HUCKLEBERRIES: Remembering 'a loyal friend and a fine sportswoman'

A fatal misstep on a diving board 81 years ago claimed one of Coeur d’Alene’s great female athletes.

Virginia “Ginny” Panabaker was only 19 when she fell off a 10-foot platform during a “fancy diving” exhibition for officers at the Farragut Naval Training Station on Feb. 24, 1943.

The Pacific Northwest diving champion struck the concrete edge of the pool headfirst and rolled into the water, never to regain consciousness. She suffered fractures to her skull and shoulder. Fatally injured, she died in the Farragut base hospital the next morning.

Her nephew, Dick Panabaker, a former Hayden mayor and three-term county commissioner, was 2 at the time. He doesn’t recall his aunt. But he does remember the family stories about her.

“She was Grandpa’s favorite,” Dick said, as he scanned two old scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and memorabilia about his father, Gilbert’s, sister. “Bad things do happen to good people sometimes.”

At the time of her death, Virginia was well-known in Coeur d’Alene and the region.

She won the Pacific Northwest female diving championship in 1940 and the Inland Empire diving title twice — in 1940 and 1942. And she and a Spokane partner had delighted a 1941 Fourth of July crowd on the Coeur d’Alene waterfront by exhibiting tandem skills as “water surfers.”

Virginia was as comfortable on horseback as she was in and on water. In 1940, she was crowned queen of the three-day VFW Rodeo in Coeur d’Alene. A Press photo pictured her on a horse named Wildfire after she and rodeo chairman Joe Hill, astride his horse, Johnny, had galloped around the track.

Also, in 1940, a week after she won the Pacific Northwest diving title at Lake Chelan, Wash., Virginia was shown in a sequence of 14 photos, taken by the Spokane Chronicle, performing a one-and-a-half flip.

At Coeur d’Alene High, she was a fan of drama, choir, plays, and the Expatrialogos Club, an organization featuring lessons for girls in comportment and etiquette. In a poem about the club, she wrote: “You will never be a good Expate/However hard you try/Unless you think in terms of we,/and not in terms of I.”

In 1919, Virginia’s father, Neil Panabaker, a bookkeeper for the Winton Lumber Co. was transferred from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada, to the company’s Coeur d’Alene mill (later to become Northwest Timber at what is now Riverstone). He and his wife, Marie, settled the growing family on Military Drive in the historic Fort Grounds. Later, Neil served briefly as Coeur d’Alene mayor.

At the time of the tragic accident, Virginia was working in the personnel department at Farragut.

Virginia had been invited to perform during a “guest hour” at Farragut’s Camp Bennion — 8 to 9 p.m. — by Ensign Connett, who was part of the small audience that gathered for the exhibition.

Afterward, the Navy issued a statement that said the tragedy was “purely accidental,” adding that a non-slip mat was securely fastened to the diving board and the pool was properly supervised.

In a box, bordered in black, two days later, the Farragut News extended its sympathy to the Panabaker family: “Virginia’s cheery smile and happy disposition warmed the hearts of all who knew her. She was a loyal friend and a fine sportswoman. She will live in the memory of her co-workers and many friends at Farragut for we will never forget her charming personality.”

What glass ceiling?

Nancy Hadley, of Sandpoint, admitted she had to try a little harder to succeed in a man’s world, especially in a sport like hunting. And that’s how she earned her way into elk hunting camps.

And maybe why she wasn’t that impressed that she busted two glass ceilings during her eight years on the Idaho Fish and Game Commission.

In 1997, after she was selected by Gov. Phil Batt, she became the first woman to serve on the commission. Two years later, she became the first woman to serve as "chairman": A title she insisted on. She told The Spokesman-Review: “I’m qualified for the position, and to me, being a woman isn’t a plus or minus.”

Nancy, a longtime D.A. Davidson executive and financial advisor, acquired her love for the outdoors while camping, fixing goose nests, and target shooting with her father, Leo. She began hunting at age 10 and shot her first buck at age 12 near Priest Lake. She was hooked on hunting from that point on.

“It was just a yearling buck,” Hadley told the Press. “But I was awfully proud of it.”

In a video for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Nancy said hunting “was just a sport that I could do. I wasn’t competing with anyone other than myself. Hunting to me refills everything within me.”

She served her first term on the commission so well that Gov. Dirk Kempthorne reappointed her.

Oldie but goodie

After being named Idaho’s Most Outstanding Older Worker in January 1999, Minnie McDonald, then 73, who had then been an employee of St. Vincent de Paul for 27 years, had this message for Seasoned Citizens: “When you get older, you need to get out. The more you sit at home, the more you want to sit.”

Presented by Green Thumb, Inc., an organization that helps seniors learn new job skills, the award included an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C.

But Minnie wasn’t close to being finished.

She didn’t stop smiling and serving St. Vinny’s customers until she reached 50 years with the local charity. During her last work years, she was an ambassador for St. Vinny's, greeting customers at the door.

Her friendliness was tested during the COVID pandemic. Said St. Vinny’s executive director Larry Riley: "Nobody gave Minnie a glare or second look when she politely asked them to wear a mask for everyone’s protection, with a wink in her eye. It was a quick, 'Yes, ma'am.' Nobody gave her grief. Nobody."

Minnie died at age 96 last July 8.

Said Riley: "She was our franchise employee, never to be traded, never will she be replaced."

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: The first snowfall of winter/in splendor did us wrap,/but now when we see snowflakes/we merely say, ‘Oh, crap’”/The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“How Swiftly Fades the Magic”).

• Sno-Cycle: Today, you know a bike built for snow by its fat tires that whir as it goes by. But 45 years ago (January 1979), retired Harding School principal Duane Harrison built a winterized bike that was unique, with a third wheel slung about 5 feet from the main frame. An avid bicyclist, the educator said to the Press: “I hate to stop because of a little bad weather.”

• Fan Mail: George Emmett met Joe DiMaggio at that 1964 Press sports banquet (Huckleberries, Jan. 28): "I was pretty awestruck standing in line to wait my turn for his autograph. Once I got a chance to say ‘Hi’, I found him to be very down to earth. I thought all Major League Baseball players walked on water, but Joe was great and treated the kids with a lot of respect.”

• O Pioneers: Most of you know that McEuen Park was named after Mae McEuen, a grocer and tireless volunteer on behalf of youth sports. But did you know that Mae’s in-laws, Dr. S.H. and Mattie McEuen, moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1900 via Harrison, Idaho, Latah, Wash., and Waterloo, Wis.? And that Dr. McEuen was Coeur d'Alene mayor from 1915-17?

• Beheaded: If you don’t like mounted animal heads, you probably wouldn’t like the “Beauty and the Beasts” theme of the first all-Idaho travel booth that appeared for the first time in San Francisco on Jan. 31, 1964. Sponsored by the state Department of Commerce, headed by Coeur d’Alene native Louise Shadduck, the booth featured Miss Idaho Linda Moulton, five animal heads, a rack of antlers and a stuffed goose.

Parting shot

You might be an old-timer if … you remember those Parker Toyota commercials of the mid-1980s to early 1990s, featuring owner Doug Parker and his white bull terrier, Yota. Doug was a natural when it came to pitching his fine automotive products, and his canine sales buddy added a little extra to his promotions.

In one commercial from February 1993, Doug promoted a “Soft Petal Sale.”

Doug opened the commercial by saying: “Yota says to remind you to be sure to stop by our Soft Pedal Sale going on now. We have a long-stemmed rose for all the ladies and great prices on new Toyotas just for you.” Then, the camera panned to his personable bull terrier poised by a bouquet of red roses.

Doug and Yota were a persuasive team.

In 2022, Doug’s daughter, Kyeli Reinert, explained the presence of Yota: “No one had dogs in commercials back then, and we wanted to do something different. With our love for dogs, it was a natural fit.”

And a wonderful part of Coeur d’Alene’s shared nostalgia.

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D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    Virginia Panabaker
  

    Virginia Panabaker (fifth from the left, front row) with advisers and other members of the Expatrialogos Club.
  

    Nancy Hadley of Sandpoint after a successful hunt.
  

    Employee Minnie McDonald served St. Vincent de Paul for 50 years.
  

    Former Harding principal Duane Harrison, his granddaughter, Jessica, then 7, and his winterized bicycle.
  

    George Emmett of Coeur d’Alene, then 13, right, waits to get an autograph from New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio.
  

    Miss Idaho Linda Moulton at the “Beauty and the Beasts” booth.
  

    Car dealers, from left, Wayne Knudtsen, Tom Addis and Doug Parker promote the car choices for the second prize winner in the 1994 North Idaho College Foundation Really Big Raffle. Addis is holding Parker’s prized bull terrier, Yota.