HUCKLEBERRIES: A hero among men

Google the term, “hero,” and you’ll find a description of the late Omer Karns of Rathdrum.

The word fit Omer even before June 20, 1994, when he became one of the victims of a mass shooting at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane.

In the prior two years, Omer, who was deaf, had volunteered thousands of hours for the Disabled American Veterans, driving North Idaho vets to medical appointments. He had taken two Shoshone County vets to Fairchild when disgruntled ex-airman Dean Mellberg opened fire.

Although he didn’t hear the gunshots, Omer, then 69, said later that he felt the vibrations in the hospital lobby and saw people running. One of the bullets from Mellberg’s MAK-90 assault rifle hit Omer in the buttocks, shattering his pelvis and hip before exiting through his stomach.

Mellberg, 20, killed four people and wounded 23 others, including Omer, before being shot dead by Air Force security officer Andy Brown. (Incredibly, four days after the shootings, Fairchild was rocked again when a B52 bomber crew, practicing for an air show, crashed at the base, killing all four on board.)

Omer was left unconscious, clinging to life for two weeks, before he opened his eyes.

Later, he told the Coeur d’Alene Press: “When I woke up, the calendar on the wall said the Fourth of July. I thought it was an old calendar from last year or something.”

The shooting was one in a series of unkind events that life had thrown at Omer.

Whooping cough had left him deaf since childhood. He survived that obstacle by becoming an excellent lip reader. He drove trucks for a living in California and Montana before moving to Rathdrum in the 1970s. His inability to hear kept him from joining the Navy during World War II.

After his wife died of cancer in 1991, he volunteered with the DAV to help fill the void in his life.

Omer’s story didn’t end in a hospital bed.

Not only did Omer defy medical odds by surviving his terrible injuries, but he learned to walk again. On the following Sept. 6, he amazed doctors, friends, and a brigadier general by returning to his volunteer job. Omer met the officer at a banquet for shooting victims two weeks later.

“He said he didn’t think I could walk again,” Omer told The Press. “I told him: ‘I’m not giving up.’”

In an editorial days after the shooting, The Press said: “The can-do volunteer spirit of Omer Karns epitomizes the great compassion for others shared by so many fine people in North Idaho.”

Omer Karns, who died at age 73 on May 1, 1998, showed us how to live by overcoming huge obstacles.

Waterfront eyesore

As the Fourth of July approached 75 years ago, manager James S. Hill of the old Desert Hotel was perturbed.

Daily, he hosted “high-class tourist personnel” drawn to Coeur d’Alene by its beauty that was as renowned in June 1949 as it is today. But he couldn’t step outside his famous hotel without looking across Sherman Avenue at the “dirty waterfront.”

So he wrote a letter to the Coeur d’Alene Press, complaining: “As usual, at this time of the year, the property directly in our beautiful front yard has a luxuriant crop of weeds and other debris, which I doubt will be removed before our three-day celebration on which our junior chamber of commerce is working so hard to make a success.”

Hill considered it poor business to invite 20,000 people or more to town and expose them to such “an unsightly mess.” Hill said guests of the Desert Hotel — The Coeur d’Alene Resort of its day — were as dazzled by Coeur d’Alene as they were stunned by the unsightly waterfront.

The Press agreed that Hill’s criticism reflected “the sentiments of hundreds of other citizens.”

Seems the "good old days" had problems, too.

True to his word

On the night that fire destroyed the Chinese Gardens restaurant (Nov. 15, 1988), manager E Chin Chane promised his family would rebuild.

And it did just in time for the Fourth of July the following year.

Originally from Taiwan, Chane’s uncle, Kuan-Ngao Chane, and aunt See-Ming Chane, introduced Chinese cooking to Coeur d’Alene in 1971.

On June 29, 1989, The Press quoted E. Chin Chane: “The Szechuan and Mandarin dishes were new taste treats for Coeur d’Alene to have so available, without driving out-of-town to find. So our restaurant became popular very soon.”

The nephew reported that the devastating fire was a personal, as well as a financial, loss to the family.

“For my aunt, this was her life,” he said, noting that she became a great chef by cooking for her nine children.

The elder Chane mulled retirement after the fire. But he was impressed by the demand for his food. Said his nephew prior to the reopening: “To all the people here who have wished us well, I want them to know they made us happy, and it is because of them we decided to rebuild.”

Chinese Gardens continues to prosper at 310 N. Fourth St.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: If he were/six inches taller,/his armed forces/would be smaller — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Kim Jong Un”).

• Gone to Pot: As a Press photographer in June 1974, Diana Witherspoon recalls the Interstate 90 billboard at the state line that read: “In Idaho, we’re proud of our people and pot.” Seems some wiseacre had edited out the letters “ATOES.” It should have finished with — “and potatoes.” The same thing had happened two years before. Today, the “pot” is on the Washington side of the state line.

• For Heaven’s Sake: Now, we know that Michael Cimino’s 1980 “Heaven’s Gate” was an enormous flop. But during filming 45 years ago in Wallace, almost 1,000 extras rubbed elbows with stars, like Kris Kristofferson. Keith Farley of Coeur d’Alene said at the time that Kristofferson was “a nice guy.” And: “He doesn’t mind talking with you if there’s time.” So some good(will) came from the movie.

• Gala Opening: In the 1960s, Lake City kicked off the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre season in style. Prior to the gala opening June 28, 1969, the North Shore Resort hosted dinner, and Mayor Larry Gardner danced with lead actress Valleda Woodhall from “The King and I.” After the show, the public met the cast at the old Sourdough restaurant, near Fernan. In 1969, CST scheduled four plays, which ran nightly, except Mondays, from June 28 to Aug. 31. The town loved the interaction. So did the CST crew.

• Factoid: On this day 45 years ago (June 30, 1979), St. Pius X Catholic Church announced that a little-known priest would replace the Rev. Bill Carroll as parish padre. The newcomer had spent the previous seven years directing education at the Diocese of Boise. In the 1980s, the newcomer became a human rights leader and everyone knew his name: Bill Wassmuth.

Parting shot

J.W. Woolworth’s burned. Don, Bob and Tom negotiated. Fern watered and weeded. And that’s how the town eventually got Coeur d’Alene Rotary Centennial Park (aka Sherman Square Park). More or less. Oldtimers know that a spectacular fire destroyed the F.W. Woolworth store April 26, 1980. And that the lot near Fourth and Sherman stayed vacant until 1986. But fewer know that former mayor Don Johnston, brother Bob and friend Tom Robb negotiated with the Seattle owner to allow them to build a “pocket park” on the site. Don and his late wife, Fern, provided TLC afterward: Don watered, Fern selected flowers and weeded. In spring 1989, that meant 20 flats of petunias, marigolds, zinnias and sweet Williams. In late June 1989, Fern told The Press that her daily trips to the park were more fun than work. And she loved compliments on her work from passersby. The eventual purchase and reconstruction of the park by the Rotary and ignite cda guaranteed continued public access. But Lake City should never forget the role the Johnstons and Tom Robb played in preserving it.

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

    Omer Karns speaks to the media from Kootenai Medical Center.
  

    Omer Karns drives his DAV van.
  

    Desert Hotel manager James S. Hill and his son, Jimmy, in 1951.
  

    Firefighters prepare to enter burning Chinese Gardens.
  

    “Edited” billboard at the Idaho state line.
  

    “Heaven’s Gate” extra Keith Farley of Coeur d’Alene adjusts the period costume of extra Aliina Hibbard.
  

    Mayor Larry Gardner twirls lead actress Valleda Woodhall before the gala opening of the 1969 Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre season.
  

    Gardener Fern Johnston tends to Sherman Square Park flowers.