 8 p. m. This will be Holy Innocent's day but the feasts of St. Stephen and St. John the Evangelist which fall on Monday atid Tuesday will be transferred to this date. The church of the Nazarene, the lone Community chuTch and the Lexington Christian church have already held their Sunday school programs, but special ob servances are planned at the regular Sunday services. St. Parick's Catholic church will hold high mass at midnight Sat urday with low mass scheduled for 9:3o Sunday morning. Low mass will be read at St. William's in lone at 8 a. m. Sunday. o Grade Students Send Gifts to Pendleton Students in Mrs. Harold Er- win's 5th and 6th grade room at the Heppner grade school last week sent off 85 separate gift packages for patients at the Pen dleton state hospital and child ren's organizations. The youngsters brought the numerous gifts themselves and did all the wrapping and pack aging of them. 50 gifts were for hospital patients and 35 were for children, Mrs. Erwin said. Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, December 22, 1955 i Mm I I I THE CHRISTMAS MAIL RUSH finally got under way at the Hepp ner post office last weekend. left, and Hubert Wilson starting ages that came in Saturday morning. Had the picture been taken Monday morning, the mountain of parcels would have been nearly three times as high, postmaster James Driscoll said. The heavy e;rly-week rush was caused largely by a lack of delivery into Heppner on Sunday which caused a doubling up of shipments which nearly buried the crew until closing time Monday evening. (GT Photo) Free Weekend Parking Christmas Gift From City Heppner's mayor, Mary Van Stevens and the members of the city council will say Merry Christ mas to all Heppner shoppers this weekend by extending free park ing privileges to everyone Friday and Saturday. The mayor announced today that all downtown parking met ers will be hooded during the two days prior to Christmas and ex tended an Invitation to all resi dents of the county and to out siders to park fre? while doing last minute shopping at local stores. o Claude Cox Suffers Concussion in Fall Claude Cox, owner of the Mor row county creamery, suffered a severe brain concussion and frac tured skull Monday morning when he fell on the ice in down town Heppner. Cox was taken to Pioneer Me morial hospital where his physi cian reported today that he is showing continual improvement. He will be hospitalized for at least a week. He fell while crossing Main street near the intersection of Willow. Christian Church Names New Pastor The Rev. Charles Knox, pre sently pastor of the First Chris tian church at Colfax, Washing ton, will arrive in Heppner with his family shortly before January 1 to take over new duties as the pastor of the Heppner Christian church. The church has been without the services of a regular Dastor since the resignation of Rev. Earl Soward last summer Rev. Knox, who is 30 years of age, is a graduate of Northwest Christian College at Eugene In 1950 and since that time has been pastor at Colfax. He is mar ried and has two small children. The Knox family will make their home on south Main street pending completion of the new church parsonage which is to be ! constructed on the site of the old narsonace adjoining the church on Gab street. Work is expected to start on the new building In 30 to 60 days. For the past several months the church has been served by an interim pastor, Rev. Ronald Ingle of Hermiston. -o BROTHER VISITS SMITHS Lt. Col. Dwight Miller, Mrs. Miller and daughter Lynn were1 I guests Saturday and Sunday at I the home of her brother and sis- ter-ln iaw, Mr. ana Mrs. marvin Smith. Colonel Miller, formerly of Heppner and Pendleton has Just completed a two year tour of duty with the army medical corps in Anchorage, Alaska and plans to resume his practice of dentist ry in Pendleton in the near future. m White C This photo shows Floyd Sayers, In t0 sort the mountain of pack This Week's Most Useless Story WINTER'S HERE! Winter officially arrived at 10:22 this morning but it wasn't any particular surprise to resi dents of Morrow county who have been receiving winter wea ther for the past two months. The county has received more snow and cold weather already this fall than it did during all of last fall and winter combined, according to records. What the coming winter holds for this area is uncertain (our 1956 Almanac has't come yet), but if November and early December weather can be used as a guide, January and February can be expected to be stinkers. , o Driver Jumps As Truck Leaves Road Jerry Clinton, The Dalles, con tract log hauler for Heppner Pine Mills, escaped injury Tuesday when he jumped from his loaded truck and trailer just before it left the road and crashed into the canyon from the Shaw creek road on upper Willow creek. No accident report has yet been filed, but according to reports the truck failed to negotiate a turn on the extremely slippery road and went over the bank. The In ternational truck was badly dam aged and had not been removed from the canyon by Wednesday. Clinton was hauling to the Heppner mill from the company's logging operations on Buckaroo Flats. The accident occurred about half wav up Shaw creek grade. o Gerald Bergstrom Inducted Into Navy Gerald Bergstrom, 23, of Hepp ner was inducted into the U. S Navy at Portland on December 13 for two years active duty. Accord ing to the local board headquar ters at Condon, Bergstrom is the first registrant to be drafted into the Navy since the Wheeler, Gil liam and Morrow board was or ganized in 1948. Ronald E. Gepner, a former Heppner resident, ' was inducted int the army in the December quota. The board also announced new office hours of from 1 to 5 Mon day through Friday. 1955 Basketball Champs to Play Here December 29 Local basketball fans will get a chance to watch the state's 1955 basketball champions perform on the local floor when Heppner meets Knappa high school in a I non-league encounter December 29. It will be the first trip here for the Knappa squad. The Loggers will be led by big 6 foot 6 inch Bob 'Pudgy" Hunt and they will be slight favorites over the Mustangs. They are un defeated this season except for one loss in the Astoria jamboree. It will be the only game played here during the holidays. Week's Storms Bring Variety Of Snow, Ice And Warm Rain Quick Thaw Causes And Road Closures Continued heavy rains and warm winds Wednesday night and Thursday morning brought numerous reports today of washouts and bad road con ditions throughout the area. Early this morning the Hepp-ncr-Condon highway wa3 closed due to high water In the Rock creek canyon and more rains in the mountains indicated that the stream would probably con tinue to rise. The county court reported this morning that nearly all grav eled county roads are open but many are muddy from field wash. The Willow creek road above Heppner was passable but very sloppy due largely to construction work and some washing. Fields were beginning to show signs of wash as the rain continued but there have been no reports yet of serious soil loss. Further rains could cause trouble,, however. Thursday's weather reports called for more of the same with Western Oregon bearing the brunt of the storms which will also be felt here. The prospects that Heppner will have a white Christmas ap peared slim today as a warm chinook wind which hit Morrow county early Tuesday continued to melt heavy snowpacks both in the mountains and over the lower lands. However, not even government weathermen would stick their necks out by saying what might happen by the week end. The heaviest snow of the sea son started falling over the en tire northeast section of Oregon and eastern Washington early last Sunday morning depositing up to six inches of new snow on the county. The fall was accom panied by a drop in temperature which kept the mercury around 15 to 20 degrees Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The warm break hit the Hardman and other high er elevations Monday, but didn't Monday Holidays To Be Observed Here All Heppner business houses, county, state and federal offices will be closed Monday, December 26 in observance of the Christ mas holidays. The same will hold true the following week as January 2 is observed as a legal holiday. No mall will be dispatched be tween Saturday night and Tues day night and none will be re ceived here on Sunday and Mon day. o Stockgrowers Set January Meeting Problems of marketing and the control of livestock diseases will be two major topics of discussion during the annual meeting of the Morrow county Livestock Grow ers Association to be held Janu ary 13 and 14 at the fair pavilion in Heppner. Plans are now being complet ed for the two-day meeting, ac cording to Raymond French, as sociation president, who announ ced that John Graves is chairman for the banquet and Kenneth Peck, head of the entertainment committee. The women of Wil lows grange at lone will serve the banquet. While the program is not yet complete, it was announced that there will be a varied program of interest to every association member. o LEAVE FOR HOLIDAYS Mr. and Mrs. Clem Stockard and family will leave Saturday nigh by train for Los Angeles to spend the holidays with Mrs. Stockard's mother. They will re turn after the first of the year. o CUB SCOUT PACK MEETING Cub Scout pack No. 61 will meet Tuesday evening, December 27 at 7:30 p. m. in the multi-purpose room at the new grade school. 72nd Year, Number 41 WistM High Water In Area hit Heppner until Tuesday noon, and it was Wednesday morning before the chinook finally began to break up the snow and ice pack in the area around Morgan, Cecil and Boardman. Sunday's snow piled up to 4 and one-half inches at Heppner and even deeper to the north. It put a stop to many persons who had planned trips to the moun tains in quest of Christmas trees, including a group of Boy Scouts who annually hold a tree sale. As a result, trees were at a prem ium in town, many families still on the lookout for extras. Driving Hazardous The snow and ice In the Hepp ner, Lexington and lone area made driving hazardous, but road crews kept an major nignways open. In some sections, especial ly the lower Willow Creek road and on highway 30 below Arling ton, freezing rain Monday and Tuesday made travel nearly im possible, according to reports. The Columbia river highway was closed to all except essential traffic at times Monday and Tuesday with several persons re porting that it took 12 hours to make the trip from Portland to Heppner. - One truck driver re ported it took him 33 hours to make a round trip from Heppner to Portland. A silver thaw in the Cascade Locks section caused the greatest trouble, with strong east winds adding to driver's difficul ties. Moisture High The Heppner weather station recorded 4 and one-half inches of snow on the ground after Sun day's storm and checked in .38 inch of rain. Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, This brings December's precipitation to 2.2 inches (up to Wednesday morning) and the year's total to date to 15.82 inches which is nearly four inches more than fell during all of 1954. Leonard Carlson, weather ob server at Gooseberry, reported an even one inch of mois ture in the 24 hour period ending Wednesday morning, one half of it in the form of snow. He has checked 2.9 inches during the first 20 days of December and 14.7 inches for the year. Since September 1, 7.80 inches has fal len there. Twelve inches of rain Is the 10 year average for that station. Fairly strong warm winds were blowing in Heppner late Wednes day and rain was continuing to fall but so far there have been reports of only minor cases of washing or heavy runoff. The upper end of Gale street in Hepp ner received a small amount of mud from the Wednesday night rain and there were a few other reports of slight washing in the fields, but nothing serious. Most land, however, is nearly satur ated and any heavy continued rainfall within the next few days before the ground has had a chance to dry out could cause trouble. Willow creek came up rapidly Tuesday night and Wed nesday, but no flooding is ex pected. o Social Security Representative Due Agricultural workers are cov ered by Social Security begin ning in 1955 if they are paid at least $100 cash wages in a year by any one employer. A representative of the La Grande Social Security Adminis tration will be in the city hall In Heppner from 9:00 a. m. to noon on Wednesday, December 28, 1955 to Interview Individuals who have questions pertaining to Social Security and to assist those who wish to make application for their benefits. o ICY STREETS CAUSE MONDAY COLLISION Two cars driven by Pete Andre sen and Skip Ruhl collided Mon day evening about 10:30 p. m. at the intersection of Center and Gale streets. The accident was caused by the icy conditions of the streets and considerable damage was done to both cars.
