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The Drakes: Small-town America still thriving

Ric Clarke Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 7 years, 9 months AGO
by Ric Clarke Staff Writer
| March 29, 2017 1:00 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — Bill Drake, a rambunctious, fun-loving prankster, was taken aside one day along with his incorrigible buddies by a young, no-nonsense high school teacher who laid down the law.

“He said, ‘Look, you guys, you’ve got to straighten up or you’re going to be in jail. You owe Coeur d’Alene a lot. You were able to be raised and educated here, and consider paying it back.’”

That teacher was Ray Stone. About three decades later Drake would serve as co-manager of Stone’s campaign for mayor. Stone was one of only two mayors in the city’s history who served multiple terms at City Hall.

Stone’s admonishing words about “paying back” resonated with Drake. Over the years he and his wife, Judy, in their own quiet,

unassuming way, have helped shape what the community has become.

They are a Coeur d’Alene class act.

Bill, 81, and Judy, 75, are both Coeur d’Alene natives and graduates of Coeur d’Alene High School. The retirees spend almost half their time now at their waterfront retreat near Driftwood point on Lake Coeur d’Alene. They remember a rich history of growing up in what Bill describes as a “small, sawmill, tourist town with gas stations and motels everywhere.

“It was a special time and a special place,” he said. “Small-town America. Just super.

“Everybody knew everybody else. Nobody locked their houses or garages or anything,” he said. “Kids had so much to do. We’d ride our bikes everywhere — City Beach, Sanders Beach, Memorial Field, City Park. There was all sorts of stuff to do.

“My parents both worked so I had plenty of time after school to get into all kinds of mischief.”

What kinds of mischief? There is a long list. Perhaps the best case is an ill-conceived ice-skating excursion.

One evening after a bonfire at City Beach, Drake and two friends decided to skate across a frozen Lake Coeur d’Alene to Kidd Island Bay. They were unaware that ice in the lake’s main channel was fluctuating — opening and closing — and preventing their return to City Beach. They somehow managed to make a lengthy and risky crossing to Arrow Point and skate, after a three-hour escapade, to Sanders Beach.

“There was a little reception committee waiting for us — the city police, county sheriff, and all of our parents,” he said. “After that event my circle of activity closed. I couldn’t get out of the front yard for a month.”

And then there was scaling a fence at the Desert Hotel pool at night and swimming until the security lights came on and the police showed up. The ploy worked well until one night when a friend jumped over the fence into the hands of a police officer. He was sent home on the street wearing nothing but boxer shorts.

Drake participated in the first Diamond Cup, helping to develop the pit area as a post-hole digger for fence construction. The organizers couldn’t afford to pay the young crew for their labor, so agreed to feed them at the Athletic Round Table instead.

“They rethought that one because we ate and drank way more than we should,” he said.

During his earlier years, the Farragut Naval Training Center on Lake Pend Oreille was a big factor in his life. Double-shifting was imposed while he was a fourth-grader at Harding Elementary because of the influx of children from Farragut families. Yet the community embraced the sailors.

“They would be invited by the people of Coeur d’Alene to come spend their time off or their weekends. We’d take them into our homes and feed them. My parents did that too,” he said.

His father was working for Brack Supply, which acquired the cigarette concession at Farragut.

“So for a time Brack was making more on cigarettes than for auto parts,” he said.

Drake would ride along with his dad while he stocked the canteens at Farragut and was astonished by the immensity of the training center.

“Farragut was a big, big deal,” he said.

Farragut’s population was 55,000 at one time, which made it the largest “city” in Idaho. Yet just as it was fully up and running, it became a white elephant with the close of World War II.

Drake remembers the incredible waste as the training center was eliminated. Each of the center’s five housing units had basketball courts and Olympic-size swimming pools.

“After the walls were knocked down and they’d taken everything else to salvage or sell, they brought in cats and ripped those hardwood basketball floors up, bulldozed them into the swimming pool and lit them on fire,” he said.

Drake headed on to high school but not before dodging a bullet at age 14. He contracted osteomyelitis in his left leg, a rare bone disease that causes fast-moving infection and inflammation.

“It was a painful deal. I passed out at home,” he said.

Dr. Bud Barclay came to the house and said he wanted to run a risk with a little-known drug called penicillin. Barclay came by twice a day and injected Drake.

“He told my parents, ‘If we can’t get it slowed down in 72 hours we’ll have to amputate his leg.’

“Well, it worked. Penicillin did the job,” Drake said.

The experience prevented him from participating in sports in high school, but not the military.

Drake graduated from CHS in 1954. He enrolled at the University of Idaho and earned a degree in business. He then was commissioned as a second lieutenant in field artillery in the Army active reserve.

“It was one of the best things that happened to me. The discipline,” he said. “It put some order in my screwed-up, bouncing-around life. I enjoyed the military. I almost stayed in.”

While home on leave in 1958, he stopped by a store on Sherman Avenue to buy his father a Christmas gift and met a young, attractive clerk there. Bill and Judy Drake were married in 1963.

They have two sons and two grandchildren. The older son, Bill Jr., will be in Phoenix on Saturday as the assistant director of athletics for Gonzaga University.

Following the military, Drake went to work for Harris Dean Insurance as an adjuster and eventually became one of five owners of the business. He retired in 1998.

Judy also enrolled at the University of Idaho and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education. She enjoyed a long career in education as a teacher, administrator and an assistant superintendent.

The Drakes have been heavily involved in the community over the years, primarily in leadership positions in the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club.

Bill was recruited into Rotary in 1990 by none-other than Ray Stone.

“He said, ‘I will back you only if I can get Judy in.’

“Rotary is one of the activities that I’ve become involved with to grab hold of what Stone said about paying back what you owe to the community,” Drake said.

Bill served on the U of I Board of Directors and was instrumental in reviving the Commodores, the chamber’s core support group.

Judy worked to create new opportunities in public education.

They remain active and caring and giving back, but mostly prefer to be grandparents and world travelers.

“We’ve seen a lot of the world but there’s a lot more we still want to see,” Bill said from their Cherry Hill home overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene.

But they’ll always be anchored in their hometown.

“We’re going to stay here until they drag us out,” he said with a smile.

•••

Know a longtime local we should feature? Send your suggestions to Ric Clarke at clarke_ric@yahoo.com.

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