HUCKLEBERRIES: Earning the spotlight

Tracey Brown didn’t win big in Las Vegas, but she didn’t come home empty-handed either.

On Jan. 21, 2006, the Post Falls brunette with a radiant smile failed to capture the Miss America Pageant crown. But, as Miss Idaho, she received a nice consolation prize: the prestigious Quality of Life Award for community service.

“I’ve dreamed of going to the Miss America Pageant since I was a little girl, watching the program on television with my mom and sister,” Tracey told Kerri Thoreson of the Coeur d’Alene Press. “God gave me the opportunity to make that dream a reality.”

Tracey prepared for her big moment by taking 10 years of dance lessons and by becoming a Toastmaster to improve her public speaking. She also represented Idaho in the 2004 America’s Junior Miss competition (now called Distinguished Young Women).

At 19, she was the youngest Miss America competitor in Las Vegas.

At breakfast one day, eventual winner Jennifer Berry of Oklahoma asked Tracey how old she was. When Tracey told her, the future Miss America said, “Don’t worry, honey, you’ve earned your spot here just like the rest of us. But I’ll be looking out for you this week.”

Last week, Tracey told Huckleberries that “there were good parts and hard parts” to the Miss America Pageant. The swimsuit competition was difficult. Said she: “It was overwhelming to be a 19-year-old onstage in a swimsuit being judged by strangers on your appearance.”

Tracey didn’t mind finishing outside the top 10. She entered the competition to earn scholarship money to defray college expenses. Winning the Quality of Life Award — and the $3,000 grant that came with the honor — was the highlight of her 10 days in Las Vegas. She won about $20,000 in scholarships during the Junior Miss and Miss America contests.

Her advocacy for Breast Cancer Awareness impressed the judges. It was an issue dear to her because, at that point, her mother, Debbie, had survived breast cancer for five years.

In 2008, Tracey, the daughter of Bill and Debbie Brown of Post Falls, represented Idaho in the Miss USA contest. Her older sister, Shannon, also competed in pageants.

Tracey is now 39 and married for 15 years to software developer Tyler Fouché, another Post Falls High graduate. She was a freshman when he was a senior. The couple met during a missionary trip to India. Later, Tracey earned a law degree and worked for Adoptions West.

Today, the couple owns The Short Years Baby Books and app, which enables busy parents to easily chronicle the first year in a child’s life. The Fouchés have four children, ages 4 to 12, who, they say, are the inspiration behind their successful business.

Jack’s journey

Today, Jack Riggs is viewed as an angel or a demon, depending on who’s judging.

As a leader of the North Idaho Republicans, he’s a guardian angel to those who yearn for the days of Ronald Reagan. But he’s considered a RINO or worse by the MAGA crowd which controls the county GOP apparatus.

Twenty-five years ago, however, Jack’s political pedigree was indisputable.

In nominating Jack to fill a lieutenant governor vacancy, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne described him as “instrumental in the political revolution that took place in the north: turning Kootenai County into a Republican county.”

In January 2001, Jack was beginning his third term in the Idaho Senate when Kempthorne tapped him for higher office. The governor wanted someone from North Idaho for geographical balance on the Statehouse leadership team.

Jack was also a friend.

The two politicians had become buddies at the University of Idaho 28 years before.

Jack was confirmed as lieutenant governor but lost his 2002 primary race to keep his job to Jim Risch, who later became governor (2006-07) and then a U.S. senator (2009 to present).

Body hunters

Terry Lee is known for his superb artwork that graces Coeur d’Alene, from the waterfront to the Coeur d’Alene High gym.

But 50 years ago, as the owner of Divers West, he was also one of the men called out to retrieve bodies from local waterways.

It was nasty work that someone had to do — work that produced nightmares.

On Jan. 13, 1976, Terry and firefighter Mike Budvarson told The Press how recreational diving became an unnerving duty when someone crashed into a lake or river.

“There always are people ready to volunteer in such instances,” Terry said. “It seems so exciting. However, most of those who are successful on a body hunt never do it again. There are still nights when I don’t sleep too well.”

At the time, Terry and Mike had recovered four bodies. But they kept going back.

“Sometimes it takes more guts than brains,” said Terry.

At times, he said, it was unnerving to search for bodies in dark water.

“We have to slide along the bottom and sometimes run straight into a body,” Terry said. “It’s a terrible feeling being tensed up and just waiting to run into a body.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: The door of life/revolves about;/she’s coming in,/I’m headed out — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“New Grandchild”).

• So Long — Sambo’s, an old restaurant chain with a racially charged name, debuted on Sherman Avenue on Oct. 7, 1975. The building cost $155,000 to build and seated 170. It had a Denny’s vibe. But it didn’t last long. A breakfast spot that replaced it in the 1980s, however, was an instant hit: Woody and Daren McEverses’ Rustler’s Roost.

• Done Good — The Lake City is indebted to Betty Stone and Peg Kelly, original members of the Cemetery Board. In the 1980s, they helped initiate the Avenue of Flags at Forest Cemetery and helped stop a city attempt to privatize the graveyard. Betty, who died in November at age 101, regretted that she had to resign from the board to avoid a conflict of interest after her husband, Ray, became mayor in 1986.

• Rain, Go Away: Twenty-five years ago, a little rain on a Red Hot Mamas parade didn’t stop them from marching. The weather was wet and nasty when Coeur d’Alene’s goodwill ambassadors and their shopping carts delighted spectators at George W. Bush’s first inaugural parade. On Jan. 21, 2001, after waiting in the rain for two hours, the zany Mamas strutted their stuff and made fans watching at home proud.

Parting shot

Mitzi Johnson didn’t have to travel to the nation’s capital to fight cabin fever in January 2001. She needed only her BFFs and the Captain’s Wheel in Bayview.

Mitzi began planning a winter bash after asking husband, Bud: “What happened to the fun me?” An hour later, she drafted an invitation that read: “I have declared that being bored is boring and that being sick and tired is detrimental to my health.”

The invitation wasn’t for a Tupperware party, a home interior party or a birthday, she said and then added singer Cyndy Lauper's signature line: “We girls just want to have fun.”

Mitzi expected 10 to 12 “fun friends” to show up. Forty did, in all sorts of garb and makeup.

The women ate lunch, told raw jokes and compared outfits. A woman dressed as a Wallace hooker won the costume contest. Another wore her husband’s long johns with fringe sewn over the fly.

A good time was had by all. And the winter blues took the day off.

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at [email protected].

    Tracey Brown, center of women in red dresses, enjoys the opening number at the 2006 Miss America Pageant. Miss Oklahoma Jennifer Berry, contestant to Tracey’s right, won the contest.
  

    Tracey Brown autographs programs for a 2006 Miss America viewing party at Templin’s Resort.
  

    Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, left, and State Sen. Jack Riggs answer questions at a news conference in 2001.
  

    Gary Lee, left, and Mike Budvarson search for a body in 1976, while diver Terry Lee and a marine deputy watch in a boat.
  

    Opened in 1975 as a Sambo’s restaurant at 817 Sherman Ave., this building later housed the popular Rustler’s Roost.
  

    Peg Kelly, left, became chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Cemetery Board in 1986 after Betty Stone, right, resigned.
  

    Rain didn’t stop the Red Hot Mamas from enjoying themselves at George W. Bush’s inauguration parade in 2001.
  

    Alice Eaton won the best hat competition at a "Fun Friends" party at the Captain’s Wheel in Bayview in 2001.