Billy Joe Robinson Sr.
May 12, 1975 - September 5, 2023

Billy Joe Robinson Sr. — a father, a brother, an uncle and a great friend to many — sadly passed away on September 5, 2023, in his home.

Billy was born to his mother, Marian Bowie, and his father, William Robinson, on May 12, 1975 in General Hospital in Eureka.

Billy was a proud tribal member of Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria.

Through out Billy’s years he spent most of his time taking care and hanging out with his mom. No matter what he was doing he always made time to be home and be with his family. He most enjoyed the days watching the Redskins, working on cars, playing cribbage, darts, Yahtzee, horseshoes tournaments with his brothers and close cousins. He enjoyed riding motorcycles, and being outdoors with his kids, taking his daughters to go blackberry picking and flying his drone with his son.

Billy was a man of heart. He was a very caring, loving and smart man and could always make you laugh if you were feeling down. Billy wouldn’t hesitate to help anyone out who needed help. Billy loved everyone, especially his kids and mom.

Billy is going to be greatly missed by his family and friends.

Billy is preceded in death by his mom, Marian Bowie; his brother, Gary Robinson; his sister, Jamie Morales; his nephew, Zachary Purim; his uncle, Duane Bowie Sr.; his aunties, Janice McGinnis and Norma Jean Carter; and cousins Les Bowie Sr, Bobby Bowie, Danny Lopez, Joe McGinnis Sr, and Victor Billy.

Billy left behind his daughters, Grace and Treasure Robinson, Carole Hanley; and his son Billy Robinson Jr; his brother, Roy Robinson; and his sisters, Valerie Robinson and Charlene Scott; kids by heart Shawn Robinson, Brittany Hanley; mother to his kids, Krissey Hanley; his Auntie, Aileen Meyer; Nephews, Manny Gonzalez, Brandon Brumwell, Travis Purim, Gary Jr.; nieces, Shaya, Marissa and Sunshine Robinson, Tiffany Strohbin; and cousins Jim Bowie, Gusto Bowie, Jeremey Houston, Brian Wells, Debbie Layton, Ed Smith; and many many more.

Memorial Services will be held Friday, September 15, at Sanders Funeral Home in Eureka at 5 p.m. After that will be a celebration of life that will be held at his home on the Bear River Rancheria in Loleta on Carroll Road.

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Billy Robinson’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Mattole (Walter Charles Sharp III)
Nov. 14, 1934 - Aug. 21, 2023

Mattole, born Walter Charles Sharp III on November 14, 1934, in Germantown Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, passed in his sleep on Monday, August 21, 2023, his beloved wife, Jeanne by his side. His soul peacefully left his body in the timber-framed cabin built by two of their sons, on their land in Honeydew, overlooking the Mattole River.

Mattole met Jeanne McCord Mattole in 1969, at a party hosted by mutual friends, George Goehring and Dennis J. O’Brien (d. 2023). He won her over with his smile, kind demeanor and his story of having just returned from the Woodstock Music Festival, where he had been up close to his idols as he helped run the lights for the show.

He was preceded in death by his father, Lt. Colonel Walter Charles Sharp, Jr (d. 1976) and his mother, Catherine McGarvey Sharp (d. 2009), and he is survived by his two closest siblings, Georganne Sharp Hughes (Saint Petersburg, Fla.) and Kevin Sharp (Largo, Fla.), as well as a much younger half-sister he always wanted to meet, Lisa Sharp Cogbill (Little Rock, Ark.).

A private family graveside memorial was held on Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023, at the Petrolia Table Cemetery, Petrolia. He was laid to rest in a rustic and elegantly hand-built coffin made from old Redwood salvaged by a native Yurok friend of the family. Later, family members gathered at the Mattole Valley Sungrown Farm in Honeydew, where stories of his many chapters, his original larger-than-life personality, his complete lack of care for what anyone else thought, his outlandish ideas (many attempted and some accomplished), and his passion for original adventures were shared by his family.

Mattole’s childhood was spent between their home on Long Beach Island, New Jersey and wherever his father was stationed, including the first few years of high school in Caracas, Venezuela. After re-discovering tumors in his brain during his junior year of high school, Mattole returned to Long Beach Island, where he graduated from Barnegat High School in June 1953. Mattole was always smiling and talking, and his yearbook is full of comments from faculty members and fellow classmates, referring to him as “Sharpie” and commenting on his gregarious personality and welcoming manner.

He entered college at Baylor University the following fall and found himself coming truly alive in the theatre department. However, he withdrew and joined the Navy. His Navy stint was cut short when the tumors returned, and he was honorably discharged. Mattole spent the remainder of the 1950s pursuing his acting career and education. He studied at the Cornish School of Fine Arts in Seattle, Wash. and the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Penn. He finished his studies in NYC, at the Herbert Berghof Studio. During this period he acted in many off-Broadway and regional theatre productions.

He is survived by his three children from his first marriage, and their partners, Geoffrey Sharp (Altadena, Calif./Elizabeth), Catherine Sharp Shahan (Monkton, Vt./Matt) and Hope Sharp (Montpelier, Vt./Joe) and their mother who raised them, Margery Gould Sharp (Shelburne, Vt.), as well as his six grandchildren through his first marriage, Marshall, Haley, Tom, Audrey, Miles & Juliet and two great-grandchildren, Ezra & Aaron.

The 1960s were a busy and ambitious time for Mattole, Marge and his young family. Marge purchased a barge for them to build a traveling theatre on; he completed his BA in Theatre Arts from UCLA; became a member of Actors Equity; taught drama and speech at the Peddie School and regularly stage-managed theatre productions in New York City and New England, all with the amazing support of his wife.  In 1968 he left his family and spent the summer working with a group in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco called the Diggers and directing plays in Golden Gate Park. Many of the actors were runaway “flower children” who had never acted before. He was eventually divorced from his first wife, Margery.

Mattole is survived by his six children with Jeanne, and their partners, including Donovan Mattole (Center Valley, Penn./Emily), Dylan Mattole (Honeydew, Calif./Robbin), Rio Mattole (Whitefish, Mont./Stephanie), Morningstar Mattole Ohmes (Port Ludlow, Wash./Philipp), Meadowlark Mattole Clark (Brush Prairie, Wash./Sean), Dayspring Mattole (Arcata/Nate) and their son, Lee Mattole Kofi (McKinleyville/Celeste), who joined the family from Liberia as a young adult, as well as seventeen grandchildren, including Heather, Tristan, Maddox, Meadow, Sawyer, River, Cedar, Anika, Isabel, Sabine, Myah, Claira, Brayden, Ashton, Toby, Dominic and Heavenlee.

After meeting Jeanne, they lived in NYC before moving to Ibiza, Spain, eventually returning to San Francisco in the summer of 1971. After briefly living on a commune in Northern Mendocino County and running a teahouse (Trans Love Airways Teahouse) in Legget, in 1973, Mattole and Jeanne purchased acreage along the Mattole River in Humboldt County, California where they initially lived in a teepee. Mattole hand-built a cabin on the land and invited many family members and friends over the years to come live on the land with them, including nephew Marc Regan. Without electricity, everything was done by hand and completely off-the-grid, including building, farming cannabis, and caring for dozens of animals over the years, including horses, ponies, donkeys, goats, peacocks, chickens, a cow and a pet deer, along with loved dogs and cats. While growing his cannabis in the open under the sun and riding his horse around the valley in the nude, his only run in with the law was his constant free-ranging of animals across the valley!

The 1970s was a period of environmental activism and community building for Mattole, including periods of protest where he refused to ride in vehicles that produced carbon monoxide gases, polluting the atmosphere, and a period where he refused to speak as a silent protest. He and Jeanne hosted a number of equinox and solstice gatherings on their land. In 1979, Mattole generated publicity for his 300 mile/three-month trek through Northern California by horseback to speak to Governor Jerry Brown, representing many passionate local environmentalists in seeking Brown’s support in designating over 75,000 acres of coastal land in Southern Humboldt and Northern Mendocino counties, including The Kings Range, Gilham Butte and Chemise Mountain as National Wilderness Areas, as well as the expansion of the Sinkyone Wilderness Area, together one of the last primitive coastal lands in the contiguous United States. He also carried with him a list of other demands including freedom to legally grow cannabis and a protest against the proposal to open up the coastline of Humboldt to offshore oil drilling. He embraced community organizing and actively participated in a movement to create a public school in their community of Ettersburg, personally riding his horse to every home in the area and presenting the school district and county with a list of every child living in the hills and the signatures of their parents, which contributed to the county approving creation of public school, which originally met in the log cabin on his land before a building was erected.

The 1980s was a period of spiritual seeking and evangelism for Mattole, after his early 1970s “Jesus movement” experience, which resulted in the founding of a church on their land and traveling the world “preaching the message of Jesus” (including smuggling Bibles into China; annual trips street-preaching in NYC, etc.) much of it from the back of his horse, Honeydew, or behind a wagon covered in signs. Many residents of Southern Humboldt will remember this period of his life when he was dragging a cross and preaching on the streets in Garberville. Like all endeavors, when Mattole decided to do something he did it in a radical way!

In the 1990s his extreme activism and externally focused protests and outreaches slowed down as his children grew into adulthood. His last thirty years were spent closer to home, embracing the land he loved, growing organic blueberries, and passing on the legacy of growing cannabis under the natural sun in the same way he did back in 1973. Up until his passing he was still a font of offbeat ideas (e.g. let’s buy a “Chinese Junk” sailboat and circle the globe.) He still ventured out for periodic adventures (e.g. retracing the Applegate Trail by wagon; trips around the world), but he always returned to his home in The Mattole Valley overlooking the Mattole River, his namesake.

A true original, over the course of his almost 89 years he wore many hats (literally – he loved a good hat) and lived many lives, but his deepest love was for his family, including his wife Jeanne, his siblings, his 10 children, his twenty-three grandkids and his two great-grandchildren, all who he followed closely, asking whomever he was speaking to about everyone else and all who he would ask to visit constantly!

Mattole was a highly memorable character. The Humboldt region he so loved, and his many friends and family around the globe, have lost an original soul. He will be missed.

In lieu of flowers or plants as condolences, the family requests that donations be made to the Mattole Valley Resources Center, a Nonprofit Community Support Organization meeting critical needs in the Mattole Valley. Additional information can be found at www.mattolevalleyresourcescenter.org or checks can be mailed to MVRC, PO Box 191, Petrolia, CA 95558.

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Mattole’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Obituary for Barbara Stratton Peters
April 18, 1949 to September 7, 2023

Barbara was born on a beautiful spring day (April 18, 1949) in Pocatello, Idaho. She was the third of four children born to Margaret Harris Stratton and R. Wendell Stratton. As a child, she was very shy but had the best time growing up with her wonderful family. They lived in Pocatello until Barbara was 5 years old; then her father’s work took them to Price, Utah. There were many Italian and Greek families in that area and she loved the diversity of the community. She and her older siblings attended grade school at Notre Dame Catholic School. Just before the fifth grade, her family moved back to Pocatello, where she finished school, went to college, and started her first jobs in the Pocatello Public Library and the Career Planning and Placement Office at Idaho State University. She earned her BA degree in American Government in 1971 and her MAEd in Student Personnel Work in Higher Education in 1976 – both from Idaho State University.

In 1977, she left home in Idaho to take a job at Humboldt State University in the Career Planning and Placement Center. She worked at HSU for 30 years and made many life-long friendships with co-workers, students and faculty. Barbara’s shyness seemed to go away as she worked in this career. Her students were Science and Natural Resources majors, and she developed a love of the environment and conservation through them. After she retired from HSU in 2007, she continued in her profession by offering Resume Writing and Job Hunting workshops at both the Western Section and national conferences of The Wildlife Society. This gave her the opportunity to travel to new places in California Utah, Oregon and Hawaii. She “retired” again from this activity in 2017. The Western Section honored her with the Barrett A. Garrison “Outstanding Mentorship Award” at the 2017 conference.

In 1980, Barbara was thrilled to meet Tom Peters while singing in the Humboldt Chorale. Tom was always the special man who lit up her life – a match that lasted over 40 years - even though it took 4 years of being together before Tom proposed. They married in 1984 when Barbara was 35 and Tom was almost 39 – neither had been married before. They did not have children but met many young people over the years. In fact, Barbara kept in touch with many of these young people and former students. In addition to these activities, Tom and Barbara traveled throughout the northwest, Canada and Mexico – mostly to fish and enjoy beautiful places.

She and Tom raised four English Springer Spaniels – Mabel, Maggie, Buster and Maizey. Maggie had two litters of puppies and Tom and Barbara found great homes for them. In fact, they felt that they increased their “litter of friends” with the puppies they had. Over the years they enjoyed three puppy reunions to the delight of everyone involved.

Friendships and family have dominated Barbara’s life. She always loved getting to know people and became an instant friend with many of the people she met. She had a broad spectrum of friends of all ages and backgrounds – this enriched her own life.

After she retired, she was involved with the Hospice of Humboldt Auxiliary, local and national politics and community activities. In her activities, she worked toward fairness, social justice and equality issues for all people.

Barbara is survived by her wonderful husband, Tom Peters; sister-in-law Christa (Mike) Stratton, sister Sue (Les) Short, sister Deborah (Ted) Flandro, nieces Jennifer Petersen and Erika Petersen and great niece Kaitlin Chacon, as well as nieces & nephews in Tom’s family. She was preceded in death by her parents (Margaret Stratton, Wendell Stratton and his 2nd wife Billie Stratton).

She was also preceded in death by her parents Margaret Stratton, Wendell Stratton, and his second wife Billie, her brother Mike Stratton and her brothers-in-law Ted Flandro and Les Short. She was also preceded by Tom’s parents, Henry and Carol Peters, his siblings Lynn, Jim, and Christopher Peters, and his nephew Sean.

Donations to the Food Bank and/or the Sequoia Humane Society would be greatly appreciated.

— Prepared by Barbara S. Peters, Sept. 18, 2017

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Barbara Peters’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Kathy Rosemary Bishop (Horn) passed away on August 20, 2023 with her family at her side. She was 73 years old.

She is survived lovingly by her family including husband, Brian Bishop. They were married on September 23, 1988. She is also survived by her son, Charles (Brett) Wright, with his three children, Lila Wright, Theodore Wright, and Leo Wright; her daughter, Adrienne Davis, and son-in-law, Michael Davis Jr., with their two children, Rosabel Davis and Wyatt Davis; and her step-daughter, Kimberly Ashby, with her three children, Emmett Ashby, Owen Ashby, Isaac Ashby and Ellie Ashby.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Michael Horn (1977), and daughter-in-law, Melissa Schultz (2015).

Kathy graduated from Fortuna High School in 1967. She worked at Hoby’s Market in Scotia and 5 and L Market in Eureka.

Known as “Granny Cake” to her grandchildren, she helped fill their childhood memories with baking, sewing amazing Halloween costumes, the best flannel shirts, and the most beautiful knitted hats. Many also might remember Kathy as an amazing cook: “best fried chicken ever!” potato salad, biscuits, and chocolate chip cookies were some of the top requested items. Honestly, anything she made was amazing because it was all her greatest passion: to create for the ones that she loved.

Kathy “had a strong and loud voice for what she believed in…” She was overly compassionate in the things she loved, which included: reading, cooking, four-legged animals, good jazz, Frank Sinatra, watching classic movies, politics (“Take that, Donald!”), and most of all… family.

Family memories: “Loved our random conversations…she was always supportive of the things I wanted to learn and encouraged me to start a club where we only read banned books”. “Kathy had a never ending vigor for knowledge and a book collection to match.” “Her ______ was the best!”

A celebration of life is to be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to The Sequoia Humane Society.

Here’s to “Dancing and drinking wine in your garden.” You will be forever missed and loved so much.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Kathy Bishop’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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This Blue Lake black bear, photographed early Sunday morning by Jonathan Schram, appears to have been caught in the high-beams in the midst of destroying one of the recently handmade signs for the Medieval Festival of Courage, scheduled for early next month.

Is he upset about being left out? C’mon, someone could offer this ursine fellow in a bright green smock and feathered cap so he can dress like Little John in Disney’s Robin Hood. Now that would take courage. 

NOTE: This post has been corrected from a previous version which, stupidly, referred to this as a brown bear. Oops.

Humboldt Bay Fire release: 

On this 22nd Anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, we reflect on the first responders, victims, and the families of those whose lives were lost. 8 EMS personnel, 60 police officers, 343 firefighters, 1 fire patrolman, and 2997 civilians died when the two towers fell in New York City. It was a devastating loss to our country and our first responder family, a loss that has continued with over 800 more dying and over 33,000 affected by health impacts incurred during the search & rescue operations. We will always remember the sacrifices made and the tragic loss of life. We will always remember those who continue to battle with the trauma and latent physical effects of those events. We will always remember that day and the impact made on the United States of America.

In honor of the victims and fallen heroes of 9/11, Fire Chief Robertson, Battalion Chief Citro and the crew of Truck 8181 simulated hiking 110 stories by doing 1100 step ups honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice on this day, 22 years ago.

Humboldt Bay Fire invites everyone to visit the Fallen Firefighter Memorial at Clark Plaza in Eureka in order to “remember, honor, and pay tribute to those lost on 9-11.

We will never forget.

A two-year battle between labor groups and fast food giants is culminating in a last-minute deal announced today that would give workers a $20 minimum wage starting next April if businesses agree to nix their November 2024 ballot measure to undo a landmark law regulating the industry.

The agreement, detailed in changes to Assembly Bill 1228, averts what would have been a costly campaign for both sides. And they each get a major concession: It ensures at least a modest raise for workers, while the industry gets lawmakers to back off on a controversial proposal to hold fast food corporations legally responsible for labor violations in their franchise locations.

The 2022 law would have established a state-run council with worker and business representatives to write rules regulating wages and working conditions in fast food restaurants — an industry labor organizers have long struggled to unionize.

It was quickly put on hold last fall when restaurant groups and major fast food corporations poured millions into a signature-gathering campaign to have voters repeal it on the 2024 ballot.

The referendum campaign in July reported amassing $50 million in an “initial contribution” from McDonald’s, In-N-Out, Chick-Fil-A and the International Franchise Association and National Restaurant Association.

The Service Employees International Union, sponsor of the law, and other labor groups said the fast food industry, which employs more than 500,000 Californians, is in particular need of regulation because of low wages, unpredictable scheduling and what they said were harsh working conditions in restaurants largely controlled not by the corporations but by numerous independent franchise operators.

​​“For the last decade, fast-food cooks, cashiers and baristas in California have been sounding the alarm on the poverty pay and unsafe working conditions plaguing our industry,” Ingrid Vilorio, a leader in union efforts to organize fast food workers, said in a statement. “We have always known that to solve these problems, we need a seat at the table with our employers and the power to help shape better rules across our industry.”

Businesses have painted the law as an overreach, countering that restaurants have already raised wages during a period of record inflation, and said additional regulations would force fast food stores to close or hike prices.

In response to the referendum, SEIU and a furious Assemblymember Chris Holden, the Pasadena Democrat who authored the fast food council law, this year introduced AB 1228, the bill to establish joint labor law liability for corporations. That provision was stripped out of the law in 2022 to gain more support for its passage.

Also, this year’s state budget included a $3 million line item to resurrect the Industrial Welfare Commission, a state board dormant since 2004 that could also write new, industry-specific regulations. Over the weekend, lawmakers in another budget bill proposed calling off that commission’s revival.

The deal, which has days to be approved before the legislative session ends Thursday, would require the fast food council convene and meet for the first time by March 15, 2024 — earlier than it would have if voters approved the law on the November ballot.

The fast food industry and unions were in a crunch to reach an agreement by Monday night, the absolute last chance for bills to be amended this session because of a requirement they be in print for 72 hours before a final vote. The Legislature now must waive other deadline rules to bring the measure to the floor for consideration.

The deal is only possible because of a brand-new law signed on Friday by Newsom. AB 421 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Culver City Democrat, creates a process for proponents of a referendum to withdraw their measure from the ballot until 131 days before the election. Such a process already existed for other statewide initiatives, but not for efforts to overturn a law passed through the legislative process.

The Legislature rushed the bill through a final series of votes last Tuesday and sent it to the governor’s desk with an urgency clause allowing it to take effect immediately. That means, for the November 2024 election, referendums can be pulled off the ballot until June 27 — potentially opening the door for another deal next session with the oil industry over a referendum they qualified challenging a 3,200-foot drilling setback around homes, schools and health care facilities.

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