FIFTH Dear Mad'm Event in Happy Camp

by Judy Bushy from the Siskiyou Daily News October 20, 2015

Have you ever planned a picnic and two weeks up until the event, the sun shone every day? Then the day before clouds began to gather and the forecast was rain! We were so very appreciative that Barbara Brown of Naturegraph Publishers welcomed us to hold our Dear Mad’m gathering there Saturday! The rain might not have rained us out (or in—as it was raining out) but it was far more pleasant not to worry about the weather and be in such a comfortable homey setting.

Lisa Giola from the Siskiyou County Historical
Museum and Roberta Everett who shared
about Vivian Witt at Dear Mad'm 2015

Roberta Everett shared with us about Vivian Witt. How many Happy Campers remember Vivian? She was active in the Grange and Art classes and paintings. It was Vivian that illustrated the cover for the paperback book of Dear Mad’m that Naturegraph has been publishing for many years!!  Roberta stumped many of us with the question, how many ladies came from Chicago (Vivian being one of them) to retire in a cabin on the same claim as Stella Patterson had lived, after reading the book she wrote, Dear Mad’m? Most of us know about three of the ladies that stayed here, Vivian Witt, Joan Richardson and Marie Miller, but originally there was a fourth. She may have enjoyed reading Dear Mad’m and thoughts of living in the wilderness by the Klamath River, but  city life called and she didn’t stay.

                                    First man we don't know, Joan Richardson, Marie Nelson, Fred Crooks (DEarSir),                                                                                                     Joan Richardson and Cy Jenson (Upm'up)

Leona McLaughlin made a beautiful sunny yellow cake that was delicious as well. There were a good variety of hotdishes and jewel salad and homemade applesauce Dolly Elston made. Karen Wright brought homemade Apple pie too!! And thanks so much to Barbara for homemade grape juice and other beverages. It dawned on me, that while we try to come up with a menu that would have been appropriate about the time Stella Patterson was celebrating her 80^th year on the mining claim, the reason I don’t remember, is that I wasn’t around to be eating that kind of meal in 1946!

We were so happy to have Lisa Gioia, director of our Siskiyou County Historical Museum in Yreka with us. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in anthropology, a Master’s Degree in History and minor in Public History. She specialized in Oral Histories which is such a needed project around here as well. Prior to becoming the Museum director, Lisa taught college anthropology and history in the west. She is author of “Showgirls in Las Vegas”,  Lisa has also been to Happy Camp and was sharing what she remembers from 35 years ago, Elmer and his bears, Ernie and another man, and she was familiar with the Dear Mad’m story! Lisa seems to feel there are Stella W. Patterson fans who’live elsewhere in the county and we do hear from others in Maine and Virginia and a wide variety of places.

 Perhaps we should hold the literary event there next year. Rod Diradon, speaker for our first two Dear Mad’m events, said that he has Dear Mad’m on his calendar for October 14-15^th 2016. It will be wonderful to see him and hear his stories of summer days on the Klamath River visiting his grandparents and Stella Patterson. If you’d like to have news of the event next year, just send an e-mail requesting to be put on the mailing list for Dear Mad'm at klamathviews on gmail.com. I'm so excited to hear of all those who have requested to have information on next year and looking forward to seeing them all again!