Donald Eugene Cloney was born December 11, 1921 in Eureka and died March 10, 2024 at the age of 102 in Eureka. He was the son of Eugene Showers and Matilda (Johnson) Cloney of Eureka. He was the second of four sons.

He graduated from Nazareth Academy (St Bernard School), Eureka High School, and UC Berkeley. He was a veteran of WWII, serving as a medic in the 89th Infantry, Third Army in Europe. He started working after school as a boy of 14 in the family drug store, The Red Cross Pharmacy, and after WWII came back and became a business partner with his father, then brother, and then son.

He was an active member of St. Bernard Catholic Parish, an original sponsor and promoter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a 4th degree Knights of Columbus, member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and a member of the Elks Lodge.

He was preceded in death by his brother Gerald R. Cloney, parents Eugene S. and Matilda J. Cloney, Patricia Mary (Brogan) Cloney: his wife of 56 years, son Joseph T. Cloney, and his brother William J. Cloney. He is survived by his sister-in-law Adella Cloney, brother Stanley E. Cloney (wife Carlotta), son Patrick E. Cloney (wife Renee), daughter Janice M. Johns (husband Bruce), 3 grandchildren: Rhiannon Johns, Gavin Johns, and Aeryn Johns, and so very many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Rosary will be held 5 p.m. Friday, April 26 at Sanders Funeral Home with the Funeral Mass 11 a.m. on Saturday April 27 at St. Bernard Church. Reception following the Funeral Mass at the Parish Hall. Interment will be at a later date.

Memorial remembrances can be sent to St. Vincent de Paul Society, St. Bernard Church, or the charity of your choice.

John Credico, a Veteran of WWII, passed away on March 21, 2024 at age 97. John was born April 29, 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio to Anthony and Virginia Credico. At a young age, he worked with his father delivering 25-pound blocks of ice, keeping the iceboxes filled for homes and businesses. He attended Collinwood High School before enlisting in the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. John was on the Landing Ship Tank LST 137 and participated in the Amphibious forces on D-Day. He was a gunner on the Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel LCVP, carrying troops to Gold Beach on Normandy. And carried wounded soldiers off the beaches to Navy hospital ships. While serving in the Navy, John sent incredible letters home to his future wife, Josephine Apruzzese, expressing his feelings for her and shared entertaining stories of his shipmates.

After the war, John returned home and married Josephine on August 23, 1947 and together they raised four children. They remained married for 69 years until Josephine passed away in 2016. John was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and uncle and a friend to everyone he met. He was generous, kind, thoughtful and positive. He truly was a glass-half-full person. He checked in on everyone and was sincere in his interest in what others had to say. He was the best listener. He loved his family and he loved people.

John and Josephine enjoyed traveling outside of the country. His favorite pastime was camping and together they traveled in their camper throughout the states. John was an avid runner and ran in races through his 60s and into his 70s. He was self educated, loved to read, and for years he read a book a week. He became an executive in sales until retiring in 1998. After retirement John and Josephine relocated to Humboldt County to live near their daughters. John enjoyed golfing and loved the ocean, enjoying walks on the beach with Josephine. They loved watching their grandchildren and great-grandchildren play sports and they were always seen holding hands.

In retirement John volunteered at Pacific Union Elementary School, helping in the classrooms and lunchroom. He eventually accepted a position as the school crossing guard, a job he cherished for several years. He loved the children and became good friends with many of the parents. At Halloween he was known for handing out large-size candy bars, and it was obvious that their home was the most popular home on the block. John eventually left Pacific Union School and began working at Sunny Brae Animal Clinic, welcoming and assisting clients at the door. He officially retired from employment at the age of 93.

Our hearts are broken, but we are comforted in our belief that our dad and mom are once again holding hands. Dad’s words, a few days before he passed, “I was lucky. I had a good life.”

John was preceded in death by his wife Josephine and his siblings. He is survived by his children: daughter and son–in-law, Diana and Jay Hight, son John Credico, son and daughter–in-law, Tony and Robyn Credico, daughter Vincetta Borges; grandchildren, Jason and Ally Hight, Jocelyn and Adam Figas, Stacie and Pedro Valdez, Taylor Borges, Justin Credico, Jason and Sharon Credico, Jeena and Scott Koenig and Drew Credico; his many great grandchildren, Luci, Jaron, Cadence, Calahan, Hayden, Taya, Sophie, Sophia, Cameron and Beckham and his loving nieces and nephews.

Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, March 30 at 4 p.m. at Baywood Country Club in Bayside, Ca. Donations can be made to the following Veteran’s organizations, Fisher House Foundation and Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund or a veteran organization of your choice.

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of John Credico’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Our dearest Teresa died Feb. 29 after a brave fight against cancer. Her battle ended with pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lungs. She was born in Cebu, Philippines on May 5, 1960 to Catalino and Sarah Mabatid. She was the fifth of six children. Teresa was raised by her grandparents and a loving aunt, enjoying a happy healthy childhood. Poverty forced Teresa to leave high school early to seek work. She found employment at Benedict Brothers, sewing handbags, backpacks and accessories.

In 2012 Teresa was introduced to a recently widowed man named Terry. Their mutual friend, Carmelita, was a former workmate of Teresa who married a man in Fortuna. She thought Teresa and Terry would be a good match. She was right! Terry first visited Teresa in 2012. He later returned to marry her in February 2014. The couple continued to communicate. Finally, Teresa arrived in San Francisco and on to Fortuna at the end of May 2015.

Teresa loved her new home and the people of Humboldt. She exclaimed, “everyone is so nice and friendly!” Terry always believed it was a natural response to her radiant smile.

Teresa enjoyed fishing at Centerville and Table Bluff beaches, walks in Rohner Park and the Gene Lucan recreation center. She was a familiar face at the local thrift shops, usually in the company of two or three other pinay.

She worked at College of the Redwoods cafeteria. She loved Anthony and the cafeteria staff and students. Teresa loved people. She liked to hear their stories. She had special fondness of Millie, Lou, Linda and Paul and Mary from Rohner Park.

Teresa was a woman of faith, a devout Catholic constantly in prayer. She truly believes in Jesus’ resurrection.

Teresa was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Catalino, Jr. and her sister Edith.

She is survived by her siblings Dina, Allen and Ging, and her devoted and loving husband Terry. Teresa is also survived by Jocelyn and David, Lyn and Chris, Bebeth and Doug, Carmelita, Perlita, Armella and many nieces, nephews and cousins in Philippines.

Thank you to the staff at Redwood Memorial and St. Joseph hospitals. A special thanks to the staff in the oncology/chemo center. Teresa loved you all.

Arrangements by Gobles Fortuna Mortuary, including shipment of cremains to Cebu, Philippines where services will be held at a later time.

Always remember, sweetheart, “Our love has no expiration.”

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Teresa Iversen’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

We thrilled last week to a rousing medley of numbers from West Side Story played by a professional brass band, bringing back, for me, memories of my first year as an engineering student in London. I’d taken the tube down to the West End, where the musical had been playing for the previous two years to sell-out crowds. For four shillings, I snagged a standing-room-only spot at the back of the stalls where, for nearly three glorious hours, I was transported to Manhattan’s Upper West Side of the mid-1950s.

I think I wore out this LP: Cover of original cast recording, via Wikimedia.

The magic came about via: Leonard Bernstein’s music, blending “jazz, Latin rhythms, symphonic sweep and musical-comedy conventions in groundbreaking ways for Broadway,” according to Misha Berson in the Seattle Times; Jerome Robbin’s fast-paced choreography (with probably the most dancing ever seen at the time in a musical); and Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant lyrics—astonishingly sophisticated from someone in his mid-20s. It didn’t hurt that he’d been mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II.

The basic plot was hardly original, based on Shakespeare’s tragic love story Romeo and Juliet, which itself goes back—through several iterations—at least 2000 years, to Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe, the story of two young Babylonian lovers whose parents, motivated by family rivalry, forbid them to wed. Thisbe arrives for their tryst, but flees on seeing a lioness. She loses her cloak as she leaves, so when Pyramus arrives a little later, he finds it, now torn and bloodied by the lioness. Thinking Thisbe’s dead, he falls on his sword—only to be found by Thisbe, who stabs herself. Sound familiar? Shakespeare ran with a later version of this: Romeo and Juliet came from warring families, the Montagues and the Capulets, and you know the rest.

In 1949, West Side Story was originally conceived by dancer, choreographer and director Jerome Robbins, but as East Side Story, with Romeo a member of an Irish Catholic gang, the Jets; and Juliet a Jewish girl who survived the Holocaust. Years later, after several false starts and changes of personnel, the Bernstein-Robbins-Sondheim team, working from a book by Arthur Laurents, created their groundbreaking Latin-themed musical/dance spectacular/Shakespearean tragedy. Instead of Montagues and the Capulets, it has a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, battling the home-turf Irish-Polish gang, the Jets. West Side Story opened to rave reviews on Broadway in 1957. The London version which I saw opened the following year with (heart be still) the late Chita Rivera as Anita.

Have you seen the movie? That is, the movies? The 1961 version was the highest-grossing film of that year, winning ten Oscars. Sixty years later, Steven Spielberg made a second adaptation of the original stage show. The divine Puerto Rican dancer and actress Rita Moreno, who played Anita in the 1961 movie (“Best Supporting Actress”), returned as Doc’s widow to sing (I’m moistening up) Somewhere There’s a Place for Us.

I can’t recommend West Side Story enough, in any of its many, many incarnations. There’s been nothing quite like it, before or since.

Press release from Humboldt Bay Fire:

On Friday March 22, 2024 at approximately 3:30pm, Humboldt Bay Fire responded to a structure fire at 901 C Street for a report of an apartment on fire. Three engines, one truck, two Chief Officers, and two Fire Support Volunteers responded.

The first unit arrived on scene and initially reported nothing showing in a two story, five- unit apartment complex. Following further investigation, the Captain reported light gray smoke coming from a second-floor apartment and the roof eaves. The Battalion Chief assumed Incident Command and declared a working fire. Additional units arrived on scene and initiated actions to extinguish the fire, search the building, and remove smoke from the apartments. All occupants had exited the building and no injuries were reported. The Incident Commander requested a second alarm for two additional units - one to respond to the incident, and one to provide station coverage. Humboldt Bay Fire experiences multiple calls at the same time – known as stacked calls – almost 60% of the time for our annual average of 8,000 calls for service!

The fire was controlled within 10 minutes, with the fire attack company containing the fire to the main living area of the fire apartment. Crews then checked adjoining apartments for any fire or smoke damage, and performed overhaul in the fire apartment to ensure the fire did not extend to any other areas of the building. PG&E was on scene and assisted fire personnel in restoring utilities to the other four apartments, and assisted occupants with re-entering their homes.

Smoke Alarms Save Lives. The incident was stabilized after one hour, with crews remaining on scene for an additional three hours for overhaul, investigation and assisting the property owner with securing the building. HBF investigators assessed the cause and origin of the fire and concluded the origin was in the kitchen. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time. Damage from the fire and smoke was limited to the apartment involved with fire and is estimated at $25,000 including contents. No civilian or firefighter injuries occurred.

HBF would like to thank Eureka PD who assisted temporarily displaced occupants, and Arcata Fire Protection District for providing station coverage.

Humboldt Bay Fire remind everyone that smoke alarms save lives! A working smoke alarm should be in every bedroom, in the hallway and on each floor of a residence.

###

The industrial legacy of the 20th Century left many contaminated sites around Humboldt Bay. Our second special episode on communities at risk from sea level rise features local residents talking about several of the most vulnerable sites, including Tuluwat Island, Butcher Slough in Arcata, and the nuclear waste storage site above King Salmon. Many thanks to Hilanea Wilkinson, Adam Canter, Jerry Rohde, Nate Faith, and to Jessie Eden, who produced this episode with funding provided by the California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant Program.   

For more info:

Yes, there was a “housing project” where the Eureka Mall is today. When you tell this to people who were born after the late 1950s or early 60s they have no idea what you are talking about, but I remember Marine View Terrace because my family and I lived there for a few months, and I went to kindergarten there in 1958.

If you look at the newspapers over the last seventy years, you will find many conflicting accounts as to the original purpose of the housing, which was built by the Federal Housing Administration. I knew Marine View Terrace as the “housing project” — housing for low-income people, and for many of my relatives it was convenient and cheap housing near the plywood mill.

A 1958 newspaper account of the project states that it had been erected as emergency housing for returning veterans, but in a 1943 newspaper announcement stating that the Federal Housing Administration had selected the Russ-Vance land for the project, the vague term “emergency war housing” is employed. The FHA had selected a tract of twenty acres which was bounded by Harris, Henderson, Spring and Ocean streets and 320 temporary “war housing” units were to be erected and used for the duration of the war, using the Lanham Act of 1940 to appropriate federal funds to build public housing for defense industry workers — an indication that despite all the optimistic headlines about the war being over soon, the government knew that there might be a “long haul” ahead. The location of the project may have been a disappointment to local children, for those fields had been the site of much anticipated circuses over the years, and even served as a place to graze the cow of my relatives, the Hinman family. But everyone did their part for the war effort.

A hint of the real purpose of the housing is found in a human-interest story in the Humboldt Standard of March 1944, which lists among the first occupants of Marine View Terrace the Charles O’Brien family of Redding, Mr. O’Brien being a worker at the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company. Thanks to a 2005 HSU thesis for an M.S.S. degree written by Jack Bareilles — “World War Comes to Humboldt County” — I learned that Chicago Bridge and Iron was contracted by the navy to build dry docks and floating cranes to service ships during the war. According to Mr. Bareilles, it was for security reasons that the newspapers did not publicize information regarding the nature of the new work being done at the company, which might account for the later misconception that it was strictly veteran housing. The military did not want to advertise the fact that these drydocks were being built at Samoa and thereby subject the area to a potential attack by the Japanese. Even so, there were several “mentions” in early 1942 that Chicago Bridge and Iron had obtained permits and built a bridge across the slough at the foot of Washington Street, and later that buildings were quickly being constructed and that they hoped to begin welding by June 1. But after that, the mentions are few — except for the scores for the Chicago Bridge and Iron baseball team.

At one point during the war years, Chicago Bridge and Iron employed over 3000 people, around 800 being women. Fortuna High School even offered war production welding classes, which were taken by Mabel Peterson and Mary Giacomini, just two of many women who completed the class in 1943 and gained employment at Chicago Bridge and Iron. This war contract with CBI is credited with saving Eureka from becoming a “ghost town” as people left to find employment in the war industry in other locations. In fact, it is credited with dramatically increasing the population, for people liked the area and stayed on after the war.

The housing at Marine View Terrace (a name supposedly picked by the local newspapers) rented anywhere from $32.50 for a unit with no bedrooms (just a pull-down bed in the living room), to $53.00 for a three-bedroom unit that was furnished. Later, 50 units were made available to the Navy for men and their families from the Naval Air Station, the Navy Blimp Base, the Coast Guard Station, and the Naval Section Base. Also constructed were a community building with playrooms, game rooms, a clinic, a community hall, a community kitchen and a day nursery. Later a firehouse was built. These were plain, boxy, functional buildings, and certainly held no architectural interest.

In January of 1943, School Superintendent Harold Adams and a citizen’s committee applied to the War Council under the Lanham Act for a Child Care Center. The Child Care Center first opened at the First Presbyterian Church, but later the community building of Marine View Terrace became the Child Care Center. It was directed first by a Miss Meyer, with Mrs. Ruby Winzler taking over about five months later. The daycare center was a much-needed part of the war-housing complex, as both fathers and mothers were working in the defense programs. I recently met Mrs. Winzler’s daughter, Lura, and she told me that her mother had started a teaching career, but quickly decided it was not for her. She wanted to help with the war effort, though, because of the death of her son in the war, and in this way she ended up running a childcare center.

Ruby Winzler directed and championed the Child Care Center at Marine View Terrace.

In a newspaper article published later on April 10, 1949, Mrs. Winzler describes a typical day for a child at the center:

All the children are given fruit juice and cod liver oil at 9:30 in the morning and a bountiful hot lunch at noon, and sandwiches and milk at 3:30 in the afternoon when the older ones arrive from school. The younger children have rest periods at 8:45 and 11:40 and a nap-time after lunch of one hour.

And this is where I come in. Beginning in 1958, I was one of those children at the center. I don’t really remember Mrs. Winzler, but I do remember the regimen. Cod liver oil — yuck, yuck, yuck! One time we challenged one of the new helpers to take a tablespoon herself and laughed ourselves silly over the faces she made! The cod liver oil may have been good for warding off anemia due to rationing of meat during the war, but by the time I came along we were eating meat again. I also remember those hot lunches — beans, cottage cheese and cornbread being my favorite; Swedish meatballs being my brother’s. But cooked spinach — eww — and it didn’t help to have one little girl gagging when she was forced to eat it. And nap time — I wasn’t much of a nap taker and usually spent most of the hour staring off into space. We had cots that I am sure were left over from the war. They were canvas with about six-inch legs that folded like a card table. The bigger kids got to sleep with the ends of their cots folded down, so they were at a slant — I was very jealous. Some of the kids were very restless sleepers and managed to make the legs collapse with a crash, which sent all of us into the giggles.

We always had arts and crafts — finger painting, and making stuff out of clay and popsicle sticks. There was one little boy who managed to eat more glue than he used. We also learned lots of great songs, like “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain,” “Camptown Races,” and “Dinah.” Though I could never figure out why there was someone in the kitchen with Dinah, what was a “bob-tailed nag,” and why would someone bet on the “bay” — were they racing in boats out there? I remember one lady who played the zither, which just fascinated me. Years later my mom and I had lunch with Jerrie and Bob Bartley and I found out it was Jerrie who played the zither, and that Bob later became the head of the Winzler Pre-School. Small world!

Speaking of small world — our family lived for a short time in 1958 at the “Housing Project,” as it became known in the 1950s. We lived on the second floor of one unit that was fairly near the nursery school. My mom says that they paid $40 in rent and that it wasn’t bad — though I remember that the linoleum was worn down to the brown base in front of the heater. Mom said that on washday, it was always a race to see who could get to the clotheslines first. It seems odd now to think about a specific day for laundry, but on Mondays the mills would shut down the “teepee burners” so that the laundry on the lines wouldn’t get covered in soot.

At some point a chain link fence was erected between the Child Care Center and the housing project. I distinctly remember three little boys hanging on the fence chanting “Gravy, gravy, kindergarten baby” while I played on the swings. Years later when I found out that my husband’s family had lived in the project, I asked them if they ever did that, and they answered, yes, they did and that it was probably them. Not only did my future in-laws tease me, but my husband’s Aunt

Jo was assistant cook at the nursery, and my mother-in-law worked there in 1949-50 before she was married. She and her family also lived at the projects and it was there that she met her future husband, Opie, who was living there with his sister. He spotted her when she was out hanging laundry, no less.

Even though I only attended Marine View Terrace School for a year and a half, I have many vivid memories of the place, which had an impact on my family and so many other people in my life, some of whom I came to know much later.

Marine View Terrace was always meant to be a temporary measure, and at least ten years after the housing was built many people were urging the City of Eureka to demolish the structures, as they were already falling into disrepair. The Federal Housing Administration at that time was not in the business of being landlords and turned the buildings over to the state. The state in turn passed them over to the City and the Eureka Housing Authority. The units had become low-rent housing but an outcry to demolish the building continued, with the NAACP coming out against the demolition. However, the lands were either property owned by the City or private citizens, like Lloyd V. and Lucille Bridges. The buildings remained under the Housing Authority, which required that they be demolished but not sold or moved. Somehow tax liens were accrued, but the City never foreclosed or filed a deed on the properties. Ernest Pierson gained ownership of the land by redeeming the back taxes. Pierson believed at the time he was also owner of the rentals and would be receiving the rents, but the Eureka Housing Authority informed him he owned the land, but not the buildings. Ownership of the properties and buildings became a muddy legal mess and some parts ended up in litigation. Ernest Pierson, who originally was to build homes on the property, asked for a re-zoning and went on to construct the Eureka Mall on much of the property.

Meanwhile, the Eureka School District had become reluctant owners of the school buildings, which were deteriorating and unsafe. The new Lincoln School was built, which took most of the children from Marine View Terrace School, and in 1961 the school (except for the kindergarten) was closed. However, in 1962, the Child Care Center — deemed a “baby-sitting facility” by one councilman, which was “dumped into the laps” of the school district by the state — was still open and still a much needed facility in the area. Ernest Pierson, now the owner of the property, finally donated a lot situated on Henderson Street, across from the original facility, and Mrs. Winzler used her own monies to have a new childcare building constructed. It is now an accredited facility and part of the Eureka School District.

So now when you go by the Eureka Mall, you can imagine the boxy housing units and other buildings that once stood there, and once played a part in Eureka’s contributions to the war effort during the 1940s.

###

The story above was originally printed in the Summer 2014 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.