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Now that the Thanksgiving dinner is over and done, your attention may be turning to all that is merry and bright. Or you may be thinking more like Scrooge, and “Bah Humbug” your way into the holiday season. There is no doubt, these days the holiday spirit can seem commercialized with an over- abundance of consumerism. Enough to make you wonder, “why?” and “what is this all for?” Even the stores seem to usher in the season earlier and earlier each year. If the push of a shopping blitz brings on a migraine but you don’t want to cancel Christ...
Charlotte Ann (née Youngquist) Ellis, aged 78, a lifetime resident of Skagit Valley passed away on Friday, November 1, 2019. She was born in Mount Vernon on May 16, 1941 to Walfred and Frances Youngquist. She graduated from Mount Vernon High School in 1959. She started her nursing career after finishing college, working at Swedish Hospital, Northern State and then retiring from Skagit Valley Hospital after over 40 years. She met her sweetheart, Bob Ellis and married him on June 5, 1964. In 1969, they moved into their forever home on... Full story
Abigail “Abby” Fay Dunn Williams of La Conner, WA, our family matriarch, got her wish to “fly away” to her Lord on Sunday, October 6, 2019. Abigail was born in Culver City, CA on Feb. 16, 1922, the second of four daughters, to Will A. and Alma Fay Dunn. Her childhood was filled with adventure and she regaled us with stories of rubbing shoulders with movie stars, her momentous trip around the world with her family in the 1920s and then, the years of the Great Depression. She had fond memories of growing up with her three sisters and a menager... Full story
Simply Marbleous. That was the vibe in Mount Vernon last week when fans from near and far and across time gathered to watch La Conner High volleyball coach Suzanne Marble record her 500th career win with a program she has guided to four state titles, the most recent last November. La Conner’s straight-sets triumph at Mount Vernon Christian resembled many of the preceding 499 victories under Marble’s watch, a journey that began here in 1993. The Lady Braves served at a 94 per cent clip, won two...
Elaine (Mom) passed away at home surrounded by her loving children, after an extended illness. Mom was born January 13th, 1937 in Argura, Jackson County, North Carolina to Robert and Lonnie Harris. She had fond memories of her childhood in North Carolina and was proud of her “Tar Heel” heritage. At a young age, Mom lost her parents and was grateful for the families that cared for her afterwards. She graduated from La Conner High School in 1955, where she met the love of her life, Ivan Carlson, Sr. They were married August 12th, 1955, and as new... Full story
Donald Richard Henkle passed away peacefully at age 90 in La Conner, WA on April 6, 2019 after an eight year battle with multiple myeloma. Don was born in Auburn, WA and grew up in Seattle with his parents, Tolly Henkle and Marion (Hostetter) Henkle. He attended Seattle’s Fairview Grade School, John Marshal Junior High School, Roosevelt High School (class of 1946) and graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Business Administration in 1950. During high school, Don played the trumpet in the dance band “Gentlemen of Rhythm” and w... Full story
Sean Skiles owns Pioneer Market, which has been a family run business for generations. Change and growth go with managing a store in a close-knit community. One change the Market fully supports is reducing waste and assisting community groups. The La Conner town council passed an ordinance banning single use plastic bags at retail stores in June. August 1st was the start date, with a waiver period of four months, making January the deadline. La Conner is the only town in Skagit County to ban single-use plastic bags. A small pebble tossed in a p...
Story by Mike Rosenberg Seattle Times real estate reporter Published October 25, 2018 in Seattle Times Husband and wife Kory Slaatthaug and Mickey Bambrick are landlords. For the past half-century, Slaatthaug’s family has owned a small apartment building in Greenwood named for the Norwegian town where Kory’s father grew up. They’re also devout Pentecostal Christians. When Slaatthaug, a 74-year-old retired carpenter, does repairs at the building, he drives there in a Jeep with a 4-foo...
Cathie Wyman was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award at the SWAN Women of the Year Banquet last Thursday in Anacortes. She has spent more than 30 years giving back to the town of La Conner, providing guidance to enhance the natural beauty of the area and support the business district. As owner of Wyman Park, she helped spur a give-back program during the holidays that donated 10 percent of sales back to charity. She has volunteered with the La Conner Beautification Committee, the La Conner...
So much for the generation gap. Local teens and senior citizens were on the same page, literally speaking the same language and spelling the same words, when they met Monday at La Conner Retirement Inn. La Conner Middle and High School students joined with Retirement Inn residents that morning for their second annual Spelling Bee, a friendly competition if there ever was one, and a contest in which both sides came away winners. “The interaction of our students with the residents is w...
As usual, Charity Jordan spelled trouble for her rivals. For the judges she spelled everything else. Letter perfect, at that. The poised and humble La Conner eighth grader won her third straight regional Spelling Bee championship at Skagit Valley College in March. That secured her a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the Washington, D.C. area for a third consecutive spring. Charity will compete against the country’s top student spellers starting May 27 in National Harbor, MD. Yet her rare regional three-peat isn’t all that makes Cha...
Add one more to this year’s Birds of Winter list. The pink flamingo. Or, in the case of Todd and Katie Wigal of Shelter Bay, make that pink flamingos. The local couple awoke Sunday morning to find a flock of 100 pink flamingos gracing their front yard. Gracing might not be the right word. But, as with snow geese and trumpeter swans, they were certainly eye-catching. The mass migration of colorful plastic birds to Shelter Bay isn’t linked to global warming, habitat loss or any other sci...
Football is always on the menu for Thanksgiving. But, in La Conner, it’s just the appetizer. That’s because Guy and Marla Vallee and the folks at Waterfront Cafe make it possible to feast on fellowship and a free five-star turkey dinner as well. It’s a favorite holiday tradition here going on over the last decade. “We decided in 2009, with the economy being tight, that there were probably people who could use a free meal on Thanksgiving,” says Guy. “We also knew there were people with no place to go, that maybe they were separated by long dista...
Remember the old telephone game where you whisper something into someone’s ear, it goes around the circle and the story comes out totally different from reality. Some people will hurt others by their vicious words with gossip and rumors. They have nothing better to do with their time. People who started businesses in town wants to fulfill their dreams. Sometimes life can get in the way. They don’t make it, or they get sick, of things happen in their lives. I have built my reputation in town for 8 years. From closing my coffee shop, I have hea...
I am moving on to my next adventure in life. Due to my medical reason, I have closed Bamboo Coffee. I have completed my task by putting love into the shop over eight years. Thanks for concerns and the cares during tulip season. I appreciate your business, friendship and support over the years. Thank you for stopping by each day and season. You brought me tears, joy, laughter and wonderful memories and the most important thing, “love.” Once again. Thank you. Watch out for the next adventure. Charity Starkenburg La Conner...
About a month ago, La Conner Retirement Inn Activities Director BJ Johnson grabbed a nearby dictionary on a whim after she had an idea to put the residents’ spelling skills to the test. “I was throwing words out there and they were spelling them all,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘my gosh, we’ve got to do something with this.’” She asked the seniors if they would be up for a friendly spelling competition with any interested youngsters at the La Conner School District. The residents loved the idea,...
La Conner Middle School seventh grader Charity Jordan is on her way to the Scripps Spelling Bee, in the Washington DC area for the second year in a row. Charity, 13, won the regional spelling bee last Saturday after competing against 32 others and spelling B-O-L-S-H-E-V-I-K. Bolshevik is the old name for the Russian Social Democratic Party, which was renamed the Communist Party after it seized power in the October Revolution of 1917. Before competing in the regional bee, Charity out-spelled 12...
One more win means one more trip to Spokane for the La Conner High Lady Braves. But a loss Saturday night to Walla Walla Valley Academy would cancel any travel plans for the 20-2 Lady Braves, who played so well at last week’s District Tournament in Sedro-Woolley that not even a wing and a prayer could defeat them. Just ask the Auburn Adventist Lady Falcons. La Conner routed Auburn 62-42 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lady Braves led at one point by 36 points before taking the foot off the pedal. “We came out f...
The Husky pep band wasn’t alone producing positive notes Friday night. So, too, did the La Conner High boys’ basketball team. The Braves closed out NW2B action with an unlikely 52-49 home win over Friday Harbor, thus avenging an earlier 31-point blowout loss to the Wolverines. You could say turnabout is fair play. But, in La Conner’s case, it was more about turnovers than anything else. The Braves committed just 10 in the rematch. They were guilty of 26 such miscues in the earlier meeting on the...
It seemed like a perfect storm brewing on Friday for the upset-minded Mount Vernon Christian Hurricanes. They would be playing in front of a large and vocal home crowd and facing a La Conner team that would again be without a key starter — something of a recurring theme for the Braves this year. This time around it would be versatile wing Brady Nelson, a regular double-figure scorer of late, having to sit out. Nelson, a senior, was scratched due to the flu. “We knew that would be a big loss for us going in,” La Conner High head coach Sco...
So much for home court advantage. The Orcas Vikings had routed La Conner by 25 points at Landy James Gym in December. But the Braves were able to return the favor at Eastsound last week, posting a crucial 66-62 NW2B triumph that puts La Conner back in contention for the league title. The victory, coupled with an earlier 62-32 blowout of Concrete, saw La Conner improve to 6-2 in conference action. “It was a big win for us, no doubt,” Braves head coach Scott Novak said afterward. His club fig...
With 2016 in the past, new calendars pinned to kitchen walls, and a few business days into 2017, we’re looking back at a few of La Conner’s big stories of 2016, some of which will be impacting the new year as well. School funding woes In February, for the first time in local history, voters rejected the La Conner School District’s bid for renewed levies to replace expiring funds: one was for maintenance and operations, and another for technology. The levies would have included $1.5 million of funding for the schools for 2017 and 2018. The s...
Though short-handed, it was La Conner’s Braves who enjoyed the upper hand in terms of roster depth in an emotional rematch victory over Nooksack Valley in Port Townsend on Friday. The La Conner bench played a big role in a hard-fought 45-37 win over the Pioneers on the second and final day of the 10th annual Crush in the Slush Invitational Tournament. Minus two starters – including leading scorer Budda Luna – who had played in a previous home loss to Nooksack, La Conner head coach Scott Novak revamped his lineup and was rewarded w...
In an ebb-and-flow kind of game, it was a late La Conner scoring tsunami that sank the upset-minded Orcas Lady Vikings Wednesday at Landy James Gym. The hosts went on a 35-12 second half run to break open what had been a close contest at intermission and secure a key 57-32 NW2B hoop triumph. Freshman Justine Benson scored 14 of her game-high 23 points after halftime to lead La Conner, which improved to 6-1 going into this week’s Port Townsend Invitational Tournament action. “Justine scored so...
They didn’t start the season on a roll, but the Lady Braves weren’t bowled over, either. La Conner salvaged a split of a two-game home set with larger non-league foes Lakewood and Granite Falls that tipped off the 2016-17 hoop campaign. The season opener on Wednesday was truly a pins-and-needles affair, with La Conner falling 61-58 in overtime to Lakewood after having bolted to an early double-digit lead. The loss came despite a brilliant 32-point effort by senior guard Nakiya Edwards, and a s...
