Remember When

50 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 18, 1968

10A PERMA CURVES, SHORT-CUT PROJECT SCHEDULED IN 1968

The Montana Highway Commission plans to call for bids in the spring and early summer for two major highway construction projects in Sanders County.

Bids for re-construction of three sections of U.S. Highway 10A (now Highway 200), including the hazardous Perma Curves section, now are scheduled for letting in May. The project will eliminate the most dangerous curves in the highway between Perma and Dixon in addition to the main Perma Curves section west of Perma.

The commission expects to call for bids in July for construction of 5.5 miles of the Thompson Pass shortcut which will connect Highway 10A at Thompson Falls with Interstate 90 at Enaville via Murray and Prichard, Idaho. The section to be built this summer will extend from the Idaho line east towards Cooper Gulch and when completed will open the graveled secondary route to traffic. However, a four to five-mile intermittent section of the Prospect Creek route, extending from end of the present new construction to the start of the Cooper Gulch-Thompson Pass section will remain to be rebuilt when funds become available. Another highway project of interest to some Sanders County residents scheduled for 1968 is reconstruction of the final section of the Paradise-St. Regis cut-off in Mineral County early next fall.

40 YEARS AGO

JANUARY 19, 1978

RUBY EKERN HONORED ON HER 90TH BIRTHDAY

The greatest experience of her lifetime has been bringing up her family, Ruby Ekern said on her 90th birthday Saturday, Jan. 7.

This silver-haired woman, who is as straight and alert as someone half her years was honored Saturday afternoon at St. Joseph Convalescent Home. On the eve of her birthday, she was a guest at a birthday dinner arranged by her son, Halvor O. Ekern Jr. and hosted by her granddaughter, Holly Ekern, a student at U of M.

“Young people today have different ideas than in my generation, but I love them all, she commented, and her face lit up with pleasure from the thought of the many heartwarming friendships she has enjoyed with youth.

Her one regret is the mounting use of drugs and drink among today’s younger set, and she said vehemently, “I wish they could see the harm they do to themselves.”

Asked for any advice she could offer, she said with a smile, “I could give them some, but it would be no use. They would do what they wanted to anyway. It’s always been so since the world began.”

Mrs. Ruby Putnam Ekern traces her lineage back to include both the Stanton line, Lincoln’s Secretary of War, and to the Putnam line going back to General Israel Putnam of the Revolutionary War.

Ruby Eleanor Putnam her maiden name, was born in South Dakota January 7, 1888. She was one of seven sisters and a brother. Her parents migrated by wagon train from South Dakota with some of the first pioneer families.

Ruby attended Baptist College Teaching Academy, after which she taught for eight years. In 1916, she married Halvor Olaf Ekern, who had emigrated from Norway in 1903. He served in World War I.

“There were hardships but happiness, too, in our homesteading years,” she recalled, looking back to their early home near Grass Grange, Mont. It was here in 1917 that their first child was born.

H.O. Ekern later became a pharmacist, owning and operating a drug store in Thompson Falls from 1921 to 1932. Mr. and Mrs. Ekern also owned and operated the theatre in Thompson Falls from 1930 until 1945, when they sold it to Harold and Helen Jensen.

Halvor Ekern contracted Bill Paige to build the Rex Theatre. The building was started in September 1939 and was done in December. The first movie shown was “At the Circus” featuring the Marx Brothers. Harold and Helen turned it over to their son, Mike, who operated the theatre until 1997. “George of the Jungle” was the last film shown by the Jensens. After several years of sitting vacant, Doug and Karen Grimm bought the old historic building. It is available for rent for live theater, music performances and other public events.

Her husband served in the Montana Legislature, and after World War II until his retirement in 1967, he was an auditor for the state. The Ekerns lived briefly in Missoula and Dixon, and then took up residence in Polson until 1962.

The Ekerns had four children.