HUCKLEBERRIES: Kraliceks carry on (at slightly slower pace)

Mike Kralicek still needs help with routine activities.

In the morning, he needs assistance showering, dressing and preparing food.

His balance is off, too. When he speaks to groups, he wants someone nearby in case he falls.

On May 12, 2009, the former Coeur d’Alene police officer — K57 — returned home to a standing ovation at the Upbeat Breakfast. During his speech, he thanked the community for its tremendous support after he was shot in the face while responding to a call 4 1/2 years earlier.

And he had a message for police officers, firefighters, and other first responders: Be ready.

For 12 years, Mike and his wife, Carrie, traveled the country urging emergency personnel to prepare for possible injury or death in the line of duty. Mike told Huckleberries last week: “First responders should discuss their wants and needs with their families in case something bad happens to them. Otherwise, things are left up to the doctors.”

As the 2005 new year dawned, Carrie was counseled by physicians to “let him go” as Mike remained comatose for weeks after being hit by a .357 bullet in the right cheek. The shell severed Mike’s carotid artery and lodged in his neck, leaving him a quadriplegic for months.

He was the first Coeur d'Alene officer wounded in the line of duty since the early 1970s.

The injury resembled the fatal one later suffered by Sgt. Greg Moore.

In May 2015, only days after separate shootings claimed the lives of Sgt. Moore and his best police friend from Oregon, Mike gave the keynote address at the Idaho Police Officers Memorial ceremony. According to the Idaho Press, he said: “I spent the last 10 years learning to walk, talk and breathe all over again, I died several times, but eventually landed on this side of the fence.”

On Dec. 28, 2004, Mike, then 35, responded to a backup call from two deputies who were investigating a hit-and-run accident in the Grouse Meadows subdivision shortly after midnight. The suspect, Michael Anthony Madonna, 39, broke free while talking to a sheriff's deputy and Mike, ran into his house and grabbed a .357 Magnum. He shot Mike from 6 feet away.

Two deputies returned fire and killed Madonna.

Three state laws were passed afterward to aid first responders and their families in cases like Mike’s, including one in 2009 that provides a one-time payment of $100,000. But none of the bills helped the Kraliceks since they weren’t retroactive.

After the shooting, the Kraliceks moved to southwestern Oregon to be near family and friends. But they returned here five years ago to be closer to important medical care. Mike has cut back on his motivational speaking but is still available through his website: www.mikekralicek.com.

Also, he serves as secretary for the 2,600-member Idaho Fraternal Order of Police, prompting Carrie to joke: "You can do all that, but you can't balance the checkbook."

Carrie, his equally brave wife, provides psychiatric care for traumatized first responders and children.

Said she: “You have to dust yourself off and move forward.”

The Kraliceks, including married daughters Amanda, now 36, and Alexis, now 30, haven't become bitter. Said Carrie: “It's called better not bitter. I could be angry and upset, but I’d miss all the wonderful things in life.”

All grown up

First, you should know that Dr. C.A. Robins delivered Shirley Ann Yenor, the second of five daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. G.E. Yenor of St. Maries. And that Dr. Robins would one day become the 22nd governor of Idaho. Now, onward.

In the Coeur d'Alene Press of May 14, 1949, star reporter Louise Shadduck provided the rest of the story.

“Kindly Dr. Robins” tended to the routine medical needs of the Yenor family — vaccinations, tonsillectomies, remedies for common ills — as his reputation grew. He served as a school trustee before winning elections for state senator and later governor.

As an eighth grader in 1939, Shirley Ann joined the state champion “Belles of St. Maries” drum and bugle corps. In 1944, she enrolled at the University of Idaho, joined the Delta Delta Delta sorority, and completed two years of business training.

In 1946, she was working in Spokane when Robins was elected governor. And he asked his former special delivery to join him as receptionist-secretary.

“And,” sums up reporter Shadduck, “now she’s a belle of Boise.”

Not a kook

Before Ron Rankin transformed the Kootenai County Property Owners Association into a formidable movement, Rex Morehouse ran the show. And he didn’t like the term “kook.”

On May 21, 1984, Rex told The Press: “Don’t call me a kook. There are extremes on both sides, and I try to stay away from them both.”

Morehouse said the label “conservative” fit him well but he bristled at the statement popularized by former legislator Emery Hedlund (for whom the Hedlund Building at North Idaho College is named): “North Idaho has Republicans, Democrats and kooks.”

A former Spirit Lake mayor, Morehouse and his followers had helped defeat three school levies during the previous year — in Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland.

Morehouse’s reign was cut short when he was transferred from a Pay ‘N Save here to one in Oregon. Some say the move was politically motivated. But Rankin more than filled his shoes.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: For hours on end/I searched my cranium/to find a rhyme/for his geranium — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Ode to Mr. Hagadone’s Favorite Flower”)

• Talented Family: In the late 1990s, Casey Hoorelbeke, who played 11 years in the minor leagues, starred for the Vik team. Meanwhile, his sister, Blake, pitched the softballers to two straight state titles. And Papa Pete was on the sidelines cheering them on. You may remember him as Peter Rivera, drummer-vocalist for the 1970s Rare Earth band (“I Just Want to Celebrate”). Occasionally, Pete treated the town to a fundraising concert.

• Top Award: In 1994, the NIC Sentinel, under the guidance of Nils Rosdahl, won the prestigious Robert Kennedy Journalism Award for a six-part series on learning challenges. They were presented the award by Ethel Kennedy and her son, Robert Jr. This, of course, was long before a parasite ate Junior’s brain and he ran for president.

• Attorney Chuck Lempesis, known as the “ultimate peacemaker” with over 4,000 mediations, declared war on The Spokesman-Review in the mid-1980s. As county GOP chair, he organized a boycott of the paper after an SR story embarrassed a Republican big shot. The paper lost 40 or 50 subscriptions. And things blew over. I enjoyed reminding Chuck of the incident. And still miss him five years after his death (May 10, 2019).

Parting shot

In a column published 20 years ago (May 17, 2004), the late Ric Clarke revealed several things most didn’t know about Republican “Grand Dame” Ruthie Johnson. Ruthie, for example, worked in the Portland, Ore., shipyards during WWII. Syndicated columnist David Broder wrote a column about her: “It’s Ruthie’s Day, Too.” She had an autographed photo of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, with whom her husband played football at UCLA. And, by 2004, she had been a county GOP committeewoman for 52 years. Upon her death three years ago (May 12, 2021) at age 96, her son, Dr. Duke Johnson of Rathdrum, added a character trait that made her extra special: She made friends across the aisle. "What people saw in her was that it was OK to have convictions, but it was OK to differ from Ruthie. She loved you anyway. She could agree to disagree."

• • •

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

    Mike Kralicek and his wife, Carrie Ann.
  

    On Dec. 29, 2004, The Press carried news of the terrible shooting.
  

    Gov. Robins’s receptionist, Shirley Ann Yenor.
  

    Anti-tax activist Rex Morehouse.
  

    Blake Hoorelbeke returned to Coeur d’Alene after college to start the Northwest Fastpitch Academy.
  

    The NIC Sentinel staff receives the prestigious Robert Kennedy Journalism Award at Arlington, Va. Front row, from left: Kathy Hostetter, Lori Vivian, Patricia Snyder and Justin Smith. Top row: Instructor Nils Rosdahl, Christine LaBang, Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Ryan Bronson.
  

    Attorney Chuck Lempesis is shown during his unsuccessful 1986 GOP primary campaign for lieutenant governor against Butch Otter.
  

    Ruthie Johnson, the “Grand Dame” of the local GOP, is shown in 1986 with President Ronald Reagan, U.S. Senator Steve Symms, and her husband, Wayne.