Hermiston
Herald
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015
www.HermistonHerald.com
Softball
10/11 YEAR OLDS
PREPARE FOR STATE
SPORTS
PAGE 8
$1.00
On the move
PAGE 4
3 ON 3 TOURNAMENT
HITS HERMISTON
PAGE 8
A place of rest & remembrance
Class of 1965 to
honor classmate
lost to Vietnam War
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
No matter how many
class reunions the Herm-
iston High School Class
of 1965 has, one absence
is particularly conspicu-
ous.
The class lost Gordon
Spearman Jr. just six years
after graduation. He was
killed in action in Viet-
nam, like 40,934 others
of his generation. Another
17,000 died in accidents
or due to other causes or
were presumed dead but
never recovered or died
later from wounds suffered
during the war. He was one
of 686 Oregonians who
died in the Vietnam War
and one of ¿ ve who listed
Hermiston as their home-
town.
Spearman’s class will
dedicate a bench at McK-
enzie Park in his honor on
Friday during their 50-year
class re-
union.
REUNION
O r -
ganizer
Dan Jamison remembers
the moment he knew Spear-
man, a former football
teammate, was never com-
ing home.
“I found out in the Herm-
iston Herald,” he said. “I
don’t remember exactly
what the article said, but I
remember I was upset.”
Jamison was stationed
with the Army at Fort Car-
son in Colorado that year.
But his parents paid for him
to get his hometown news-
paper by mail each week,
and one day he opened it to
¿ nd the news everyone of
his generation dreaded in
those days: A classmate had
been killed in action.
Staff Sgt. Gordon Spear-
man Jr. was 24 at the time,
on his second combat tour
in Vietnam. He was a team
leader of the Charlie Com-
pany Rangers, 75th Infantry
when he was killed March
10, 1971, by small arms ¿ re
in the Binh Dinh province
To Jamison, however,
Spearman was the “spark-
plug of the team” during
one of the best football sea-
sons the Hermiston Bull-
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
Class of 65 reunion organizers (left to right) Dennis Williams, Cindy Edwards, Connie Ferranti and Dan Jamison discuss the
À nal details of a memorial ceremony for fallen classmate *ordon 6pearman Jr.
This photo of *ordon
6pearman appeared on the
front page of the Hermiston
Herald after his death.
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
$ photo of *ordon 6pearman Jr. sits on a memorial bench in his honor as Class of 65 reunion
organizers prepare for a dedication ceremony.
dogs had played in a while.
He remembered the
bruises the dedicated right
guard would sport after
giving it all he had during
particularly tough games.
Jamison said the news
of Spearman’s death rocked
the class of just over 160
students.
“We knew people really
well,” he said. “It was still
a small school.”
Reunion organizer Den-
nis Aiken said his younger
brother, who was serving
in Vietnam at the time, was
the ¿ rst person from Herm-
iston to hear of Spearman’s
death. His squad arrived to
pick up a prisoner Spear-
man had captured earlier
that day and a ranger told
him.
“A guy stepped out of
the bush and asked, ‘Are
you from Hermiston? Gor-
don was just killed,’” Aiken
said.
He remembered Spear-
man as someone who
“didn’t take himself too se-
riously.”
Dennis Williams, also a
former football teammate
of Spearman’s, said he was
a “very coachable” player
on the ¿ eld and a funny,
likable student in the class-
room.
“Everyone liked him,”
he said. “He was a good
guy.”
By the time Spearman
was killed just about ev-
eryone Williams graduat-
ed with was in the service.
One classmate À ed to Can-
ada, another had a young
family and a couple more
were excused from service
See HONORING, A16
15-year-old
arrested for
7-Eleven
robbery
Hermiston police
arrested a 15-year-
old early Tuesday on
suspicion he robbed a
convenience store at
gunpoint.
Hermiston Police
Chief Jason Edmiston
in a written statement
reported of¿ cers at
12:24 a.m. responded
to 7-Eleven, 775 S.
Highway 395, on a
report that an armed
robbery just occurred.
Hermiston police,
along with of¿ cers
from neighboring
Stan¿ eld and
Umatilla police and
the Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Of¿ ce,
searched the area
for the suspect. He
was described as a
young male, wearing
a purple and yellow
basketball jersey, a
black T-shirt and a
bandanna, who À ed
carrying a black bag
with an undisclosed
amount of money.
About an
hour into the
investigation,
Hermiston police
Capt. Darryl
Johnson saw
a teenage boy
matching the
suspect description
in the area of East
Jennie Avenue and
Northeast Third
Street.
“The male À ed
on foot but was
eventually caught,”
according to
Edmiston.
Of¿ cers detained
the teen and seized
a black Wells Fargo
bag with money
police believed to
be from the crime,
Edmiston reported,
along with a loaded
handgun.
Edmiston also
said Hermiston
detectives
questioned the teen
before booking him
with the county’s
juvenile department
in Pendleton.
Art in the negative
Hermiston scratch
artist’s work featured
in library display
By SEAN HART
Staff Writer
Most art is created by adding
color and shape, but Mary Ella
Hoffman prefers to scratch it away
from a black canvas.
The 66-year-old Hermiston
artist, whose work is on display
at the Hermiston Public Library
this month, said she discovered
scratch art about
eight years ago.
ART
After taking a
class from a for-
mer Heppner resident, she be-
gan perfecting the process that
would eventually win awards
at county fairs in Umatilla and
Morrow counties.
See for yourself
Mary Ella Hoff man’s scratch art is on display
this month at the Hermiston Public Library, 235
E. Gladys Ave.
“It’s really rewarding,” she
said. “I like showing it in the coun-
ty fairs.”
Hoffman prefers to create ani-
mals, but any images can be cre-
ated using the art form. Scratch
art uses a Masonite board covered
with a clay substance that is cov-
ered by a black ink, she said. To
create the image, she uses a se-
ries of tools with different tips to
scratch away the black ink, expos-
ing the white layer beneath.
“You just scratch the hairs, so
you can imagine a picture is cov-
ered with millions of little lines,”
she said. “When you’re all done
with your scratching, it is black
and white, and then you take wa-
STAFF PHOTO BY SEAN HART
Hermiston artist Mary Ella Hoffman demonstrates how she scratches away
the black coating on her “doodling board” to create images using scratch
art during a reception in her honor Thursday at the Hermiston Public Library.
The À nished raccoon is a piece she created using the techniTue. Her work
will be on display at the library throughout the month.
tercolors and put in your hints of
color.”
Hoffman starts by blowing up
a picture to the size of her board,
usually eight inches by 10 inches.
She then traces the picture onto
tracing paper to ensure proper
proportion and placement on the
See ART, A16