Frances (Williams) Harmon, 97, grew up in the Aberdeen area and remembers a great deal about life on the Harbor dating back to the early 20th century.

She worked for a local dentistry practice, initially before graduating from Weatherwax High School in 1937. Frances married Harry Harmon, a log truck salesman who was on the Cosmopolis City Council from the early 1950s to mid-1970s. The couple raised three children.

“I consider Cosmopolis my home because I spent much of my life there,” she said.

Her childhood home, however, was in Terrace Heights and across the street from the home of Eugene France, mayor of Aberdeen near the turn of the century.

“He was an East Coast financier before coming west,” Harmon said.

One of the mayor’s well-chronicled accomplishments was appointing the city’s first career fire chief and helping to change Aberdeen’s fire department from a group of volunteers to a professional organization.

“His daughter, Edna, took an interest in me and another little girl in the neighborhood,” Harmon said. “She wanted to show us some culture.”

Edna took the girls to the movies. Frances said she especially liked film actor Ramon Novarro who started his career in silent films. Then he went on to star in movies with sound.

“He was sort of like Rudolph Valentino,” she explained with a smile on her face.

Going to the movies in Aberdeen back in those days also included the possibility of experiencing live, local entertainment in the same theater.

“Aberdeen used to have two or three movie places that showed good pictures,” Harmon remembered. “And there were some very good singers and dancers here.”

After taking in a show, Frances recalls often venturing over to grab something to eat at the Morck Hotel, which was built in 1924. Ice cream was her favorite.

“Edna showed us how to use finger bowls,” Harmon said. “It was a very fancy place.”

When the mayor’s house was demolished, it hurt. Frances had spent a lot of time there and the only areas where she’d never set foot were the servants’ quarters because Edna said it was where the servants lived and that they deserved their privacy.

“It was like losing a piece of my childhood,” she said. “I was floored. I loved that house.”

Frances was recently riding around Aberdeen and passed by the Becker Building.

“Now Aberdeen looks like another town,” she said. “The old landmarks just weren’t there and I wasn’t quite sure where I was. I need another map.”

After spending much of her adult life in Cosmopolis, she now resides in Aberdeen again, at Westhaven Villa, near Grays Harbor Community Hospital.