75 years ago
Jan. 3, 1942
Vivid memories of the hours and days which followed the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and Honolulu were brought back to Montesano yesterday by Mrs. Ella Mae Royce and her nine-year-old daughter Joan Lee Royce, first Harborites to return from the theater of war as refugees. They are the wife and daughter of Riggie Royce, leader of the famed Royal Hawaiian orchestra.
Mindful of the admonition against saying anything regarding military matters and trying to shut out the horror of death and destruction which the planes of the “rising sun” rained on the city and naval base, Mrs. Royce, daughter of Mrs. and Mrs. G.E. Vandervort, relates a gripping story of how the people responded to the attack.
She told of going to a hospital the following day in response to an appeal for blood donors. There she saw an elderly blind man, standing in line, awaiting his turn with a remark that “this is all I can give my country — my blood.” She also saw a crippled newsboy offering his blood for transfusions and a 10-year-old lad trying to enlist in the armed forces.
Mrs. Royce displayed a warm V-for-Victory jacket given her shivering daughter, explaining that they had to leave Hawaii on four hours’ notice Christmas Day with the first convoy of women and children evacuees. They were unprepared for the chili winter weather of the mainland.
Jan. 4, 1942
Sunday, no newspaper published
50 years ago
Jan. 3, 1967
Jack Ruby, killer of presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died peacefully of cancer today in the same hospital where both President Kennedy and Oswald breathed their last three years ago.
Ruby shot Oswald Nov. 24, 1963, in full view of millions on national television. He was once found guilty and sentenced to death but an appeals court overturned the verdict last Oct. 5, and ordered a new trial which was to be held in Wichita, Texas this year.
Jan. 4, 1967
Scotland yard today announced recovery of $8.4 million in art treasures stolen by a “thin man” burglar Saturday in history’s biggest art theft.
Recovery of the loot — including three Rembrandts and three Rubens — climaxed a massive operation of raids, searches and questioning throughout southern England. Eight masterpieces in all were stolen from the Dulwich College art gallery by a burglar or burglars who drilled a hole in a door.
25 years ago
Jan. 3, 1992
The Weyerhaeuser Co. said today it will post a net operating loss in 1991, the first since the timber company began reporting earnings 59 years ago.
They company also said it will shut down three or four mills in the coming months, putting as many as 1,000 people out of work.
Rich Long, vice president of corporate communications, said the mills to be shut down include the pulp mill in Everett, a saw mill in Klamath Falls, Ore., at least one other plant in the Northwest and possibly another plant out of the region.
Jan. 4, 1992
Two decades after blues-rock genius Jimi Hendrix set his last guitar afire onstage, Seattle is back in the musical spotlight with a sound so raw and gritty it’s called simply “grunge.”
The group Nirvana has seen its “Nevermind” release go double platinum, selling more than 2 million copies.
And two-thirds of the band is from Aberdeen.
Chris Novoselic, 26, is an imposing 6 feet 7 inches tall and the group’s bassist. He met Kurt Cobain, 24, during a wood shop class when the two were students at Aberdeen High School, according to Chris’s mother, Maria Novoselic. owner of Maria’s Hair Design in Aberdeen.
“Nevermind” has been No. 6 on Billboard for the past three weeks but it suddenly rocketed to the top ahead of country’s Garth Brooks, rap’s M.C. Hammer and the previous No. 1, Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous.”
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
