My copy of the Slate just arrived in the mail today. It had a great article in it written by George Sherman. The name of the article is, “The birth of Rock and Roll in Trona.” It is a great article and is well worth reading. If you are not familiar with the Searles Valley Slate, it is because that you are not a member of the Searles Valley Historical Society. The Searles Valley Slate is the society’s quarterly newsletter to members.
Since George is about five years older than me it is obvious that George would know more about Rock ‘n Roll than I would. I thought it began when people started listening to and dancing to Elvis records on the patio by the high school snack shack and continued after sunset when everyone was tuning in The Mighty 690 – XEAK on their car radios.
If you are from Trona or just interested in the history of Trona I recommend you become a member of the Searles Valley Historical Society and support their activities. A lifetime membership is $250 or, if you prefer, $20 a year. You can get more information about membership and their activities from their website.
Rex Worman passed away in Tennessee on August 19, 2019. He was taking a walk alone near his home in Hollow Rock, Tennessee when he died.
Rex had two older sisters who also went to Trona High School Ila (Worman) Powers, class of 1950 and Rena (Worman) Condren, class of 1951. He also had two nieces and one nephew that Graduated from Trona High School.
Rex was born to Esau and Lois Worman on August 10, 1943 in Wisconsin.
When the Wormans moved to Trona in 1945 they lived in the Panament Federal Housing Project. This was rows of small apartments that the Federal Government built because of the housing shortage in Trona during the 1940’s. When a house became vacant on California Street they moved there.
All of the houses on California street were torn down or moved around 1955 and the Worman’s moved to a house on the corner of Mountain View Street and Alameda Street. They stayed in that house until 1988 when both his parents had passed away.
After high school Rex was accepted into an apprenticeship program at Southern California Edison. After completing training at Redondo Beach Generating Station he went to work at the SCE Etiwanda Power Plant.
Rex married in 1967 and he had at least two daughters. Someone else will have fill in the rest of his life story from here.
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Bobby Tyler, a resident of Wenatchee, WA, aged 80, passed away peacefully on Monday, October 5, 2020, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA. Tyler was born June 24, 1940, to Bertha Tyler and Freeman Tyler of Daring, MO. He was a 1959 graduate of Trona High School. He then went on to work as a meat cutter and long-haul truck driver. While in high school, he met his former wife, JoLynn, whom he had two children with.
Bobby is survived by his sister, Ruth; daughters: Heather, Susan, Amy, and Lori; and his grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, Rick; his parents; and brothers: Harold and Billy.
Some of the many things Bobby enjoyed were spending time outdoors, attending Sturgis every year, and watching westerns. One of the biggest highlights in his life that brought him the most joy, was spending time with his grandchildren.
A memorial Celebration of Life will be held on Thursday, October 15, 2020, at 2:00 p.m., at Eastmont Community Church, 783 4th St. NE, East Wenatchee, WA. Arrangements are by Chapel of the Valley, East Wenatchee, WA.
Eric was born Eric Robert Joseph Schumacher to Erie Hester Price Schumacher and Robert William Schumacher in Cincinnati, Ohio. Before the age of three, his father died in a work related accident. His mother subsequently married Bernard Leroy Chandler, who adopted him. His name was formally changed to Eric Edward Chandler August 5,1941
Eric graduated from Trona High School in southern California where he was raised, and went onto the University of Cincinnati. He graduated from Ohio State University with a major in education and a minor in mathematics.He married Pearl Josephine Galloway October 20, 1956, who gave him his daughter, Sherry Lynn Chandler. They were divorced January 20, 1967. Two subsequent marriages followed: Susan Trieschman, married Feb. 2, 1969, Clark County, NV, and Peggy Kay Schiffer, married August 25, 1979, Clark County, NV., before he married Tanya Marie Veater Sargent, a widow with three grown children, in Duchesne, Utah on July 16, 2004.
His love of flying was well known. He joined the U.S. Air Force and flew reconnaissance missions daily for nearly a year in Viet Nam. He also trained pilots at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas for three years. After his discharge, he flew 18 years for Western Airlines and United Airlines until he retired due to medical problems. That did not stop his flying; he got his own plane, and made it on the pages of the Deseret News when he had engine failure, and made a landing on a sand-bar on the Great Salt Lake. Eric was type rated in DC 10, Boeing 727, 737, and for the Air Force: F100 & F86 jet aircraft.Other employment included substitute teaching in the Los Angeles, California area high schools, and algebra to beginning college students. Later, when he made his home in Salt Lake, he taught airplane and powerplant mechanics at the Salt Lake City Community College.
Preceding him in death were his parents, and one infant grandson, Dallas Packer. Eric leaves behind his wife Tanya, daughter Sherry Packer, sister Penny Nielson (Dell Ray), and brother Jerome Chandler (Connie). Also surviving him is grandson, Sean Packer (Amanda), and one great-grandson Brady Packer; granddaughter Jamie Packer, and several nieces and nephews. He also leaves Tanya’s family, whom he has been very close to. Tanya’s daughter Staci Thornton, and her daughter Tiffany (Matt Watson), and her daughters, Brynn and Bailey Crocker: Shana Gardner (Jon); and Sheline Miller (Kurt), and more nieces and nephews from her side of the family.Eric requested cremation, and asked that his ashes be scattered with those of his parents in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oahu. A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.
Diana (Dyna) loved so many things about life, but she loved taking road trips most of all, when on the hot afternoon of Saturday, June 17, 2017 she decided to take her final road trip home, without a doubt taking a detour thru Yellowstone on the way. When she arrived at the garden in the sky she was greeted by her husband Jimmy Weaver (2013) and son James Weaver(1986) who preceded her in death. Surviving her is her daughter Deborah Striplin, granddaughter Elizabeth Allen, grandson James Striplin Jr., sister Sue, brother Preston and extended family.
Diana was born in Reno, Nevada, moving to Southern California during her youth, with the family later returning to Nevada, where she spent the rest of her years. Battle Born she was, and loved living in Northern Nevada enjoying all its beauty. Diana retired from Bank of America and was very active with the Nevada State Fair volunteering many years in the exhibit halls.
I feel abandoned! I was born and raised in Trona. But we left when my father died. I was 11 yrs old and had finished the fifth grade. My family lived there for 25 years. Two older brothers and a sister graduated from Trona High School. I lived and breathed Trona High where both of my brothers played varsity football.
Now I am an orphan! I didn’t graduate from Trona High, so I have no class to belong to. It is where I walked barefoot in the sand, where the asphalt curled under our toes and the windstorms blinded us but never sent us back indoors. Where I walked to school every day with my dog Lassie who stayed outside the school yard and waited for me to return. Where I passed the homes of my teachers who invited us in for Kool-Aid and cookies.
We had big yards, alleys between the houses and we knew everyone on our street and down the alley.
There was scary Bobby Jones who always beat up the younger boys on the street, there was “Big Mary” that we all fantasized about and “Little Bill” and his brother Skipper who lived across the street (I was “Big Bill”).
We lived on Lupine street where, in the company owned town, the big shots lived. You were assigned your house, you didn’t pick it. We went to the open air movie theater at the town center, got banana splits at the counter in the drug store and paid for things at the grocery store with company script (not dollars).
If you didn’t have a car, you left town on the Trona Stages, our bus company. If you weren’t married, you lived in the bungalows across from the town center.
I roamed the desert fearlessly, escaping rattlesnakes, capturing desert turtles that became pets, discovering old mine shafts hidden in the tumbleweeds. I’m not sure if I owned any long pants or even shoes! The priest at our church, then located near the center of town, just rolled his eyes when we altar boys showed up barefoot and in short pants to serve at Mass.
My favorite time was the summer when we would go to the huge pool at Valley Wells. Most of the town was there almost every day. It was where we escaped the crippling heat and became human beings again (there was NO such thing as air conditioning then. Just useless water coolers that were only effective if you stood directly in front of it).
My Dad had a massive heart attack earlier in the year of 1952.. He retired as the President of Trona Railroad in June of 1952. He died the night we moved from Trona. I was 11 yrs old.
My two brothers, Michael (1950), Bruce (1952) and sister Elizabeth (1945) who graduated from Trona High are deceased now, but my sister Eileen, 88 yrs old is still around. Probably the last living member of her class of 1951. I don’t think she will be attending any reunions!
So that leaves me. A Tronan without a home! A lost soul whose identity is like a ghost living in a world that exists only in another universe.
Oh, except we moved to Santa Monica, the jewel of all beach communities in California, if not the world. I spent my teen years in a place that I could not afford to live in today! But it also has its memories.
I live today in San Clemente, CA and have done so for the past 46 years. My recollections of Trona have faded somewhat over the years (I’m 80 yrs old) and I suspect it does not match my childhood memories that are so idyllic.
But I am still a Tronan in my bones. It is the wellspring from which I come and defines me by a childhood that could not have been more perfect.
I recently learned that Ken, my classmate and friend, passed away and is buried in Trona. Ken and I spent a lot of time together when we were growing up. He died April 6, 2019 in Birmingham, Alabama.
Ken was born 10 January 1943. He was the son of Carl Tyre Hall (1901-1965) and Nora May Hall (1913-2002). Both of his parents are also buried in Trona. He had a sister, Virginia, and two brothers, Carl and Richard, who also attended Trona High School.
After graduating Ken attended Brigham Young University for two years and while there he decided to interrupt his education and become a missionary for the LDS church in Chile for two and half years. After he returned from Chile he planned on getting a college deferment so he could continue his education, however, the LDS church failed to forward the letters the draft board was sending him and they had him listed as a draft dodger. This made him ineligible for a deferment and moved him to the top of the list to be drafted.
His only other option was to enlist. I suggested that he try to get into the National Guard or reserves. The only reserves that will still taking enlistments at that time was the the Marine Corp Reserve. When he went to talk to the recruiter the recruiter convinced him that a 3 year enlistment would be better than 6 years in the reserve, I only heard from him once after he left for boot camp.
After being discharged from the Marines he returned to BYU to finish his education.He got married in1969 and settled down in Birmingham, Alabama.
Someone else will have to fill in the rest of his life story from there.
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Jennifer Corrion Smith, 65, of Bozeman, MT passed away at home on July 22, 2021, due to natural causes. She was born on June 7, 1956, in Trona, CA where she grew up and graduated from Trona High School in 1974.
After college graduation at Loyola Marymount as an English major, she and Jim were married in 1979 and lived in Davis, CA where Jennifer obtained her teaching credential. In 1984, after several moves around the country including Texas, Wyoming, and Cut Bank, MT, Jennifer and Jim settled in Bozeman. Jennifer had a great interest in children and taught pre-school for many years at Learning Circle Montessori and later Highland Montessori schools. She also ran a computer services business from 2002 until about 2012.
Jennifer was an avid hiker and dog lover and could often be seen on the trails and at parks around Bozeman where she met and befriended many other hikers. She will be deeply missed by her family, fellow outdoor enthusiasts, her friends, and extended family across the country.
Jennifer is survived by her husband, Jim Smith, of Bozeman; her daughter, Kallie Smith, of Salt Lake City; her son, Drew Smith (Abbi Dayton); and by her granddaughter, Audrey Smith, of Louisville, CO. Jennifer is also survived by her brother, Gregory Corrion, of Trona, CA; and by Jim’s brothers and sisters in California and Utah.
Jennifer was preceded in death by her parents, Maury and Phyllis Corrion; and by her sister, Barbara Sherman.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, September 10, from 3:00 to 6:00 P.M. at the Lindley Center located at 1102 East Curtiss Street in Bozeman.
