HUCKLEBERRIES: Gone too soon, but won't be forgotten

Jenny Stokes was such a tough Coeur d’Alene High goalkeeper that she once lobbied to stay in a game after suffering a broken nose diving for a ball.

She played the rest of the season with a face mask.

“She was a real fighter,” teammate Jennifer Kerns told the Spokesman-Review on March 27, 1995.

Jenny Stokes, a 1994 CHS graduate, had died a day earlier from injuries suffered in a two-vehicle crash at the oddly shaped intersection at Lincoln Way and Northwest Boulevard.

An elementary education major, Jenny was driving from a North Idaho College class to her job at Burger King when she turned in front of a delivery van.

At the time, the secondary entrance/exit to Fort Grounds, north of Memorial Field, ran uphill at an angle over railroad tracks, making left turns onto Northwest Boulevard hazardous. During the previous four years, 34 crashes had caused 18 injuries there.

The impact of the March 23 accident knocked Jenny’s 1985 Mercury Topaz about 150 feet onto nearby railroad tracks.

The young woman never regained consciousness.

Later, CHS coach Bill Eisenwinter told The Press: “Jenny was a worker. She wasn’t the best athlete, but she made herself into an all-state goalie.”

Teammate Kerns recalled summer camps when she and Jenny coached elementary students. She told a reporter: “After camp, she (Stokes) always had a little group of girls and boys that went to our high school games. It was like her little fan club.”

The fatal crash triggered an uproar that prompted the city to fix the “wicked” intersection.

On May 3, 1995, in a letter to the Coeur d’Alene Press, Randy Henry, Irma Anderl and Candy Comer launched a campaign to honor Jenny with a living memorial. They successfully asked the city to name the 4-acre soccer field across from Ramsey School after her.

Eight years later, during the 2003 Memorial Day weekend, tragedy struck again.

On his way to a U19 Coeur d'Alene Sting girls tournament in Pocatello, Jenny's former mentor, Bill Eisenwinter, then 36 and head coach of the North Idaho College men’s and women’s soccer teams, died in a single-car rollover. The NIC soccer field is named after him.

Both player and coach died too young. But their names and legacies remain.

Heady days

On March 29, 1980, the future sparkled for the Kootenai Family YMCA, with its Olympic-size pool and relatively new Executive Director John Vlastelica.

After five weeks of advertising and promotional stunts, The Press reported, the YMCA at 606 River Ave. had added “a whopping 455 members” to its rolls for a total of 2,800.

“We could well be the fastest growing YMCA in the country,” Vlastelica said. “I’ve been with the YMCA for 12-13 years, and I’ve never seen such a tremendous response.”

Vlastelica, who’d moved from the Portland YMCA, hoped that the membership surge would lead to a bigger facility.

It didn’t.

Within a year, the local YMCA, like others in the Northwest, struggled to pay bills and meet payroll in tight financial times.

In August 1986, to stay afloat, it merged with the Spokane YMCA. In 1993, the YMCA sold the building and disbanded two years later.

Now, the old YMCA houses the Kootenai Bridge Academy alternative school.

Still missing

The anniversary of Debbie Swanson’s disappearance has come again — now 39 years and counting.

No new evidence has cropped up to help solve the case. But there is a development.

Doug Eastwood, former Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation director, is now in his second editing of a book about Debbie’s case and three similar ones that’ll be called: “Vanished in the Pacific Northwest.”

Debbie, then 31, a Coeur d’Alene special education teacher, was abducted on or near Tubbs Hill on March 29, 1986. Sally Ann Stone, 21, an exotic dancer at State Line, disappeared after physical therapy in Coeur d’Alene on May 16, 1986. Julie Weflen, 28, a Bonneville Power Administration operator, vanished from a Spokane County substation Sept. 16, 1987. And nurse Kathy Gregory, 24, was declared missing after she failed to arrive for her shift at Spokane’s Deaconess Hospital on Nov. 4, 1981.

All four vanished without a trace in broad daylight. No bodies were found. But there were suspects. Stay tuned.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: April is the month for fibbing,/spinning tall tales and ad libbing,/with fervent hope they don’t distress/those folks down at the IRS — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“April”)

• Cheers: On March 30, 1990, the largest brewpub in the Pacific Northwest, based on gallons produced, was located at Second and Lakeside: T.W. Fisher’s. In 1987, after 14 years of supervising circulation for the Hagadone Corporation, Coeur d’Alene native Tom Fisher opted for change. By 1988, Tom was making the best pale ale in the country. And Fishers became the “Cheers” of Coeur d’Alene, frequented by everybody who was anybody.

• You Rang? Dial phones are almost extinct now. On March 27, 1970, however, General Telephone's testing phase for a new, multi-million-dollar, long-distance center on Government Way was Page 1 news. A tour attracted Gov. Don Samuelson. Once launched in May, the center would handle all long-distance calls in North Idaho and Montana. And, best of all, it would function even if the center lost power.

• Expansion: On March 27, 1985, Duane Hagadone announced the purchase of four Silver Valley newspapers, two dailies and two weeklies, including Harry Magnuson’s North Idaho Press. After the buyout, the Hagadone Corporation owned nine dailies, six weeklies and KVNI-AM radio. Said Duane Hagadone: “We look forward to … working with the Silver Valley leadership to help restore a healthy economy to the area.”

Parting shot

In the 21st Century, few would think twice about a female who shot guns for sport. But 45 years ago, Sharon Ward, 16, a Coeur d’Alene High sophomore, was second-guessed by her friends. They thought she wanted to upstage the boys. “That wasn’t it,” Sharon told The Press on March 26, 1980, “but they wouldn’t believe it.” Sharon was half of a sibling shooting duo who had won its divisions two weeks earlier at the Idaho State Junior Gallery Championships. Brother Brian, 18, a CHS senior, was preparing to attend his sixth straight Air Rifle Nationals in April. In 1979, he won a gold medal at the event. Brian could beat Sharon. Barely. So, the other high school boys who challenged her to shooting contests had no chance. And Sharon’s friends? They finally backed her.

• • •

You can contact D.F. (Dave) Oliveria at dfo@cdapress.com.

    Undated photo of Jenny Stokes.
  

    YMCA director John Vlastelica, left, and an assistant celebrate in 1980 after a successful membership drive.
  

    Doug Eastwood with his book, published in 2024, about a personal family tragedy: “Closure Can Be a Myth.”
  

    Undated photo of the missing Debbie Swanson.
  

    Tom (T.W.) Fisher raises a glass at his brewpub in 1990 with, from left, head brewer Whip Anderson and employees Mark Irvin and Laurie Kraus.
  

    Gov. Don Samuelson, second from right, tours the new long-distance center in 1970 with, from left, Director John Richards of Coeur d’Alene, General Telephone President A.J. Barran, Samuelson and Director Harry Magnuson of Wallace.
  

    Duane Hagadone, right, poses with his publisher, Jim Hail, center, and Harry Magnuson in 1985 after Duane bought four Silver Valley papers.
  

    Siblings Brian and Sharon Ward are straight shooters in 1980.