This day in history: A former mining tycoon shared his sad tale of financial ruin, offering some hard-earned advice
From 1975: The Spokane Chronicle told the riches-to-rags story of Frank N, Marr, 68, a former mining tycoon, now dying of cancer and barely surviving on Social Security.
He had been heir to a grocery chain empire started by his father in Spokane. (It would eventually become part of the Piggly Wiggly chain).
After working for his father for years in Missouri, Marr returned to Spokane after his family bought the Waikiki mansion and estate north of Spokane from J.P. Graves.
Marr eventually became president of the Spokane-Idaho Mining Co., director of a another mine in British Columbia and director of the Great Northern Life Insurance Co.
Then his life took a downward turn. A fire wiped out his primary mine. He made a number of bad investments. His wife of 30 years left him.
Yet Marr wasn’t feeling sorry for himself.
“I guess you’re supposed to be right 51 percent of the time in this old life, and I guess I didn’t make it,” he said. “You’ve gotta learn to accept life as it is – to take it as it comes.”
From 1925: Spokane received coal in its Christmas stocking when Gov. Roland Hartley vetoed the state senate bill that would have helped fund Spokane’s proposed civic auditorium.
Hartley’s veto also killed a number of building projects at Washington State College.
Also on this day
(From onthisday.com)
563: Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, modern -day Istanbul, is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
1818: Christmas carol “Silent Night” composed by Franz Xaver Gruber is first sung at St Nicholas Parish Church in Oberndorf, Austria.
1939: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace during World War II.
1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints General Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied Forces.
1971: Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke who is found 10 days later.