‘Anna liked to laugh’

The world knew her as Patty Duke.

Nephew Mike Kennedy knew her as Aunt Anna.

Mike’s seven children knew her as “Uncle Annie.”

And the first time the actress heard the former city councilman’s son, Will, call her “Uncle Annie,” she immediately demanded: “Never correct him.”

The family story that Mike Kennedy loves to tell still delights hearers 10 years after Anna’s unexpected death in Coeur d’Alene on March 29, 2016. At 69, Anna Marie Pearce (aka Patty Duke) was struck down by sepsis caused by a perforated intestine.

On April 16, 2016, fellow actress Melissa Gilbert summed up Anna’s zest for life at her memorial service at the Lake City Community Church: “Anna liked to laugh.”

In 1979, Melissa played Helen Keller opposite of Anna’s Anne Sullivan in the stage play of “The Miracle Worker.” Seventeen years before, Anna, then 16, became the youngest person at that time to win a competitive Oscar for her movie portrayal of Helen Keller.

Melissa continued, “She was so many things to so many people — mentor, co-star, advocate, inspiration, leader, daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, godmother and friend. How is it possible that God could make something so small, and yet so mighty?”

Anna, who was 5 feet tall, relished Coeur d’Alene.

In 1990, Anna and her husband, Mike Pearce, a former drill sergeant from Wallace, moved from California to North Idaho. The couple met on the set of the 1986 TV movie, “A Time to Triumph.” And, according to nephew Kennedy, they “wanted to get out of the rat race.”

Anna was an instant hit in her adopted hometown.

Bob Paulos, the late Coeur d’Alene Press columnist, recalled her serving as the 1994 grand marshal of the old Fred Murphy Days Parade — and then sitting on a curb cheering for other parade entries with her window-shattering whistle. In April 1995, The Press showed her reading to children at the Coeur d’Alene Library for National Library Week.

She helped fundraise. As a person with bipolar disorder, she encouraged grads of Judge John Mitchell’s mental health/drug court. She performed on Coeur d’Alene and Spokane stages, including a role in the 2014 Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater play, “My Fair Lady.”

She was, as Mike Kennedy said, “a centered person who led a big, loud, crazy, famous life.”

Ginormous Task

Upholsterer George Reisnaur had big boots, pants and a shirt to fashion in 1976 when Hilde Kellogg upgraded her 26-foot fiberglass cowboy.

The promotional cowpoke had stood outside Hilde’s Bar-B-Que Ranch western wear at Post Falls for 12 years.

He was in bad shape.

So, Hilde asked Reisnaur to create a new outfit for him made of herculite, a heavy-duty industrial fabric. The craftsman and his family spent 90 hours working on the duds.

The collar was 5 ½ feet around, the arms were 7 feet long, the waist was 11 ½ feet around, and the inseam extended 10 ½ feet. Some 40 yards of material were needed.

Reisnaur stretched the cowboy out on a floor hoist in his Post Falls garage, with the giant’s head resting on a table and his 44-inch boots on an old mattress.

“People would drop in just to see what we were doing,” Reisnaur told The Press. “I think some of them thought we were crazy.”

The cowboy continued to attract passersby until Hilde shut the store in 1982 and became a legislator who served 10 terms. Hilde stored her sidekick for 10 years before selling him for $1,000 to Jim Bass of Bass’s Western World in Coeur d’Alene.

Bass spent another $5,000 to restore the iconic figure. Then, he named the giant “Wayne” and put him back to work at his store on Feb. 11, 1992.

It’s a Girl

Scott and Ashton Underdahl were stunned when the doctor told them that a baby girl was on the way. At the time, the couple was 16 weeks into Ashton’s pregnancy.

The extended Underdahl family was ecstatic, including Lakeland High principal Conrad Underdahl, the grandfather to be. No girl had been born to the Underdahl family since great aunt Bernice in 1914 — 101 years before.

Weighing 8 pounds and 3 ounces, baby Aurelia arrived on April 12, 2016.

Grandpa Conrad told The Press: “Maybe it took more than 100 years to create perfection.” Aurelia joined 22-month-old brother Archer.

Her father, Scott, grew up in a family of four boys, where clothes were handed down from one brother to another.

Ashton had already discovered that girls’ clothing departments were “more overwhelming than the (ones for) boys.” But she was looking forward to spoiling Aurelia.

Said she, “She’ll just be our little princess, our cream of the crop.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: The seasons turn and now once more / the grass grows green outside his door / and brings the question many fear: / will that old lawn mower start this year? — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“The Mystery of Spring”).

• Merry Prankster: Sheriff Rocky Watson wasn’t that sad to see Undersheriff Tad Leach depart April 20, 2011. Tad’s last day as a county employee was memorable. First, there were the sad partings. But those gave way to disbelief. Outside the office, Tad had arranged for a forklift driver to put Rocky’s department SUV on two powder containers. For some pranksters, like Tad, April Fools' Day never ends.

• Punks: Oh, for the days of yore when juvenile delinquency meant simply car thefts and house burglaries. In April 1956, FBI special agent R.N. Hosteny of Butte, Mont., warned Coeur d’Alene Kiwanians about the spread of juvenile delinquency. Hosteny defined the term as someone “who does not have the moral character to withstand temptation.” In other words, your average U.S. senator or representative of today.

• Close Call: Luckily, love for Tubbs Hill was spreading when real estate agent Ozzie Walch asked for a rezone request 50 years ago. Ozzie wanted to build a 12-unit apartment complex on the west side of the hill. Ozzie felt that he had the right as an owner to pursue the highest and best use for his property. But city planners ruled that the highest and best use for Tubbs Hill was its preservation. Bingo.

• Sister’s Bouquet: Sister Ida of the Immaculate Heart of Mary earned her roses. But she received them at a bittersweet time. On April 13, 1971, the District 1 Principals’ Association gave her a parting gift of roses. The IHM principal had also served as the organization’s first female president. Sister Ida’s time here ended a month later when the Catholic school with its rich education tradition shut for good.

Parting Shot

Steve Groene opposed the death penalty for the monster who murdered and/or kidnapped and raped three of his children.

Steve had good reasons for his position.

In April 2006, he told The Press and Fox News sleuth Geraldo Rivera that he didn’t want surviving daughter Shasta, then 9, to face serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan in court.

She had been traumatized enough.

Also, Groene, then 48, was suffering from throat cancer. He wanted to spend the time he had left with his daughter. Therefore, Groene lobbied for a plea bargain that would send Duncan to prison for life without possibility of parole.

But Prosecutor Bill Douglas and family members of the two other murder victims in the 2005 crime spree — Groene’s ex-wife and her boyfriend — wanted the death penalty.

Both sides got their wish.

Shasta never faced Duncan in court.

Duncan pleaded guilty to his various awful crimes in state and federal courts. He was sentenced to death several times. And he did everyone a favor by dying from brain cancer at age 58 on Indiana’s Death Row on March 28, 2021.

He outlived Steve Groene by 16 months.

• • •

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

    A worker makes final adjustments to the restored Bar-B-Que Ranch cowboy in 1976.
  

Baby Aurelia Underdahl sleeps in mother Ashton’s arms unaware that her 2016 birth broke a streak of 101 years.

    The Underdahl family poses in 2016 for its first family photo. The Underdahls are, from left, Ashton, Aurelia, Archer and Scott.
  

    Tom Leach whispers to Sheriff Rocky Watson, right, as outgoing Undersheriff Tad Leach enjoys Rocky’s reaction to his 2011 prank.
  

    FBI special agent R.N. Hosteny, center, warns Coeur d’Alene Kiwanians about the growing danger of juvenile delinquency in 1956. With Hosteny are club president Walt Allen, left, and program chairman Marc Souther.
  

    Ozzie Walch.
  

    In 1971, John Rieger of Wallace presents roses to Sister Ida, principal of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on behalf of the Principals’ Association.
  

    Steve Groene, center, the father of three children murdered and/or terrorized by a serial killer, stands with Fox News sleuth Geraldo Rivera, left, and local attorney Chuck Lempesis during a 2006 live news broadcast.