50 years ago in the week of May 2, 1966
One hundred years ago the Madera High School girls basketball team posed for this photo. Pictured from the left are Ethel McCumber Pinion, Lena Northern Adams, Effie Raburn Wood, Dorothy Whiting, Pauline Stahl Scott, and Ruby Russell. (Courtesy of The Madera County Historical Society)
MICHAEL PISTORESI IS BOYS STATE CANDIDATE — American Legion Post 11 selected Michael Pistoresi as Madera candidate to Boys State, Walter A. McRae, Boys State chairman, announced today. Pistoresi, a junior at Madera Union High School, has excelled in school and community activities. He is a California Scholarship Federation member, holds a DeMolay Degree, and served as a DeMolay officer for six semesters. Pistoresi plays trombone in the MUHS marching band and has participated on the high school swimming team. “I think going to Boys State is really terrific,” Pistoresi says, “You get to participate in government and learn its fundamentals.”
DRIGGS NAMED OUTSTANDING TRAINEE — Private William Driggs of the Madera National Guard Unit returned recently from active training at Fort Ord where he was selected as outstanding trainee of his company. Col. Daniel Gust presented Driggs with a trophy for being the outstanding trainee and one for scoring the highest in his company’s machine gun qualification. Driggs received an Army citation, which reads: “For outstanding performance in a comprehensive series of formal and informal examinations conducted during the training cycle in accordance with the highest traditions of the United States Army.”
MINARET ROAD BATTLE FLARES UP — A battle smoldering for decades between conservationists and local interests over whether another highway should be built across the High Sierra has flared up again. The new Trans-Sierra route would bridge a 32-mile gap over Squaw Dome in Madera County to the 9,260 foot Minaret Summit near Devils Postpile National Monument in the Mammoth Lakes area, 25 miles south of Tioga Pass. The highway would run through the headwaters of the San Joaquin River, over Minaret Falls and across the famed John Muir Trail — now unbroken for 170 miles between Yosemite and Mt. Whitney. State Sen. James A. Cobey plans to push for the project in the 1967 legislative session.
GRANDMOTHER IS MOM OF THE YEAR — A 70-year-old grandmother still working despite serious illness was named Mother of the Year today. Mrs. Clare Berg was the winner in the annual contest sponsored by Madera merchants and The Tribune. The judges chose her after reading a letter sent to them by her granddaughter, Sandy Berg of Madera. Mrs. Berg has served as the 13-year-old Sandy’s mother since the girl was five. Sandy, a seventh grader at Thomas Jefferson Junior High School this year, entered her grandmother in the contest. She described her grandmother’s care for her while Mrs. Berg fought bravely against cancer...
