Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 1968)
I ! BR Alt Y u or o EUGENC. ORE. 07403 i v.. & 85th Year Number 44 ft -M THE :m HEPPNER GAZETTE-TIMES Heppner, Oregon 97836, Thursday, December 26, 1968 Price 10 Cents Mustangs Win Holiday Tournament I Undefeated r T p-jrrr- 'v! I I ... . r ...( . . j I " OFFICERS OF the Heppner-Morrow County Chamber of Commerce for 1969, elected Monday, are Jerry Sweeney (right, front), president; Judge Paul Jones (left, front), first vies president, and from left, back row. Gene Pierce, second vice president; Marian McCurdv, Jr., secretary; and Norman Supple, treasurer. Sweeney Chosen To Head Chamber; Directors Named Jerry Sweeney, owner of Sweeney's Mortuary, was elected president of the Heppner-Mor-row county Chamber of Com merce for 1969 at a meeting of the organization's directors Monday. He will succeed Wesl Sherman, publisher of The Ga-1 president through 1968. County Judge Paul Jones was reelected first vice-president and Gene Pierce, president of the Bank of Eastern Oregon, was chosen second vice-president. Harlan McCurdy, Jr., manager of Morrow County Grain Grow ers, Inc., was reelected secretary and Norman Supple of the Heppner branch, First National Bank, was reelected treasurer. Judge Jones, who normally would become president in the Chamber's custom of moving up through the line of officers, ask ed not to be considerea tnis year because he will be gone on business in connection with the legislature on the usual Chamber meeting day Monday during the months that the legislature is in session. He is serving on a legislative committee for the Association of Oregon Counties. Reelected to the board of dir ectors for two-year terms were McCurdy and Sweeney. Three new directors elected are Robert Abrams, attorney; L. E. (Ed) Dick, Standard Oil distributor; and Harry O'Donnell, manager of the Morrow Abstract and Ti tle Co. Holdover directors, who serve until the end of 1969, are Judge Jones; Dick Carpenter, Heppner High school pirncipal; Elma Harshman, owner of Elma's Ap parel; Pierce; and Dr. Wallace Wolff, physician and surgeon. Sherman, as past president, will serve as ex officio member of the board of directors for one year. Officers for 1969 will be in stalled at the first meeting in January, Monday, January 6. (G-T Photo), Garrisons, Winchesters Win Decoration Firsts With a large brilliantly-lit Christmas tree in the yard, tig ures of deer and snowmen, and the home outlined in blue lights, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Garrison won first place in the outdoor division of the 1968 Christmas Lighting and Decoration contest sponsored bv the Heppner-Mor row county Chamber of Com merce. The word Noel, is framed in red lights on the side of the house, which is located at 245 W. Baltimore. Winner of first place in the indoor division decorated win dows and decorations visible from the street are Mr. and Mrs. Ernie Winchester, 124 W. Church St. Their place has a profusion of decorations, both indoors and outdoors, with many figures in cluded. One window has a large painting of an angel with the word, "Compassion," worked in to the painting. Both the indoor and outdoor first place winners receive $30 in this year's contest. Second in the outdoor contest are Mr. and Mrs. Len Ray Schwarz of 140 North Chase Street, winners of $20, and third are Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Meth- 4-H Skiing to Start At Arbuckle Jan. 4 Members of the 4-H ski clubs will start the season at Arbuck le Mountain on Saturday, Jan uary 4, according to Dick Mc Elligott, club leader. Snow reached a depth of some 18-24 inches about 10 days ago, and it appeared to be pack ing good, the leader said. This depth was greater than any during the season last year. More probably has fallen since, but the Chinook of Mon day may have cut it some, Me Elligott said. He said that he had not been up to see the course during the past week. However, the course might be high enough so that it was not affected by the warming winds. No announcement has been made as yet as to whether the Jaycees will be operating the course for the general public as they have the past two seasons. vin, 475 Chase Street, winners of $10. Second in the indoor contest is Mrs. Mattie Green, 335 W. Wa ter Street, whose window dis play features an open Bible and candles, and third is the home of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Lov- gren, 240 S. Court. Mrs. Green wins $20 and the Lovgrens $10. Judges toured the city Sun day evening, and after reporting the results said, "The commit tee feels more of the people who decorated their homes should have entered the contest." A tour of the city confirms their statement. Many beautiful displays that were not entered can be seen in all sections of town. Of the total $120 in prize money, $60 is contributed anon ymously, $30 comes from the Chamber and $30 from Colum bia Basin Electric Cooperative. Mrs. Avon Melby Is chairman of the Chamber of Commerce committee in charge of the contest. Team Takes Fourth Title For the fourth straight year, Heppner High's basketball team has won a Holiday Basketball Tournament championship. Coach Bob dough's Mustangs throttled the tall Wahtonka Eagles Friday night in the tour nament, held at Wahtonka, 60 to 47. and then rolled over Con don Saturday night, 59 to 33, for the championship. The Eagles thumped Sherman County, 66 to 44, to win the consolation in Saturday nights preliminary. Condon topped Sherman in the opening game Friday night, 63 to 47, to gain the final round. One of the problems of the Mustangs in the Friday night game was to stop Butch Schmidt, towering 6 ft. 7 inch basketeer of the Eagles. The Mustangs used a zone and sag ged on Schmidt at times to hold him in check. They limited him to four field goals, but he gam ed 14 chances on the free throw line, making tight of them, for an evenings ,ronuction ot lb Gary Kemp had his best night as a Mustang, tallying eignt field goals for a matching lb. and he missed his only chance on the gift line. At all the quarter stops, the margin favored the Heppner lads. 19-13, 33-28, 45-39 and the final. 60-47. Four Mustangs were In doub le figures for the game Kemp with 16. John McCabe with 14 on five buckets and tour tree throws, Cal Ashbeck on six and one, and Jon U Donnell with 1U on four and two. In the title contest Saturday night, the Mustangs, having twice defeated the Blue Devils already, were favored again, but Steve Riney, one of Condon's better players, was in the line up for the first time this year. and it was expected that he would make a difference. Riney did lead his team in scoring, but the Cloughmens winning margin was greater than either of the first two meet ings at 26 points 59-33. Taking a 13-9 first quarter jump, Heppner moved to a 27 17 halftime lead and broke away for a 44-23 advantage by the start oi tne fourth. Kemp's 16 matched his point production of the night before and made him tourney high for the champs with 32, all but four points of which came on field goals. McCabe was next in line with 15 on five field goals and five free throws, getting a total of 29 points for the tournament. Cal Ashbeck had 22 points for the tourney, getting nine Satur day, and O'Donnell had 18 with eight on Saturday. (Scores on page 8) Train Hits Carat Lex Crossing; Sailor Escapes with Cut, Bumps County Tops State In Vote Percentage In General Election Morrow county voters won the distinction of taking their franchise most seriously in the general election, according to figures released recently by Clay Myers, Secretary of State. A total of 89.51 of the reg istered voters in the county cast ballots, thereby leading all counties in the state, My ers said. Statewide average was 84.84. Ironically, neighboring Grant county had the lowest per centage at 80.04. Republicans across the state went to the polls at the rate of 87.46 but Democrats slip ped to 82.95. In leading the state percent agewise, Morrow county had a rather phenomenal turnout in some precincts. For in stance, Northwest Heppner had a percentage of 93.1. Of its total registration of 334, all but 23 cast ballots. Chinook Wipes Out White Christmas Joseph Michael Burcham, 20 Lexington has seen some com bat action in 2 years service with the Navy, but he has nev er experienced anything as ter rifying as that which occurred within sight of his own home Saturday. A Union Pacific freight train collided with his 1966 tudor Chevrolet at a crossing at Lex ington, just after Burcham had driven away from his parents' mobile home, located just west of the tracks. The train hit the auto almost broadside, but fortunat e 1 y knocked it away from the tracks, some 20 feet to the side. Burcham received a cut on the head, which required some stitches, and a few bruises, but that appeared to be the extent of his injuries. Sheriff C. J. D. Bauman, who investigated, said that Engin eer Charles Wilson stated he never saw the car approaching from the west, nor did Burch am notice the oncoming train, headed north. It took 12 car lengths for the slow moving 15-car freight train to stop, the sheriff said. This was not a regular run for the U. P. train but was a special, the sheriff said. The ac cident happened at 12:05 p.m. Burcham, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Burcham, is on leave from the USS Rogers. He serves as a gunners mate and has seen duty in waters off both Vietnam and Korea. He is now wondering wheth er the fact that he arrived home on Friday, December 13, had any significance. Although his car was a total loss with no insurance, he still considers himself fortunate. The young serviceman said, "It was quite a shocking exper ience." GMG3 Burcham will leave on January 3 to resume duty with the Navy and expects to be sent off Vietnam again. Those in Heppner who had dreams of a white Christmas had conditions well in their fa vor until Monday when the warm chinook wind came and turned the "white" to gray or brown. Several inches of snow had accumulated through Sunday but it left in a hurry Monday with the wind and warmer tem perature. A snow storm blanketed much of the northern part of the state Sunday, with blizzard conditions hitting in the Columbia Gorge and in Portland. Rains came la ter, though, to wipe out the snow in the Portland area. The week brought a total of 7 inches of snow in Heppner and a total of .46 inch of rain. Temperature dropped as low as 11 degrees early last Friday morning. After maximum tern peratures had hovered around the freezing point for four days, it warmed to 51 degrees Mon day, clearing the snow cover rapidly. Complete weather report for the week from Don Gilliam, of ficial observer, is as follows: Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday ( 1 inch snow; 1.7 inches DRAWN BY CHRISTY BRADLEY. 7th GRADE Young oArtists oAgain Tight Christmas Lamp' in greetings As the drawing by Christy Bradley, seventh grade stu dent, proclaims, Heppner Elementary School children are again "Lighting the Lamp of Christmas" In this issue of the paper. Their original Christmas drawings are used again in presenting the annual greeting issue of The Gazette-Times ...Ilk Mnrsilt onio DiinncnriniT tha 4 rfl U7 1 fl tttt This is the third year that work of students of Terry Lin cecum, art teacher, have been presented In the greeting edi tion of the paper. Unfortunately, the student artists far out number the businesses available to sponsor the season's draw ings, and therefore, only relatively few of them could be chosen. Those which appear throughout this paper should be con sidered representative of the work done by the students. Many, many fine drawings had to be omitted. While there is no contest in connection with the draw ings, those who have their work published will receive certif icates of merit from the paper. Below each drawing used Is the name and grade of the student artists. It is interesting to note the students' many different interpretations of the Christmas season as they por tray it some humorous, some deeply religious, some empha sizing Santa and his reindeer, some working in kindness to animals and other good deeds. Most of the students' greetings are presented, along with the other traditional type greetings of the merchants, in sec tion two of this paper. Relatives Hear Encouraging Information on Mike Benge Hi Low Prec. 40 26 .12 29 20 .17 30 11 33 15 39 20 .14 51 25 .03 snow; 1 inch snow) Breaks Hip in Fall Mrs. Norah Rasmus received emergency treatment for a bro ken hip at Pioneer Memorial hospital late last Thursday af ternoon, after she was injured in a fall on an icy sidewalk, while walking downtown. Mrs. Rasmus was transported by ambulance to St. Anthony hospital in Pendleton on Friday for further treatment Encouraging information con cerning Michael D. Benge, be lieved held for nearly a year bv the Vietcong. has been re ceived by his sister, Mrs. Matt Hughes, of Heppner. It bright ens the Christmas season for Mr. and Mrs. Terrel Benge, his parents, of lone and all his rel atives and friends. A friend, name of whom the relatives prefer to keep anony mous, has written from the Sai gon area to report that he had talked to a native who had seen Benge in a VC jungle prison camp. Benge, who had been working with the Montagnards for five years in a civilian capacity, was reported missing following the Tet offensive in late January, 1968, and his relatives here re ceived the report in early Feb ruary. They have spent a great deal of time and effort during the year trying to check out leads that would give them any in formation about Mike, but have had little success through eith er official or unofficial sources. Native Identifies Mike The friend, who was with him the night before his apparent capture, sent the recent heart ening word in a letter dated December 13. He wrote: "I just returned from Ban Me Thuot, and there is good news about Mike the first news I've gotten about Mike. I was In Buon Ale-A where the Rhade leaders live, and a Rhade just came in from the bush reported that he had seen five Ameri cans in a VC jungle prison camp. He could Identify Mike, Betty Olsen and Hank Blood, but not the other two. "We think that they are the people from the Leprosarium captured in 1965. He said that Mike and Betty were in good shape but that poor Hank was very thin and couldn't walk. They are being kept in a house. It seems that they are getting better treatment than before. "Now that the Paris peace talks are getting underway, I think it might be a good idea to write to your congressman and urge them to get things rolling for the VC to display goodwill by releasing some of the civil ian prisoners. They are allow ing Christmas gifts to be sent to the military prisoners in North Vietnam. "I'd like to wish you and your mother a Merry Christmas and the best of the New Year. Hope fully, next year Mike will be with you to celebrate." The friend, who is a civilian in Vietnam, Is considered a very reliable source of information. Blood Brother The Rhades are of the Mon tagnard people. The Montag nards thought so highly of Benge that they made him a blood brother in a ceremony. Betty Olsen and Hank Blood, named in the letter, are believed to be among missionaries who were captured in the same of fensive that resulted in Benge's capture, Betty Olsen being a nurse. Benge was to complete his tour of duty there in April, 1968, after serving for five years. He had been home the previous No vember on leave, flying on the same plans as Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker. Mrs. Hughes said that ths family sent three identical Christmas packages by three different routes to Mike, hoping that at least one might be de livered. However, one directed via the Red Cross has been re turned, saying that they could find no way to contact him.
