Leafdahl Interview, March 4, 2016

Leafdahl Interview, March 4, 2016

Oral History

Arrival in Reedsport in 1948

Community Collection Day - March 4, 2016

Reedsport Main Street

Created March 4, 2016
Covering events in 1948

CC BY-SA 2016

MP4
MP3

12:24

LEAFDAHL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Duane Leafdahl and his mother, Kathleen Leafdahl Butler Leafdahl
Interviews one at the Discovery Center, 3/4/16. The interviewer was Sunnie.
As transcribed by Wes Lockard


Sunnie: Good morning! I see your name is Kathleen Leafdahl Butler.

Kathleen: Right.

Sunnie: Okay, and who do you have with you here?

Kathleen: That’s my son, Duane Leafdahl.

Sunnie: Well, we're glad to have you here and very pleased that you have come to share your information with us. And what did you want to share with us today?

Duane: Well I guess about when we moved here in 1948. We moved from up on the McKenzie River and lived in the Welcome Hotel in a little-bitty room. You were 31 and I was 8. My mom worked for Aunt Jenny in the café, down about where the bookstore is now. She got a little under a dollar an hour waiting on tables. I guess you'd never worked before, had you?

Kathleen: Well, not to speak of.

Duane: A little bit up there at Phil’s Fine Food?

Kathleen: Yeah, and in Portland a little bit, but not enough to talk about, hardly.

Duane: Yeah, she worked in the shipyard in Portland key punching. My dad was not taken in the Army. He was needed in the shipyard; he was a crane operator. They both worked there and I stayed in a…, I called it a prison camp, but I guess it wasn’t.

Kathleen: It was a nursery for children.

Duane: …a little nursery there on Swan Island. Anyway, my dad was killed up on the McKenzie. Mom and I were living in Reedsport and she was working for Aunt Jenny.

Sunnie: Aunt Jenny and the café?

Duane: Yeah. Aunt Jenny owned a café across the street from the theater.

(Editor’s note: “Aunt Jenny” was Jenny Butler. The restaurant opened in 1947.)

Sunnie: That would be next to….?

Duane: …about where the bookstore is now, yeah. Right in that area. I think that was the restaurant right there.

Kathleen: And it was by the jeweler’s.

Duane: Nichol’s Jewelers was on the other side, and then Carr’s Variety was on this side towards the hotel.

Sunnie: Was “Jenny” “G I-N-N-Y” or “G – E”?

Kathleen: “J-E-N-N-Y”

Sunnie: Thank you.

Duane: The streets was where I played – I played on the streets. Several other kids were around. Some of them are still here. Well, we lived in the Welcome Hotel for a few months and then moved into Reed’s Cabins, which is over where the low-cost housing is across from the Fire Hall there. And we lived there for a while. And then we moved up above the Horseshoe Café and mom went to work for Lee Franklin in the Horseshoe Café. And we had a real nice apartment up above the Horseshoe, overlooking the streets.

(Editor’s note: He was actually Edward Lee Franklin, married to Erma Fay Morey in 1949. Lee was about 27 years old. His father’s name was also Edward Franklin, which may be why the son went by “Lee”. The name of the establishment might have been just “The Horseshoe”, and it was originally billed as a “teen-age center”.)

Kathleen: It was at that time that longshore strike was on. In the restaurant where I worked, we got a lot of pickets.

Sunnie: Were you the cook or...?

Duane: Waitress. They used to ship more lumber out of Reedsport than anywhere on the West Coast. It was known as "The Timber Shipping Capital of the World", but it changed to Coos Bay in the early 50's; it started swinging down to Coos Bay. And by '55, all of the Reedsport gangs had moved to Coos Bay.

Sunnie: When you say "gangs"...

Duane: Oh, that's what they called a group of longshoreman who worked together. They had several "gangs". That kind of took away from Reedsport.

Kathleen: At that time, I met a longshoreman by the name of Robert Butler. We were married...

Duane: 1951. What I remember about growing up in Reedsport was that the movie theater, if I had a quarter, I could go in a matinee, get a Coke, a candy bar, and popcorn... for a quarter. The gal that served the popcorn, Virginia, is 94 I believe. She's still alive and lives in Winchester Bay. She calls me one of her "popcorn boys", and also Don Holesapple is one of her "popcorn boys". Anyway, I'd go see the same movie over and over; it really didn't make much difference. The first three rows of the theater had water up in them at a high tide and so we would wear our boots and play in the water before the movie started. And if we got rowdy, Virginia would kick us out. And if we were really bad, the owner, Don Baltazar, would kick us out for a week or two, and that really hurt our feelings but it didn't slow us down much.

(Editor’s note: I believe the correct name is Earl Baltazar.)

Anyway, we played in the streets. We played in the alley behind the Welcome Hotel. I got my first bicycle from the hardware store and put it together and put it in the alley and I jumped on it and I rode it.

Sunnie: Do you know who had the hardware store at that time?

Kathleen: Frank Taylor.

Duane: Yep, Frank Taylor had it and his wife worked in there too. There was two variety stores in Reedsport, Carr’s and Lay’s, and they always had good toys and I always wanted one of everything.

Sunnie: Do you remember how to spell “Lay’s”?

Duane: L-A-Y-S.

(Editor’s note: correct spelling is actually “Ley’s”.)

Kathleen: You spent a lot of time in Carr’s – or could it have been Lay’s? Well anyway, the woman told me that she had a lot of trouble with the kids snooping around through the stores. But she said whenever she saw Duane come in, she didn’t worry - that she knew he wouldn’t touch a thing; that he didn’t take home unpaid for.

Duane: After my mom was married, my dad rebuilt a house up on the “Flat” – the one that Jeff Unger lives in now is where I grew up, and the Ungers grew up across the street. I’ve been living in the same house for 43 years, and it’s just a block away from there.

Sunnie: Duane, did you go to school here through all your...?

Duane: Third grade through Sophomore. In 1955, we moved to Coos Bay cause my Dad was a longshoreman like I said, and all the work was down there. So we moved down there and I went to school for a little while at Marshfield, and then joined the Navy in 1957.

Sunnie: Did you graduate from Marshfield?

Duane: No. I got a GED from SWOCC in 1990. And my Mom graduated from Oakridge High School.

In 1964, I was working for Gerber Legendary Blades in Tigard, and my wife and I and two small kids rented a house and packed up everything - we were living in Hillsboro and I wanted to get closer to Tigard - packed up everything and went over to that house and he had rented it to somebody else. So I went out to the U-Haul and I asked Jeanette, if you had your choice of living anywhere in the world, where would it be? And she said, "Reedsport". So I just drove to Reedsport and we've been living here ever since. Although I worked on the ocean for about 30 years and was gone a lot. We lived in Winchester Bay for a short while, and then moved to the house where we live now and have been there for 43 years. So I guess you could call it "home".

Sunnie: The house you are living in now... that's where you grew up?

Duane: No, just a block from where I grew up is where I live now.

Sunnie: Ok, where do you presently live?

Duane: 1990 Greenwood

Sunnie: Kathleen, do you still live here in Reedsport?

Kathleen: I'm back here now. I was away for a while. I was in Arizona for 13 years.

Sunnie: Did you just return, or have you been here...?

Kathleen: We came back in '84 from Arizona and have been here ever since or close by.

Duane: She's lived around here ever since '48, except for the 13 years you were in Arizona. And then you were up here every summer.

Kathleen: Yeah, we came up to fish. Bob had to fish (laughs).

Duane: She lives with us now, my wife and I.

Sunnie: Okay, thank you.

Duane: My stepdad's family was born and raised all up Smith River and Gardiner and around here.

Sunnie: And who was that?

Duane: Well, that was Joseph Butler - my Dad's Dad's name.

Sunnie: Your stepdad was Robert Butler.

Duane: Yeah, and his dad was Joseph Butler. He was a bar pilot here for 65 years and held an open bar pilot's license longer than anybody ever did. I used to ride out on the Tiger with him sometimes when he'd go get a ship and bring it in. A lot of ships in and out of here - lumber ships in the early days.

Sunnie: And he was a tugboat pilot?

Duane: No, he was a ship's pilot. He brought the ships in across the bar, and took them out. And sometimes Newport or Coos Bay.

Kathleen: He was the best bar pilot they ever had around here, I guess.

Duane: Yes.

Sunnie: Do you have any pictures of the Tiger?

Duane: No, I don't. It was a beautiful tugboat. And then they built a tophouse on it so they could push barges and see over the top, but it ruined the boat. He worked for Umpqua River Navigation Company for a long time. And when he retired from piloting, he worked security down there at the Umpqua Navigation. Howard Hinsdale didn't want him to quit. So he'd go down and drink coffee with the guys. He bought the first dredge they had in Reedsport.

Kathleen: Howard Hinsdale did that.

Duane: Yeah, he was working for Umpqua River Navigation, which was owned by Hinsdale. Yes. And he was the head of the Port Commission. And the Port Commission did not want to buy a dredge, and he went out and got a dredge and filled in all of Reedsport with it. And they were really convinced that they needed a dredge then. They filled in a lot of Foster's Dairy, which is the Elk Reserve now. It did a lot of work. It was a steam-fired dredge.

Sunnie: And what are you presently doing?

Duane: I'm retired. I retired in 2003. The last 12 years I worked for Oregon State University on a research ship out of Newport. Chief Engineer for Sause Brothers, and Umpqua River Navigation...

Sunnie: These are some of the positions you've held in your lifetime?
Duane: Yeah. Chief Engineer on a crab boat out of Alaska. I joint-venture fished in Alaska. And I had several commercial fishing boats. I fished all up and down the Oregon-Washington-California coast.

Sunnie: Did you have one in Winchester Bay?

Duane: Yeah.

Sunnie: And what was the name of that one?

Duane: Well, the last one I had was called the "Joann” (spelling?). It was a 65-foot, high-speed mine sweep from Vietnam that I converted into a commercial fishing boat. That was the last boat I fished out of Winchester Bay. Then I went to Alaska and fished on a 146-foot "Dakota Crick Boat" which at that time was a state-of-the-art boat; a three-million-dollar boat.

Kathleen: I fished a lot out of Winchester Bay, but I didn't have a commercial license.

Duane: You should of had! My Mom kept a record of the fish they caught out of the boat my Dad built. And one year they had 80 fish.

Kathleen: (chuckles)

Duane: My Mom and Dad didn't catch all of them. My Dad would take a lot of people out fishing with them.

Sunnie: You're referring to Robert Butler?

Duane: Yeah.

Kathleen: Yeah, he'd get so angry when some of those “inlanders” - he'd call them - would lose a fish ‘cause they didn't know how to net it. So he'd holler at me: "Get the net, Katie, get the net!"

Duane: My Mom seemed to catch the bulk of the fish. Sometimes, my Dad would make her stop fishing so other people could catch fish.

Kathleen: (chuckles)

Duane: Well Mom, are you about done?

Kathleen: Yeah, I don't know where to go any further.

Duane: Okay.

Sunnie: Well, I thank you very much for coming in and sharing this with us.

Duane: You're welcome.

Sunnie Hedden

Kathleen Leafdahl Butler

Duane C. Leafdahl

Umpqua Discovery Center

Outline, edited by Wes Lockard
• Moved to Reedsport in 1948
- Moved from Portland after the death of Kathleen’s husband on the McKenzie River
• Kathleen worked for Aunt Jenny’s Café as a waitress
- (Editor’s note: “Aunt Jenny” was Jenny Butler. The restaurant opened in 1947.)
- Description of area around café:
- Theater
- Nickels Jeweler
- Carr’s Variety
• Lived in:
- Welcome Hotel
- Reed’s “cabins”
- Above the Horseshoe Café
• Working for Horseshoe Café as a waitress
- Owned by Lee Franklin
- (Editor’s note: He was actually Edward Lee Franklin, married to Erma Fay Morey in 1949. Lee was about 27 years old. His father’s name was also Edward Franklin, which may be why the song went by “Lee”. The name of the establishment might have been just “The Horseshoe”, and it was originally billed as a “teen-age center”.)
- Working at the time of a longshoremen’s’ strike
• Reedsport was the “timber shipping capital of the world” until the early 50’s
• 1951: Kathleen married Robert Butler
• The Reedsport Movie Theater
- Concession operator: Virginia
- Friend: Don Holesapple
- Owner: Don Baltazar - (Editor’s note: I believe the correct name is Earl Baltazar)
• Hardware store
- Owner: Frank Taylor
• Two variety stores in Reedsport: Carr’s and Ley’s
- (Editor’s note: correct spelling is actually “Ley’s”)
• Moved to a house on the “Flat”
- Jeff Unger lives there now, but grew up across the street
- Duane lives one block from that house, and has for 43 years, at 1990 Greenwood
• Duane attended school here from Third Grade through his Sophomore year
• 1955: They moved to Coos Bay
- Duane attended Marshfield High School
- Duane got a G.E.D. from S.W.O.C.C. in 1990
- Kathleen graduated from Oakridge High School
• 1957: Duane joined the Navy
• 1964: Duane returned with his wife Jeanette and their family to Reedsport from Hillsboro
• 1984: After living in Arizona for 13 years, Kathleen returned to Reedsport
• Joseph Butler family (Robert Butler’s father)
- Lived in Gardiner
- Joseph was a bar pilot for 65 years
- The tugboat “Tiger”
- Built a top house
- Joseph worked for Umpqua River Navigation Company and Howard Hinsdale
• The first dredge in Reedsport, purchased by Howard Hinsdale
- Filling in downtown
- Filling in Foster’s Dairy, which is now the BLM Elk Reserve
• Duane’s work history:
- Retired in 2003
- 1991-2003: worked for Oregon State University on a research ship out of Newport
- Sause Brothers
– Chief Engineer
- Umpqua River Navigation
- Chief Engineer on a crab boat out of Alaska
- Joint-venture fished in Alaska
- Owned several commercial fishing boats and fished the coast from Washington to California
- Last one: The Joann (spelling?), based in Winchester Bay: a 65’ high-speed mine sweep from the Vietnam War that he converted into a commercial fishing boat
• Stories of Robert and Kathleen Butler fishing out of Winchester Bay