Record helps establish contact

ODESSA — On Tuesday of this week, The Odessa Record received a phone call from Carol L. Moore (nee Williams) in which she requested that we inform our readers that she is alive and well and residing in California. At age 82, she is retired but still very busy and involved in various activities. She was especially concerned that family members, former classmates, friends and readers of The Record should know that she is still here and doing just fine, thank you.

Last week’s edition of The Record stated that Gale Salo was the only surviving member of the Odessa team that won (co-champions with Wenatchee High) Spokane’s Inland Empire Tennis Tournament in 1954. Members of the Odessa Athletics Hall of Fame committee had been unable to establish contact with her in the months leading up to the awards ceremony, and so the erroneous conclusion drawn was that she was no longer with us.

As it turns out, Carol has been a subscriber to The Record since 1955. She told us that while she was growing up in Odessa, her parents were active members of the community. Her father served as the town’s mayor, and her mother was instrumental in the establishment of the Odessa Public Library. She said she enjoys keeping up with the town via The Record.

The Record was also the link that helped bring members of the Harley Mooers family to the attention of the hall of fame committee. Connie Heimbigner, Odessa High School Class of 1970, had been best friends with Mooers’ daughter Suzie, also a California resident, and the two had kept in touch ever since elementary school.

When the names of the 2020 inductees were announced in The Record, Connie sent a copy of the newspaper to her childhood friend. Although Suzie was unable to travel out of state to accept her father’s award, another of Mooers’ daughters, Marilee Hertig, lives in Washington state and was able to make to the trip to Odessa for the ceremony.