The Odessa Record -

Beginning July 7, the Harrington Food Bank will be open only the first four Saturdays of each month. There will not be any Friday food bank days. The commodities day will be the fourth Saturday, and home deliveries will be done on the fourth Saturday as well. If there are five Saturdays in the month, the Food Bank will not open on the fifth Saturday. For questions, call 509-253-4588.

On May 28, several members of the Harrington Opera House Society met at the Opera House with KREM 2 news personality Kierra Elfalan of Spokane. She received a wonderful tour of the grand old building, heard a portion of the history, viewed photos of changes that occurred in the building and viewed collections that had been assembled for visitors to view. She took videos and photos and created an informative presentation that was aired frequently on KREM 2 news. Visitors came to town the next day after seeing this portrayal, and they too received a grand tour.

The next performance scheduled in the Harrington Opera House will be the group Nu Blu, performing June 15. As you will recall, Nu Blu performs Americana bluegrass music which has delighted audiences locally in the past.

2018 graduates

Harrington High School graduated 10 seniors with a Baccalaureate service held at the Harrington Community Church Sunday, May 27, and Commencement exercises on Friday, June 1, at the Harrington School. The class of 2018 is: Grace Daniels, Tyanna Evers, Darren Bowers, Colton Jacobsen, Evie Mann, Ben Nguyen, Alexandria Soliday, Stormy Stiles, John Tanke, and Juul VanParis. Seven of the 10 plan to attend college.

Echoes of graduations

long ago

Harrington's first graduate was Miss Grace Ellen Snyder on May 30, 1907. Commencement exercises were held at the Harrington Opera House. Grace, the daughter of A P Snyder, was born in 1888 in Elmore, Minn., where she lived until the family moved to Oregon in 1900. She entered the Harrington grades in 1901 and graduated with high honors in 1907. Her oration at the service was entitled "Nulla Palma Sine Labore." Quotes from her speech include "Do you wish to know of what you are made? Act, and you will find out; slumber and you will never know. In action alone does a character unfold and develop, in action alone does a nature become a living, tangible reality. The germ of character lies sleeping, even lifeless, until a man wakes it by a determination to act." Her diploma was presented to her by J. Albert Talkington.

Harrington's 1908 class consisted of three young ladies Winnifred Witt, Margaret McDonald and Marguerite Gateley. In 1909, the two graduates were Christine Unbewust and Oscar H. Billings. In 1910, there was one graduate, Irma Turner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Turner. In 1911, the graduates were Chester Boddy, George Unbewust and Lela Turner. By 1923, Chester Boddy (E.M. Boddy) had written two books, "Chief Brave Heart of the Woodside Tribe" for boys and "The Yellow Trail," a novel of adventure. Three young ladies and three young gentlemen were the graduates for 1912, Maida Witt, M. Beatrice Thompson, Edna Billings, Milton D. Lynn, W Rex Gwinn and John Taylor. The graduates in 1913 were Clarence Scott, Hazel Burge, Claudine Ellis and John Keeran. The alumni list shows five graduates that year, which included Attie Turner's name. The graduation in 1914 was held at the high school auditorium with five students receiving diplomas, John Podmore, Lindsey Markham, Ruth Turner, Henrietta Gohlman and Lucile Hill. In 1915, the Harrington graduating class had 12 students, Henriette Blanche Fehlhaber, Virginia Taylor, Anna Lyle Turner, Lois B. Turner, Jennie Mae Hansard, Adelia Marie Bassett, Ray S. Mathews, Grace Pearl Grant, Everett Clay Hansard, George Douglas Witt, Wesley William Miller, Grace Evelyn Ochs. Adelia Bassett was valedictorian and Pearl Grant was second, but the class voted for Clay Hansard to give the salutatory address. The members of the graduating class of 1916 were Bryan Cormana, Joe Witt, Elwood Turner, William Gilliland, Madge Witt, Marguerite Taylor, Marguerite Adams and Katie Hanna. The members of the graduating class of 1917 were Royce Williams, Lindsay M. Applegate, Clarence Witt, Kenneth Snider, Florence Bassett, Margaret Anderson, Henrietta Mohr, Gladys Smalley, Magdalene Kienholz and Barbara Lamparter. Florence Bassett and Margaret Anderson graduated with honors, having made an average of over 90 percent in all subjects during their four years of work. The graduates for 1918 were the first class to have their photos hung in the halls of HHS. The class was composed of one boy, Raymond Lamp, and seven girls, Alice Applegate, Veryl Erich, Martha Ochs, Barbara Ragan, Mary Knapp, Esther Groenig and Gladys Cameron. The other class to have been photographed for the newspaper was the class of 1915. No annuals were known to have been published until the class of 1920-21, and they continued through the 1925-26 year, except for one year. From 1926 to 1946, no annuals were published. The class of 1924 had 20 students, the largest class to that date.

On May 5, 1946, the Citizen recorded information of that year's valedictorian, Donna Jean Turner. In addition to highlighting how active she had been in her high school career of offices held, it wrote: "A prominent musician, Donna Jean has been a member of the glee club for 3 ½ years. She was the pianist for the orchestra during her sophomore year. This year she was the Harrington representative at the music meet at Cheney, scoring excellent for her piano numbers. Donna Jean has accompanied various musical groups and played the piano at teas." She was reporter for school news, then editor of the news and finally editor-in-chief of the news and of "The Panther." She had parts in three school plays: "Newspaper Bride," "Spring Green" and "A Little Honey."