U OF
ORF
n e w s p a p e r
P U 5 F N F OR
Three retire from First Interstate Bank
I ! B
0 7 4 0 1
the bank and worked with
Harley until he left the bank in
April of 1973 for a job at C &
B Livestock in Hermiston.
Harley worked as comptroller
at C & B for nine years.
In May of 1982, Harley came
back to the bank for the third
time. Mary Eleanor Gilman
was manager then. She had
been a loan officer previously
when Harley was manager.
When Mary Eleanor retired in
Dec. of 1983, Harley took over
again as manager and served in
that position until April of 1991,
when the bank split the com
Jackie Allstott
VOL. 113
NO. 39
8 Pages Wednesday, September 21, 1994
Morrow County Heppner, Oregon
Couple from Ireland visits Heppner
Father Gerry Condon, Hepp
ner, wasn't able to get away to
help some good friends, Bertie
and Carmel Boland, celebrate
their 40th wedding anniver
sary, so they decided to extend
the celebration a little bit and
visit him. The Bolands,
however, came all the way
from Dublin, Ireland.
As young men, Bertie Boland
and Father Condon attended
technical school together. They
went their separate ways,
however, and eventually lost
touch. One day, Father Con
don invited Bertie over and told
him that he was going away
and that he was going to be a
priest. “ I laughed," said Ber
tie. "I just couldn't believe it."
From then on they correspond
ed. "H e's one of the family,
now ," added Carmel. The
Bolands visited Father Gerry in
1971 when he had a parish at
Merrill and spent Christmas
with him in 1983 at his
Lakeview parish. Father Gerry
has also been back to Ireland
several times. His sister, Fred
die, lives in the Bolands'
neighborhood and they report
that she is quite spry and stays
active.
Carmel and Bertie lived right
around the corner from one
another as kids, but only
"knew o f" each other. Carmel
went to school with Bertie's
younger sister and thought of
him as a big brother, so they
didn't get together romantically
until later.
Bertie, 69, was with the Irish
airlines, Aer Lingus, for 44
years until he retired eight
years ago. Carmel, 59, was a
homemaker, raising their five
children, and also worked in
" d r a p e r ie s ",
or
what
Americans would call women's
clothing, as a shop assistant.
The Bolands say that their
children, four girls and a boy,
ranging from 22 to 39 years, are
still very close and, says
Carmel, sometimes seem to
have a kind of telepathy. "They
all get along well together, even
the grandchildren," she added.
They have 10 grandchildren,
with another on the way.
Since Bertie's retirement, the
Bolands have kept extremely
busy. So much so, says
Carmel, that their children joke
that they have to make an ap
pointment to see them. Besides
travelfthe couple has been to,
Oregon three times, several
times to Florida, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Hawaii, Boston,
Cape Cod and Toronto). They
belong to and hold positions in
a retirees' club that organizes
lawn bowling, travel excursions
and other activities. They
L-R: Father Gerry Condon, Carmel and Bertie Boland.
sometimes call themselves w ere amazed at the friendliness
"recycled teenagers," laughs of the people here and loved
Carmel.
the weather, which would have
During their current visit to been considered a heat wave in
Oregon, Bertie and Carmel Ireland. Ireland, which normal
went with Father Condon to ly has a mild climate, is begin
the Pendleton Round-Up ning to get very cold, they said.
Parade, Rodeo and Happy Ca
The Bolands had left for the
nyon, all of which they say they U.S. Aug. 31 just as the new
enjoyed tremendously. They Irish peace agreement went in
also had lunch at St. Mary's to affect and so don't yet know
Parish in Pendleton, toured the what the accord will bring.
Willow Creek Dam and the However, they said that Dublin
Oregon Trail, golfed at Willow is much farther south and not
Creek Country Club and plann so much affected. The Bolands
ed a trip to Lehman Hot plan to return to their
Springs. The Bolands said they homeland next Tuesday.
School bond levy defeated
The Morrow County School
District bond construction levy
was defeated by 59 votes, 1,339
no to 1,280 yes on Sept. 20 for
the second time. The bond
issue failed March 22 by 164
votes.
The bond levy would have
funded the construction of ad
ditional classroom s and
remodeling
of
existing
classrooms to cope with over
crowding in north county
schools.
The levy passed in Board-
man, Lexington, lone and one
Heppner district, but failed in
Irrigon and several Heppner
precincts.
The same school bond levy
put up before fhe voters March
22 was defeated 1,331 no, to
1167 yes. Following are those
results: Boardman, 319 yes to
229 no; Irrigon, 215 yes to 396
no; lone, 132 yes to 125 no;
Lexington, 102 yes to 119 no;
Heppner/Hardman, 399 yes to
462 no.
S p e c i a l E le c t io n R e s u l t s
Tuesday, Sept. 2 0 , 1 9 9 4
Measure 257 School Bond
Boardman
Hardman/Heppner
Ione
Irrigon
Lexington
Total
YES
NO
348 J ? 18
420 H 437
145
129
" 245 ' 439
122
116
1280 1339
Pre-school slates open house
Heppner Day Care Pre-
School will hold their open
house on Tuesday, Sept. 27,
from 7-8 p.m. at the Elks
Lodge.
Moms, dads, grandparents
and friends are invited to come
to the program and see what
fun things the students are do
ing this year.
Harley Sager
Three people who have been
key players of the local First In
terstate Bank for many years
have decided to play in dif
ferent arenas. Jackie Allstott,
Harley Sager and Darlene
Lovgren have all opted for early
retirement from the bank-
Jackie, Sept. 30 and Harley and
Darlene, Oct. 31.
Although none of the three
received college educations,
they all learned the banking
business inside and out, cap
tured opportunities and rose
through the ranks in their
profession.
Jackie Schmidt came to
Heppner as a teenager from
Hayden Lake, Idaho. The
Schmidts left a close-knit family
in Idaho when Jackie's father,
Edward, got a job working for
Rosewall Motor as a body and
fender man. Her mother,
Christine, eventually returned
to Idaho where she still lives.
Her father has since passed
away.
Jackie married in 1953 at a
young age, but that union has
lasted 41 years. Jackie says that
her husband, Clyde, is still her
"best friend". Although they
didn't have much money when
they were first married, they
considered family important,
and before long three children
arrived, Barbara Towne, now
Juneau, Alaska in 1954, Cyde
/Estes, Heppner) in 1956 and
David (Heppner) in 1959. Jackie
and her husband now have
nine grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren.
When her children were lit
tle, Jackie babysat at home and
after they started school she
worked at Hager's Dairy. On
Sept. 8, 1969, she started work
at the bank as a bookkeeper.
She says that the bank provid
ed insurance benefits that her
young family needed. She then
worked as a secretary for the
bank and within the year,
became the secretary for the
bank managers. She worked in
that position until the early
1980s when she went into
operations, which is the inside
work of the bank. After that she
went into lending and in 1991
she was named the retail
manager of the Heppner
Branch.
Jackie says that over the years
she had taken various banking
classes. "The bank's been good
to m e," said Jackie, "but I've
worked hard. I've had to wait
for my opportunities. It's how
you apply yourself at the job.
I think I've been under the gun
since I started working here,
but 1 love it." She says that the
thing she likes most about her
job is the people. "I'm a peo-
pie person," she says. "I'v e
met a lot of wonderful people
over the years. It's the people
I've been able to serve, the peo
ple that trust you that have
made it all worth it."
What is the hardest thing
about her job? Jackie says that
besides "not being able to open
the windows" at the bank, the
hardest things were trying to
balance a home and a career
and "being the boss. I expect
a lot out of people. I never
wanted to be the boss. It's
easier to work with people than
oversee them ."
Jackie says that her husband
plans to retire in about a year.
But for now Jackie says, "I'm
going to be content to be a
housewife, a mother and a
grandmother." But she doesn't
discount going back to work,
even at the bank. After a year
she can return to the bank as a
part time employee.
She says she has no fears
about leaving her employees in
charge. "I'm a firm believer in
cross-training. I feel very con
fident in leaving them behind
and know that they'll still be
able to do the job," she added.
All three of the retirees say
that the biggest change in bank
ing is due to computers. At first
they were required to do all
calculations by hand; then
came automation; and finally
computerization which freed
the employees to work more
with people. The bank is also
more efficient and consolidated
now, they say, and is w'orking
toward elminating duplication
of services.
Harley Sager also worked his
way up through the ranks. His
first job with the bank was in
1956 when he began working
as a teller in Nyssa. By the time
he left Nyssa he had become
operations officer. When he
came to Heppner in 1962 he
was hired as operations officer,
but then became consumer
loan officer, working with the
several car dealerships in the
area. He was then promoted to
assistant manager, doing com
mercial loans. He worked in
that position until June 1967
when he went to Merrill, also
as a commercial loan officer. He
was hired in that capacity in
Ontario in Feb. of '68. He re
mained in Ontario until Aug. of
1969 when he returned to
Heppner.
Upon his return, he bought
the Hager house. At that time
Johnny Venard was bank
manager. When he passed
away, Harley took over as
manager in Oct. of 69. Johnny's
wife, Clista, came to work at
Kyle Robinson receives awards
Kyle Robinson, Heppner,
received the grand champion
bull award at the Oregon State
Fair open show recently. His
bull was KDR K&R Polled Black
Jack, a 11-18-92 son of YHR
Polled Franie 300Z, sired by
WMM Polled Eclipse 100Z.
JVR Polled Commander, a
2-11-93 son of JVR Polled Hi
Choice, sired by Majestic and
exhibited by Robert and
Marilyn Schiller, Echo, took
reserve grand champion.
Zane Martin, also of Echo,
took the grand champion
female at both the open show
and the junior sales show with
ZW Miss Charisma 02C, a
2-20-93 daughter of Target
Denver X-Tra Special, sired by
Target Mile MVP.
Fall
CMkiug
Logger Jeans 1695
Flannel Shirts 1495
mercial and retail departments.
Harley then transferred to the
Hermiston Eastern Oregon
Commercial Banking Center,
where he is team leader.
Harley says what he misses
most and the biggest change in
the banking business is the
movement away from full-
phase banking. Now commer
cial and retail departments are
separate. "Banking has really
changed," said Harley. "It's
more specialized." Another
thing about banking has also
changed-the salary. Harley
said that when he first started
in the banking business he
made $210 a month. "In those
days, the banking pay was real
ly bad," he added.
Harley and his wife of 36
years, Bertha, have four
children, Kelly, Lexington,
Kirk, Klamath Falls, Cheri
Ross, Escondido, CA., and
Kimela, Hermiston, and six
grandchildren.
Harley is already thinking
about another career and says
he may get more involved in
Bertha's janitorial services
business with branches in
Heppner, Condon, Moro and
Fossil.
Darlene Lovgren attended
high school in Pendleton. After
her marriage she and her hus
band moved to The Dalles and
then to John Day. Like Jackie,
Darlene also started her bank
ing career as a bookkeeper. In
Feb. of 1971 she transferred
from the John Day offtCPYo the
Pendleton branch where she
performed various jobs such as
teller and secretary.
In June of 1977 she came to
Heppner and took a leave of
absence. Her absence was short
lived, and she only lasted two
weeks before returning to work
around July 1.
She worked at the Heppner
Branch until May of 1991 when
the commercial and retail parts
of the bank split. She then
transferred to Hermiston where
all commercial lending is done
for Condon, Fossil, Heppner,
Pilot Rock, Pendleton and
Hermiston.
Although banking has pro
vided a lot of challenges,
Lovgren says that the last
three years, she has "really en
joyed her jo b." "The guvs in
the office are really great," she
added. "I told my husband
(Stacey) that I've finally found
my spot."
Darlene echoes Jackie and
Harley concerning the changes
in the banking industry.
"When I first started my job, I
did all the posting of checks by
hand and the statements were
done by hand," she said. "O n
statement night, once a month
everyone stayed until the
statements were done.
Darlene says that retirement
will free her up to accompany
her husband, who is in heavy
equipment and travels around
on construction jobs. They also
plan to spend the winter, his
slack time, in Arizona.
Darlene has three children,
Connie Aragon, Heppner;
Ronda Helfrecht, Pendleton,
and LeAnne Wickman, Forest
Grove, and six grandchildren.
An open house was held for
the three at the Heppner
branch of First Interstate on Fri
day, Sept. 9.
Sale
Coats 4495
Coveralls 2295
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221
1-800-824-7185________