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Marian Louise Crim, born October 8, 1930 to Manfred & Ella (Meyer) Nystrom of La Conner, WA., passed away March 3, 2019 at her home Marian Nystrom graduated from La Conner High School in 1948, and graduated with a secretarial degree from Mt. Vernon Junior College in 1950. Later she married and started a family. She had three sons Gary, Randy and Stan Schopf. Marian later remarried Robert (Bob) Crim February 5, 1965 who added two daughters, Julie & Debbie to the family. After living in Sedro Woolley for 5 years Bob was transferred to Bellingham...
La Conner High students answered the challenge of competing against larger enrollment schools March 23. And they did so in a big way – by quickly and correctly answering a slew of critical thinking questions posed during state 1A Knowledge Bowl competition in Yakima. The La Conner team represented its 2B campus well, advancing to the semifinals before finishing fourth out of 18 entries at the state trials. “It was a complete team effort,” La Conner Knowledge Bowl head coach Beth Clo...
Kenneth Ray Taylor, 71, gained his wings on March 18, 2019, when he passed of natural causes at home. He was born in Ellensburg, WA to Kenneth R. Taylor and Bettie (Reed) Taylor on December 2, 1947. After moving back to Skagit Valley, Ken attended Mount Vernon schools, participated in HS wrestling and band, and graduated in 1966. He attended SVC, began his career in precast concrete, loved duck hunting on the flats and played bass guitar and sang backup in several local rock bands; LITTLE DICKIE AND THE DELEGATES, THE UNDERTAKERS, and THE...
History and the future were woven together seamlessly in La Conner on Thursday. The final event of the Skagit County Historical Museum’s Golden Anniversary celebration that night peered ahead as much as it paid tribute to the past. A standing room only crowd of 75 gathered to watch the Museum’s time capsule re-filled and placed again inside the wall near its main entrance, not to be unsealed until 2069. It was, as best all could tell, a re-rerun of what took place there a half-century ago when t...
AND THE WINNER IS – Rachel Cram, left, a ninth-grader at La Conner High School, is introduced by Pat Clausen, Kiwanis Club of La Conner president, before reading her essay at last Wednesday’s meeting. Cram’s essay, “History of our Town Newspaper,” was placed in the Skagit County Historical Museum’s time capsule, to be read next in 2069. Her great grandfather, Maurice Patrick O’Leary, owned the Puget Sound Mail for some 30 years after buying it in 1940. – Photo by Ken Stern...
La Conner’s housing boom continues this summer with five homes in Channel Cove, the development managed by Home Trust of Skagit. “We’re fully funded,” Executive Director Jodi Monroe said last Wednesday. She projects a July construction start and families moving in in December. Monroe received word that funding for construction, operations and down payment assistance had been approved. This will fill out the neighborhood on land the Trust owns on Park Street south of Caledonia and west of Maple Avenue. Monroe is excited that “five more town...
If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. That’s the approach La Conner Schools officials have taken to fill a vacancy on the district’s board of directors. La Conner area civic leader Susie Gardner Deyo was sworn in Monday night by school board president Janie Beasley. She succeeds John Thulen. Deyo has strong backgrounds in both business and education, Deyo’s selection was immediately lauded by those familiar with her tireless work on behalf of the La Conner Alumni Assoc...
I am dismayed to read that the high school cannot field a baseball team. This program can be revived with care and work. I can be a leader in this effort. Please publish these (few words) in an upcoming edition. Thank you, Greg Kennedy La Conner P.S. I know the coaches through my son, Zane Kennedy, who was a four-year player. I also know some community dynamics which can revive this program....
Small town newspapers in rural America serve as a portal into the life and times of individuals who live in these communities. These newspapers are precious documents that celebrate the lives, activities, tragedies and relationships that these communities value. These papers also bring domestic and global news to residents and link these events to their own lives. The Puget Sound Mail was a key part in La Conner’s history and my great-grandfather was the owner, publisher and editor. Before cell phones, computers and satellite news, n...
Math Night at La Conner Schools was sum-thing special. Sixth graders through high school seniors showed their “mathological sides” – which often and fittingly took the shapes of triangles and rectangles – during a first-ever local prime time celebration of numbers and variables at the La Conner Middle School gymnasium Tuesday night. “The thing I loved about it,” said La Conner Middle and High School Principal Todd Torgeson, “is the students got to take the math they’ve learned in...
Ryan Booth will soon have the rare opportunity to both study and make history at the same time. This after the La Conner High alum, now a doctoral candidate at Washington State University, was selected earlier this month for a prestigious J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Award. Booth has been approved by the Fulbright Board to research comparisons between U.S. Native American soldiers and Indian auxiliaries of the British Raj from the mid-19th century to the onset of World War II. Booth,...
Far from the hustle and bustle of the big city, our La Conner seniors are finalizing their post-graduation plans. While acceptance letters and emails have been delivered, families still await confirmation of financial aid before they will be able to make final decisions. Ninety percent of our 39 graduates will continue into programs at tech schools, community colleges and universities. Jobs, apprenticeships and the military are choices for their classmates. Recent stories highlighting the extraordinary measures some parents go to in order to se...
Twice last week Whitney Meissner, superintendent of the La Conner school district, enacted a cornerstone of the district’s strategic plan: communications. Last Wednesday Meissner hosted a community meeting in the district’s auditorium. Monday she spoke at the La Conner Rotary Club’s second annual Farmers-Merchant Dinner to 115 attendees, including Town and County elected officials and staff. At both events Meissner first thanked the community for the overwhelming support for the school levy,...
The third time was indeed a charm for Swinomish Tribal Community members last week. The replica Swinomish totem pole, crafted and installed as part of 1989 Washington State Centennial festivities, was put back in place last Wednesday morning after undergoing extensive revamping to erase effects from a generation of Pacific Northwest weather. “It was a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful day,” said Swinomish Tribal Senate Chairman Brian Cladoosby. “I was blessed to witness this and be a part...
Linda Maxine Zimmer (Nelson) passed away on February 28, 2019. Born on January 2, 1947 in Mount Vernon, Washington to Patricia and Walter Nelson. Linda grew up in La Conner and graduated from La Conner High School in 1965. She married Don Zimmer on December 16, 1972 and raised two daughters in Mount Vernon. Linda had an innate ability to reach people in a deep and meaningful way. A third generation Skagitonian, she connected people from all chapters of her life through her generous hospitality. Linda demonstrated her love of the community throu...
Thank you all, It was a packed house as Jeff Hellam opened the doors for us at Hellam’s Vineyard Friday night and everyone who came was there to make sure the pavilion at Conner Waterfront Park will be built. The two major donors were there, Shell Refinery and La Conner Rotary. They both gave deeply to start the initial fund raising and they, along with countless individual donors, had gotten us close and this event put us over the top. The crowd was loud and happily bid on the three wonderful donated items. Earlier Mayor Ramon Hayes e...
The smelt weren’t running Saturday but little kids from about three to seven or more were, on the boardwalk and on First Street, searching for treasure while being chased by their parents and grandparents. Families and single guys came to La Conner in search of the not so much elusive as not-present smelt for the La Conner Rotary Club’s 54th annual Smelt Derby Family Festival and Smelt Run Saturday. A school of herring were sighted and several caught, but a seal popped up and the herring lef...
Liberty Spangle arrived in Everett Friday boasting a lineup featuring twin 6-foot-1 inside scoring threats Maisie Burnham and Aleena Cook. But it was Justine Benson and the La Conner High Lady Braves who came up big with a convincing 54-44 Regional hoops triumph that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. La Conner (20-3) led by as many as 20 points in the fourth period before coasting to the win and earning a spot in the winner’s bracket tomorrow (Thursday) of the state 2B Hardwood Cla...
Wouldn’t you be outraged if the Afghanistan war racked up 14,708 deaths in one year? That is the number of deaths from gun violence in just 2018*. Compare that to 2,372** military deaths in all the 17 years of the Afghanistan war, start to present. Consider 3,492 children, under age of 18years, are victims of gun violence, injured or killed, which works out to 9.5 children/day. That does not include suicides. If suicides by gun are included, those numbers double. Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836. How does gun violence not qualify as a national c...
La Conner school district voters overwhelming approved renewing their school levy Feb. 12, one of four levy wins in three Skagit County school districts. The La Conner levy won with 70 percent of the vote, with 1,123 vote of over 1,600 cast. The last 200 ballots for the four districts will be counted Thursday. Dr. Whitney Meissner, La Conner superintendent, went to the County Auditor’s office election night with School Board President Janie Beasley and Board Member Katie Szurek. They greeted t...
Gary Giovane is both an artist and scientist at his core. As a student of science he came to the Skagit Valley as part of an archeological dig in the 1970s. He returned after decades of teaching science and math, to dedicate himself to art. This past year he has exhibited his work at Hadrian Stone Design & Gallery, Matzke Gallery and the Schack Art Center’s Holiday Art Show. Giovane was a Penn State University student participating in Washington State University’s archeological dig along the...
As snow piled up in La Conner, so did meeting agendas. A rare extended winter storm, which blanketed the local area with an estimated eight inches of white, led both La Conner Schools and the Town of La Conner to shelve regularly scheduled meetings this week. La Conner Schools cancelled budget and board of directors planning meetings Monday, plus that night’s Tri-District ‘B’ basketball game between the Lady Braves and Orcas. Campus classes were nixed on Monday and Tuesday, the latter cance...
Get out your fishing poles and lace up your running shoes. The La Conner Rotary Club’s 54th annual Smelt Derby Family Festival and Smelt Run are coming up on Saturday, Feb. 23. “Our club has been working hard on the festival and fishing derby with something for everyone,” festival coordinator Patsy Good said. “And we have been partnering with Kelly Harper of the La Conner schools on the Run, which will benefit their booster club as well as our club’s community projects.” Kick things off with a pancake breakfast at Maple Hall from 8-11 a.m. Pric...
After more than 70 years, a storied La Conner High basketball team is sporting a different lineup. Not in terms of a revised roster but instead how the 1948 Braves, who placed eighth at the State ‘B’ Tournament, were lined up for a team photo taken separately from those that appear in the school yearbook or on the history wall in the foyer of Landy James Gym. The black-and-white shot shows players standing sideways to the camera, an angle that focuses on their profiles rather than the sta...
Over the past few weeks, a variety of community leaders and guests have visited our schools. Almost universally their comments focus on how warm and welcoming the schools feel. Our staff members often describe La Conner Schools as a family, a community, and we are so delighted that our guests picked up on the caring environment the staff works so hard to nurture each and every day. From social-emotional curriculum, lessons on caring, and opportunities to discuss challenging issues, to having a new “Braves Space” in the high school staffed by...