Spokane

From 1975: The search for the body of Joseph Hedger was still underway, and the suspect in the shooting, John C. Brannon, was not talking.

From 1975: A wild shooting and kidnapping spree, stretching from Liberty Lake to Stevens County, resulted in one arrest, one injury and one missing person presumed dead.

Ken Hill is not only a Bloomsday Perennial, he was the vice president of the Jaycees when Bloomsday founder Don Kardong approached the organization about providing volunteers to help put on the first race in 1977.

From 1975: The Spokane City Council was in “sharp disagreement” over whether to launch a city-funded Spokane Arts Commission.

Spokane’s retail scene in the early 20th century featured stores like the Wonder, Palace and Culbertson-Grote-Rankin department stores which defined the modern shopping experience. Those stores were then sold or merged with Culbertson’s, Penneys or Bon Marché.

From 1975: A citizens group called the Washington Association of Rail Passengers was lobbying for more convenient Amtrak schedules for Spokane.

Perennial Tom Leonard almost missed out on a Bloomsday when a 200-pound water valve fell and smashed his foot a week before the race one year.

From 1975: A Spokane woman was driving on the city’s west side when she saw a horrifying sight: a boy, 6, hanging from a tangle of rope in a garage.

From 1975: An Old National Bank employee at the Country Homes branch was on the phone to the downtown office when she heard a gunshot and saw an overhead light shatter.

From 1975: A Liberty Lake Sewer District bond issue was defeated by voters, but now Spokane County was launching an investigation into whether opponents broke campaign laws.

Mary Ann Wilson, the Spokane founder and face of the television workout program “Sit and Be Fit,” died Wednesday at the age of 87.

From 1975: The Spokesman-Review editorial page conducted a post-mortem of the recent election results.

Recently retired attorney Linn Sampson has been a runner for as long as he can remember, so it was only natural for him to sign up for the first Bloomsday in 1977.

From 1975: Election results were in, and Spokane voters made two things clear: They wanted evening council meetings, and they had no problem with selling stray dogs for veterinary research.

It started with an Instagram post from local Armenian eatery Skewers last week.

From 1975: More raw sewage would “almost certainly” be dumped into the Spokane River over the winter.

Bloomsday Perennial Jack Tenold, who has been fighting Stage 4 lung cancer since 2024, finished his most recent Bloomsday with his family by his side and an oxygen concentrator on his back. He already knows he won’t be able to do the 50th Bloomsday in May.

The stadium that was later named for sports booster Joe Albi opened as Spokane Memorial Stadium in 1950. Intended for multiple uses, one of the first events was the Apple Cup between the Washington State Cougars and the Washington Huskies. It had been 40 years since the Apple Cup was played at a Spokane venue.

From 1975: The search was on for a missing airplane out of Coeur d’Alene that disappeared two days earlier near Glacier National Park.