GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Notable Valley & County Deaths in 2025
- Eva Johnson
- Jim Brink
- Wes Smoot
- Norma Combes
- Fred Sternkopf
- Kurt Smallcomb
- Patricia Beverly
- Charles Davison
- Bill Heil
- Joe Waggoner
- Theresa Bloyd
- Kenneth Stroh
- Eileen Pronsolino
- George Gaines
- Mary Hollifield
- Vera Ballew
- Marjorie Dunlap
- Luis Vasquez
- Robert Wolf
- Robert Lorentzen
- Avon Ray
- Amy Ballew Kelley
- Jacob Cody Waggoner
- Danny Johnson Sr.
- John Fox
- Silvano Quezada
- Agnes Gamble
- Jed Steele
- Barbara Blattner
- Kathleen McMain
- Harriet Dahlquist
- John Pinches
- Jack Haye
- Theresia Kobler
- Bradley Witherell
- Hank Cox
- Clifford Christen
- Stephen Muchowski
- Art Lemos
- Robert Sutherland
- Bob Vaughan
- Jim Eddie
- John Mark
- Jim Shields
- Berna Walker
- Neil Kephart
Pending:
- Mark Scaramella
- Bruce Anderson
UNITY CLUB NEWS
Happy New Year!
I had a marvelous visit with family and friends. Hope you also enjoyed joy and fellowship this Holiday Season. Our January meeting is fast approaching. We will meet January 8th in the Fairgrounds Dining Room at 1:30. Our program will be the Head of Mendocino County's Environmental Health Dept. Marlayna Bourbonnaise. She's the person to talk to if you need to improve your septic system, among other things. Our hostess crew will be Jean Condon, Ann Wakeman, and Nancy Wood. They will provide snacks and beverages you will enjoy.
Thank you all for the work you have done to make the Holiday Bazaar a success. We truly made it a Community event. I loved the idea of the Scholarship donation buckets. The food was exceptional but we need a broader selection of beverages next year. Kudos to the Club! Well done.
Our Lending Library will be open in Tuesdays from 1 to 4 and on Saturdays from 12:30 to 2:30. I got a good selection of children’s books during my most recent visit. I also found an old Ellery Queen novel I hadn't read. Surprises abound at the Library.
January meeting is the 8th at 1:30 in the Dining Room, Boonville Fairgrounds.
— Miriam L. Martinez
INTERVIEWING THE ELDERS
by Katy Tahja
Old Timers have great stories to share and quite often just need to be encourages to tell them. Having a framework of questions makes interviewing easier. If readers just did one interview with one elder and then contributed it to a local historical society we’d save a wealth of knowledge.
But what should you ask about? In 1988 College of the Redwoods offered a Mendocino County History class taught by historian Bruce Levene in Mendocino. Almost 40 years later these are still great questions to ask from a list of questions Levene gave the class. Personally I’d like to suggest interviewing people who ,if not born in the county, have lived here more than 50 years. Levene helped produce the two volume “Mendocino County Remembered” with oral histories collected in the late 1970s from elders born in the last century, and everyone was asked the same list of questions. You can find those oral histories in the reference section of libraries and museum archives.
So what to ask?
Name of the interviewee, contact information, and date of the interview
Their parents name and when you, or your family, came to Mendocino County
Where did they come from? Why did they come. Here?
What was their occupation? If farming or ranching what did they raise?
When did the interviewee start school? Where?
Did your parents tell you about the 1906 earthquake, or wartimes, or JFK’s death? Were they anti-Vietnam War protestors?
Did you have any unusual problems early in your life? (Like natural disasters, shortages of money, food or any illness?)
Do you remember other early long time residents your family knew locally?
When did you marry? Who? How did you find them?
What are your hobbies/crafts/outdoor sports?
What about great parties? Church & School affairs, Holidays, Hunting? Work parties? County Fair?
Have you preserved letters, photos, diaries about this area long ago? (Can we copy them, then give them back?) Maps? Membership lists? Early days old time magazines? Names ands addresses of other individuals that might share facts about local history.
Any memories of towns, schools, churches, businesses, unusual buildings now gone. Local “characters” important in peoples lives. People with unusual talents?
What was the most important event in your life? (Historical or personal)
Tell your interview you will type up the interview and share it with them to make sure you got the story right. Thank them for sharing their story.
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