Emil Smith – Fifty Years in Sisters

This article was published in the 10/26/11 Nugget Newspaper
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Talking with Emil (pronounced “Eeemil”) Smith is both entertaining and educational. You’d never guess that this spry man with the lilting voice was seventy-eight years old.

Throughout our conversation I couldn’t shake the similarities between the actor Robin Williams and Emil – the little boy charm, sparkling eyes, and quick wit. Almost leprechaun-like in demeanor, Emil is an engaging and intelligent man that can talk for hours about his life’s passions and adventures.

Born in Brighton, Colorado in 1933, Emil had three siblings – a brother, Eastburn, born in 1935, sister Karen in 1940, and another sister, Kristin, in 1944. Emil’s mother, Doris, was a homemaker and Emil’s father, Marvin, was a federal forester.  Marvin’s vocation meant the Smith family moved frequently, something many children don’t appreciate.

But not Emil. An inquisitive boy, he cherished the educational opportunity of being exposed to new cultures and learning experiences. “I was very curious so new locations were fascinating to me,” said Emil.

In 1933 Marvin was transferred from Montrose, Colorado to Park Falls, Wisconsin, located in the Chequamegon National Forest of northern Wisconsin. The family spent six years there until 1939 when, at age six, another transfer brought the family to Springfield Missouri.

Music was a shared love in the Smith family and Emil’s humor was evident while recalling a family decision in their new town. “My parents chose their church in Springfield based on which one had the best choir,” recalled Emil. (A choir member to this day, Emil also played the clarinet and piano, becoming an accomplished trombonist at Cass Lake High School in Minnesota, winning several prestigious awards.)

Five years later, in 1944, the Smith’s were on the road again. Eleven years old, a fifth grader and avid Cub Scout, Emil was thrilled to learn they were moving to Cass Lake, home of the Chippewa Indian Reservation in Northern Minnesota. 

 “As a Cub Scout I thought I had died and gone to heaven because I really admired all the Indian skills – tracking and all their natural abilities I had heard and read about,” said Emil.

Stoking Emil’s interest in the concept of “community,” the seven years spent in Northern Minnesota lit a spark that burns to this day.

“I really began to appreciate the value of a community where everybody knew everybody and you were exposed to a very diverse population. The Native Americans in that area were very poor, and the surrounding logging and railroad community barely eked out a living,” recalled Emil.

Common threads throughout Emil’s early years were a love of the outdoors, music, and literature. He recalled reading an issue of Life magazine in which Oregon was featured.

“I just drooled when I was the photos of Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge. I was really into cross country skiing and the biggest ‘mountain’ in Wisconsin was 400 feet high,” said Emil.

The Smith’s remained in Northern Minnesota until 1951 when they relocated to Portland and Marvin assumed the position of Deputy Operations Chief for Oregon and Washington. Recalling the Life magazine article he read about Oregon, Emil couldn’t wait to move.

But college was his immediate future and, the very day they landed in Portland, Emil boarded a bus for Eugene to begin his college years at the University of Oregon. Torn between his love for music and his affinity for the sciences, Emil could not decide on a major after his sophomore year. And he didn’t want to stay in school simply to avoid the draft. After all, these were the Korean War years - June 1950 through the “cease fire” in July 1953.

Although a cease fire had been called the war was not yet over so, in October of 1953, Emil joined the “Volunteering for the Draft” program which limited military service to two years. “The advantage was that you knew when you were going to be called into service, and it would only be 2 years,” recalled Emil.

Soon after his eight weeks of basic training in Southern California the Korean War officially ended and Emil was transferred to Fort Devens in Massachusetts. While waiting for his next assignment he learned about the shortage of qualified people for the “Army Security Agency” (ASA.) Composed of soldiers with high scores on Army intelligence tests, the ASA was tasked with monitoring and interpreting military communications from the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, and their allies around the world. 

Emil applied and was accepted into the army’s language school in Monterey California in 1954. 

Already well-versed in German (his father and grandmother spoke it regularly); Emil studied both German and Russian, becoming fluent in both. “My Russian is a little rusty now but I’m trying to keep it up,” said Emil.

Having attained fluency in two languages, Emil was reassigned to Bamberg Germany, north of Nuremberg, for two years 1955-1957.

Following his two years of service Emil returning to the states in 1958. His military experience had clarified his life’s path. “I went into the Army because I couldn’t figure out what to major in. I came back to the states fluent in two foreign languages. I loved the cultural dimension of languages and I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” said Emil.

Taking his time crossing the country, he stopped in Cass Lake, Minnesota for a very special reason – he asked his high school sweetheart, Nancy, to marry him. “She didn’t accept right away but she eventually came around and accepted,” said Emil wryly.

The couple returned to Eugene in 1958 so Emil could complete his German language degree at the University of Oregon. Once completed Emil applied for a position with the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency.) This turned out to be a frustrating experience.

“The CIA was very slow in responding and I needed a job so I applied to teach high school-level German in Boulder Colorado. I didn’t get that position so Nancy and I decided to go on an adventure,” recalled Emil.

The couple decided to embark on a month-long bicycle camping tour, starting in Eugene and finishing at Crater Lake. Bicycle touring was not well known in the fifties, the basic equipment almost nonexistent.

“We were oddities for sure in 1958. We had 3-speed bikes and had to engineer all our own gear. The hardest part was the climb up and over the McKenzie Pass. Thankfully several car campers helped us along the way. We had a great time,” recalled Emil.

International and national events during the fifties would play a role in helping Emil determine his path. First it was the Korean War, and then came the launch of the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth’s orbit. Sputnik 1, as the Soviet Union dubbed it, was launched in October 1957, igniting both the “space race” and playing into the “cold war” between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

With a national desire to surpass the Soviet Union’s accomplishments, the U.S. government passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in September of 1958 as a means of expanding the number of students in universities studying sciences, math, and foreign languages.

Knowing that he could tap into the “G.I. Bill” to take his language education to a higher level, Emil applied for and received a year-long NDEA grant to study German at the University of Colorado. After obtaining his Master’s degree Emil was hired as a teacher by the university to supervise the teaching of first-year German students.

Comfortably situated in Colorado with his new wife and growing family (Rebecca Hilary was born in 1959; Randy in 1960, and Rachel in 1962,) Emil felt he was doing what he loved career-wise in a place that he loved environment-wise.

Oregon, however, had never left Emil’s mind and the couple wisely invested in Sisters land in 1962.

“I had a sense back then that Californians were ‘discovering’ Oregon; and as a result the prices of land were already going up faster than my salary. So we found a landowner that sold us directly, under contract, seven acres of land on Whychus Creek for four thousand dollars,” recalled Emil. Returning each summer during the school break period in Colorado, Emil built a comfortable “cabin” on the property.

Then, in 1970, fate intervened again to alter Emil’s path. The University of Colorado didn’t renew his teaching contract and Emil was faced with a decision. Remain in Colorado and seek a new position – or move back to Oregon and his cabin on the Whychus?

The family chose Oregon. “I figured that I could at least substitute teach in Central Oregon if nothing else surfaced,” said Emil.

But fate again intervened. As the family was packing-up for the move, Emil received a phone call from Bend Senior High School. Would he be interested in teaching foreign languages at Bend High?

“I told them I was packing right now and jumped at the opportunity!” said Emil.

A long teaching career (1970 until retirement in 1991) in the Bend school system once again allowed Emil to pursue his career and lifestyle passions.

Emil recalls Sisters as being a much different place in the 60’s and 70’s than it is today. “A four-room Army Quonset hut was the elementary school, located at the same location where the new one now stands. It contained one or two grades,” recalled Emil.

Downtown Sisters was also unique. “The main food market, Leithauser’s, was located where Sisters Drug is now and the Post Office was right next door to that (the parking lot of Sisters Veterinary Clinic)”, said Emil.

Present-day Sisters has a state-wide reputation of being tourist-friendly and community-oriented. But was it like that back in the 60’s and 70’s?

“Even back then people would comment on how ‘amazingly friendly’ Sisters was. Early on I wasn’t that aware that it was – but over time it became clear to me. Neighbor helping neighbor, strangers helping strangers. And to this day I believe this is one of our hallmarks, our strength, a real motivator for people moving here,” said Emil.

Although Emil’s teaching career was based in Bend he’s always made a point of using his skills, experiences, and energy to benefit the Sisters community.

A member of the Sisters School Board from 1976-1980, Emil served when local taxes primarily supported the schools and there was very little state funding. “We were making a big push to get a bond passed. Our goal in 1978 was to get a replacement high school. After extensive research, we split the bond issue so that some funding would go to both an elementary school and a new high school. Unfortunately only the funding for the elementary school bond passed,” recalled Emil.

Having lived in and experienced a number of diverse communities and cultures, in 1999 Emil became active in the growth and development of Sisters by joining the Community Action Team of Sisters (CATS.)

CATS was a group of about twenty community volunteers representing a wide range of values, views and backgrounds. The group’s goal was to create a “vision statement” that would form the basis from which the community would determine priorities and establish goals.

“I got involved with CATS because I didn’t want to see Sisters follow Bend’s example – no foresight in planning and growth. It was pretty clear to me - did we want growth by default or design?” said Emil.  

Over the years CATS continued to work on the Sisters Community Visioning Project, resulting in the Sisters Country Vision Statement and the Sisters branding project in 2007. The Vision Statement, posted throughout town in public buildings, is now widely used in community goal setting and decision making.

In October 2010 CATS dissolved its non-profit status and transferred its remaining assets to a community grant fund managed by the City of Sisters.

When asked how he would characterize his fifty-plus years of living in Sisters, Smith said “I’ve always felt that Sisters was like living in my personal Lake Wobegon.”

Sisters Born & Bred - Georgia Gallagher

(This article first appeared in the 5/28/08 issue of the Nugget Newspaper)

There aren’t that many people living in Sisters today that can say they were actually born here. Georgia Gallagher is one of them and, at eighty-six, her positive spirit and good health is a testament to the ranching lifestyle she was born into.

Georgia was born in 1922 on the 640-acre Edgington Ranch which was located about two miles south of Sisters, west of South Elm/Three Creeks Lake roads and south of the present-day Patterson Ranch. Georgia Edgington became the youngest child in a family of four children born to Ellis and Ellen Edgington. Oldest brother Bob was born in 1915, sister Jean in 1917, and youngest brother Jesse in 1918.

“I was closest to Jesse because we were closer in age, my sister Jean used to get irritated with me always wanting to tag along with her,” mused Georgia.

Georgia’s father, Ellis, was born in 1884 and grew up in Wasco County (Maupin/Tygh Valley area.) A single man in the early 1900’s, he traveled to Oregon State University in Corvallis to take agricultural courses. He traveled through Sisters Country on his journeys to and from Corvallis.

“Dad worked harvesting wheat in Wasco County and decided to file on a 160-acre homestead claim at the “old Tumalo reservoir” site (next to what is now the Tumalo Reservoir.) He worked that land in the early 1900’s when he wasn’t harvesting wheat in Wasco County or in school,” recalled Georgia.

In 1910 the lure of farming in the Sisters area motivated Ellis and his cousin to “partner-up” and purchase the land that would become the Edgington Ranch. “The land had been the site of one of the many saw mills in Sisters at the time, most of which burned down,” said Georgia.

Ellis also purchased parcels of land from Sam Johnson who was acquiring forest parcels in exchange for his timber work in Sisters Country. The total of Ellis’ land acquisitions eventually equaled about 640 acres. Ellis’ cousin began to lose interest in the venture and moved on, leaving the Edgington Ranch to Ellis.

Ellis Edgington met Ellen Crawford about 1912, most likely at one of the “Elocution Club” gatherings that took place at the Plainview school. Elocution Clubs were popular at the time, community gatherings where poems and writings would be learned and recited.

Ellen Crawford had moved to the Plainview area with her mother and five sisters after trading a ranch in Ashland for a ranch in the Plainview area (near the site of the present-day stone house on the Bend highway.) “My grandparents moved to Ashland (from Palouse, WA) for health reasons but sadly both my grandfather and their only son both died, recalled Georgia.

Ellen was teaching in the Plainview School when she met Ellis. “In those days teachers were not supposed to get married, if you did you had to quit,” said Georgia. So after “courting” for awhile Ellen Crawford became Ellen Edgington in 1914. Their wedding was filled with fun.

“Dad had a bunch of “homesteading buddies” who loved to play tricks on each other. With their wagon hitched to the horses, loaded down with food and supplies, and ready for the honeymoon trip to Crane Prairie (south of Bend), his “buddies” decided to unhitch the horses and scare them off to the far end of the ranch. My Dad had to round them all up while his “buddies” all had a good laugh at his expense,” recalled Georgia.

Throughout the 1920’s and into the depression era the Edgingtons ran cattle and dairy cows on their property, selling cream to a dairy in Redmond that would come out once a week to pick it up. Horses were a regular part of their ranch life as well.

“We rode horses to school, doubled-up with me behind my sister and my two brothers together. I’d hold tight around my sister’s waist when she rode faster but, one time, she didn’t tell me she was going to speed up and I fell off right in the middle of the road!” recalled Georgia.

“Mostly you didn’t ride for pleasure in those days, you either had a job to do or you had to get somewhere,” added Georgia.

The family was active with the Presbyterian Church which was located where the Church of Christ is today. Ellis Edgington was also active with the Civic Club and a member of the Sisters Rodeo Association, helping to organize the rodeo when it was held at the site where Hoyt’s Hardware sits today.

“Mom objected to Dad working on the rodeo so much. She felt he should have been home working on the farm,” recalled Georgia.

Georgia graduated from Sisters High School in 1939. The school was located at the site of the present-day City Hall and Library. She went on to college at Oregon State University to study Foods & Nutrition, graduating with her degree in 1944. Returning to Sisters she was named Sisters Rodeo Queen in 1944, an honor she remembers well to this day. “I had to go around to all the Sisters businesses and convince them I was the one they should vote for. I guess they agreed,” said Georgia.

During her senior year at OSU Georgia met a man in Corvallis, Vince Gallagher, an enlisted Army man also studying at OSU. Sparks flew but they were not destined to be together in the short term. Vince had overseas war duty and Georgia still had an internship to serve as part of her education. In 1945 Georgia took the train from The Dalles to Chicago for a year’s “Dietician Internship” at the Michael Reese General Hospital on the south side of Chicago. The entire experience was eye-opening for a young woman from Sisters Oregon.

“The hospital was basically located in a slum at the time. I had never experienced city life like that. We worked hard, cooked meals, cleaned, etc., because it was wartime and it was hard to get help in the hospitals,” said Georgia.

After the war, Vince and Georgia’s relationship blossomed and they married in June of 1946. A native of Bayonne, NJ, Vince had a good job waiting for him with the General Cable Corporation as an industrial engineer so the couple decided to move back to New Jersey. They stayed a year in the state before Vince heeded the advice of a relative “You’d better take that girl back home.”

This was just fine with Georgia, who was pregnant and it was difficult to find a good apartment anyway with all the returning veterans from the war. In 1947 they relocated to Redmond for six years, then to Salem for 22 years where Vince found a job with the highway department and Georgia worked at three different state institutions. The Gallagher family grew to five with a girl, Nora, and two sons, Dennis and Vince. All three still live in Oregon.

By the mid-1950’s Ellis and Ellen Edgington decided to move into Sisters, purchasing a home right next to the Village Green. Around 1970 the family sold the Edgington Ranch property to Don Frisbee, the present owner. After Ellis and Ellen passed away Georgia and Vince acquired the home in 1975, the same year Vince retired from the highway department. Vince passed away in 1981 and Georgia still lives in the house to this day.

Georgia served the Sisters community as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) from 1981 – 2000 and is still a member of the Garden Club, helping to beautify the various gardens and gazebos around the city. In 2006 she was named Grand Marshall for the Sisters Rodeo, a tribute to her contributions and heritage in Sisters Country.

Recently Georgia received another honor when she was named the Deschutes County Pioneer Queen for 2008 by the Deschutes Pioneer Association, a group of approximately 900 people who’ve lived in the county for over 40 years. The association researches the heritage of prospective queens very thoroughly before naming one each year. Georgia was notified of her nomination last December and is thrilled by the honor.

“We had a wonderful dinner in January and I was awarded my queen’s tiara and cape. This summer I ride in a number of parades including the Sisters Rodeo, Bend’s 4^th of July, the Veterans, and the Deschutes County Fair. I was very surprised and honored,” exclaimed Georgia.

It won’t be hard to recognize Georgia in the parades this summer. She’ll be the vibrant woman sitting in a classic car with a big beaming smile and wave for everyone she passes.

Edith Leithauser – Pioneering Sisters Retailer

(This article first appeared in the Feb. 13th, 2008 edition of the Nugget Newspaper)

Edith Leithauser recalled, “Must have been about 1944, I was in another part of our store (Leithauser’s Grocery on Cascade Avenue) when I heard my two young children, Frank and Joanne, giggling wildly with a customer in one of the aisles.”

“Thinking they were bothering the customer I apologized to the pleasant-looking man as he approached the cash register.”

Smiling, the man said, “They’re not bothering me at all. I was talking with them in my Daffy Duck voice and they thought it was hilarious!”

The man was Mel Blanc, the well-known voice actor behind the animated characters of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, and many others.

This is just one of the many interesting stories that Edith Leithauser, eighty-nine and a resident of Sisters since 1941, relates about the early days of owning and operating a retail store in Sisters.

Born in 1919 in Boring, Oregon, Edith was the second of four daughters born to Floyd and Viola Lake. Boring, at the time, only had an elementary/middle school so all four girls attended and graduated from Sandy High School.

The depression affected many families in the area but the Lakes’ fared better than most. “My father was a postal carrier in the area so he had consistent employment throughout those years,” she recalled.

Steady employment, however, couldn’t prevent her mother’s debilitating illness during that time. Even after all these years Edith still gets emotional when she remembers her mother’s pain.

“My mother was bedridden with peritonitis so I had to step in and take care of my sisters, getting them ready for school, putting the cow in the pasture, and preparing meals. I learned about responsibility at a very early age,” she recalled.

Edith’s mother eventually had surgery in a Portland hospital with a full recovery and lived to be ninety-five years old.

Following graduation from Sandy High, Edith Lake attended Behnke-Walker Business College in Portland to obtain basic business skills. Her stay at the College, however, was short-lived as she caught the eye of another student, a young man raised in Sisters by the name of Pete Leithauser.

“Pete was ahead of me at the college so he was more prepared for what was ahead of us,” Edith recalled.

Edith had never been in Sisters before visiting Pete’s family in the late 1930’s. Trading barbs about each other’s home towns, Pete would call Boring “a lighted up cemetery” and Edith would counter that “Sisters was a wide spot in the road.”

Pete and Edith married in 1938 and soon after made their first move to Sisters. This initial move didn’t work out and they departed, only to return again in 1941. With one child in tow (Frank, born in 1940) the Leithauser’s began the process of buying Pete’s father’s grocery store, Leithauser’s Grocery, which was located at the present site of Sisters Bakery on Cascade Avenue.

“We lived in the back of the store in a large room, it had everything we needed and it was convenient because we worked all the time, all my kids too!” recalled Edith.

As the 40’s rolled into the 50’s and the Leithauser family grew to five children, Pete simply expanded the store to accommodate both an expanding product line and his growing family. “We built on a couple of rooms in the back so our family could have more room,” laughed Edith.

The store name changed as well to keep up with the changing times. Initially named Leithauser’s Grocery, the new store became known as Leithauser’s Supermarket.

“Seems like we were always expanding, moving stock, bringing in new items to meet the needs of people at the time. I listened very carefully to what folks wanted because there wasn’t anywhere else locally to get certain items,” said Edith.

Interestingly there were three food retailers in Sisters at the time. Residents were generally very loyal and “traded” (a term used at the time for “purchased”) items with one retailer. This may have been due to family relationships, business ties, proximity to the store, or the availability of credit from the retailer.

“I was always very friendly to my customers and, as a result, we had a loyal following. I even made a point of remembering tourist’s names – folks who only came in once a year,” recalled Edith.

Leithauser’s Supermarket operated from the early 1920’s to 1977. After operating the store for thirty-six years, Pete and Edith sold the store to Art Tennell, who then transformed the store into the first Ray’s Supermarket, eventually moving it to its present location in the Three Winds Shopping Center.

Edith and Pete moved into a new home they built on forty acres just outside the city limits north of town in 1977.

Early promoters and volunteers with the Sisters Rodeo, Edith fondly recalls cutting out pieces of oil cloth to use as numbers for the contestants in the 1942 rodeo which took place in the field just north of the present site of Conklin’s Guest House.

“A few of us did everything, from making numbers to operating the chutes, seems like everyone in town got involved in some way,” remembers Edith.

In recognition of their heritage with the Sisters Rodeo, both Pete and Edith were honored by being named Rodeo Parade Grand Marshals. Pete in 1986, Edith in 2005.

Recalling the experience, Edith said “They treated me so well! A beautiful jacket with my name on it, wonderful seats at the rodeo, and being parade marshal, it was so nice!”

Sadly, Pete did not live long enough to see his wife receive her honor. He passed away in 1990. At eighty-nine Edith still enjoys all that life has to offer. She’s active in her church, attends senior events in the community, and enjoys Model A Fords, a passion she shares with her family.

Be sure to watch for Edith Leithauser’s bright smile and shining eyes in next summer’s rodeo parade – she’ll be riding in a Model A Ford, waving to everyone, just like she does every year!