After high school I had a job in a flower shop for a little while. Then I started getting interested in working for the Hanford Sentinel newspaper. I had sent them a few columns. Finally, I was trying to decide what to do with my life and they asked me to work there. The person who was doing the women’s page was quitting and they needed someone to fill-in. so at age nineteen I went to work as the editor of the women’s page. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing! (Laughter)

In those days when we used to write about a party it was a “gay affair.” Imagine writing that now! The language has changed quite a bit.

I wrote about birthdays and weddings and special features. I decided that this was what I wanted to do. My husband-to-be, Don, returned from the service and we got married. That was the end of my career at the Sentinel for a little while.

After we got married I worked at the Sentinel full-time. Then Don attended Visalia Junior College for a couple of years. I stayed at the Sentinel. Then Don decided that he wanted to go to Santa Barbara because there was a good journalism school there. I got a job in a doctor’s office because in Santa Barbara you’re either old or you’re the doctor! I worked in the doctor’s office for a couple of years and then Don got a scholarship to Stanford. I went to work for the Director of Information at Stanford. Don got his master’s degree there.

Then Don was about to be drafted for Korea. He had had a deferment because he was in school, so he joined the Air Force. Then we started moving around and I never did go to school. I sat in on a few courses but I never got college credit for any of it.

I have an idea for a novel that would incorporate a lot of the stories that I’ve done. I would put that information together and let it happen to one family.

I guess I am sort of a minor celebrity. People around here remember me, especially the older people. When I started writing for the Sentinel the second time, I was writing about many of these people. That it was easy; I just reached back into my memory. I always insisted that I wasn’t a researcher, I was a storyteller. If I embellish things or write things the way I was told the happened I take no blame! No criticism!


Amelia Earhart Once Socialized in Hanford

One time I met an elderly lady who was quite interesting. She was an early-day airplane pilot and had lived in Hanford for many years. We got to be quite friendly and I did a story on her. One day she was telling me about how she learned to fly and about how her dad bought her an airplane so she could fly to Fresno and go to school. During the course of our conversation she casually mentioned a friend named Amelia.

I asked: “Amelia who?”

She replied: “Amelia Earhart, of course. She was one of my best friends.”

So I asked: “where did you meet her?”

She replied: “Amelia was flying out of Fresno, so we got to be close friends. She used to fly down to Hanford all the time to see me. We would have parties at my house.”

I thought it was interesting that the millionaire heart was coming to Hanford regularly for a social life.

I’ve done stories about all kinds of characters around Hanford. There was a story about a young court reporter whose father was the judge. Oh this kid was pretty sporty. He was kind of a shock to Hanford because he drove a red convertible. He knew everybody in town and he was good friends with an attorney in Hanford who was active around town. They used to meet at the post office and collect their mail. They would bark at one another! (Laughter). Then they ran around pretending to shoot at one another like little boys. They barked at all the girls. They had a good time.

The Haunted Hoosegow of Hanford

Then there is the story of the old county jail that had been restored and made into a bar and restaurant. It has changed hands several times because, and this is the truth, the people who run it say it is haunted! If you believe in that sort of thing you can see where it might have happened when you think of all the unhappy people that were jailed there.

My daughter Lori is very psychic. They asked her to come to the jail and see if she could recognize anything about it that is unusual. They told her stories about doors that would slam when no one was around, and so on. One of the stories is about a woman who appears there at night. People who work there say that they have seen her after closing. Lori got a really strange sensation there; she wasn’t too pleased about being there. There was a woman who had been incarcerated there for a long time for killing her husband and her boyfriend. There are a lot of old house is here that people say are haunted. After talking to some of the people there I’m not too sure about them!