Remember When?

30 YEARS AGO • MARCH 5 18, 1992

COOK HANGS UP APRON

Continued from last week…

In 1952, Annie’s friend, Fay Hoy, was working at Norm’s Café as a waitress. Norm’s Café was located on the corner of Mill and Main streets. It burned in the 1970s, has been rebuilt and now houses Til Valhalla Tattoo shop. When Fay asked Annie if she could do the cafe’s laundry until they could get their machine fixed or until the laundry workers in Missoula (who were on strike) went back to work, she agreed. Thompson Falls did not have laundry facilities at that time.

The job lasted 18 years, with Annie doing from 20-28 white linen tablecloths a week plus her family’s laundry. One business after another began asking if Annie could do their laundry – butcher aprons, jackets, towels and personal things. In 1955, Sanders County Sheriff Wally Britton asked her to do the jail’s blankets and other laundry, which she did for several years. She continued to work for the sheriff’s department in various capacities throughout the years, working for a total of eight sheriffs.

Also in 1955, Annie’s father became too ill to work the farm. Vern had built a two-room house behind their home several years before where the children had slept, and since they were off on their own, he brought her parents home to live with them.

In 1957, the Air National Guard installed a little hut by Maynard Hoff’s home and began recruiting volunteers to man the hut and be aware of what air traffic was flying over the skies of Thompson Falls. Annie Sloan signed up. In January of 1958, she received her certificate for being part of that national program and putting in 100 hours of observation.

During this time, Annie was nominated to become a member of the Professional Business Women’s Club. Because she was “taking in laundry” one of the women said she did not consider Annie to be a “professional woman” and she was not accepted for admittance at that time. The error was corrected years later when she was renominated and accepted into the group.

In 1946, Vern and Annie joined The Odd Fellows and Annie received her certificate in the Wild Rose Rebekah Lodge.

In September of 1961, her father died. Then on March 17, 1963, Vern Sloan was killed in an auto accident on the Denton curves outside of Sandpoint, Idaho.

That was a blow to Annie. “One minute we are making plans for out future, then I’m all alone. I wondered what I was going to do,” she said. “I was only 52 years old, too young to get Social Security, but we had no savings.” Though the laundry brought in money, Annie feared it would not be enough to support her.

But her fears did not bear fruit. She worked long hard hours ironing and washing with no Saturdays or Sundays off, and no vacations. Slowly, she was able to put a little extra money away to repair her home.

When her mother suffered a stroke, she moved into Annie’s home. For five years, through medication, her mother was able to participate in life, but then in April of 1973, she had another stroke which left her bedridden and totally dependent.

Up until this time, Annie had been selling tickets at the local theater and served on the election committee, but because her mother needed constant care, Annie had to reduce her outside work load. A year later, her mother died, and Annie once again had to make adjustments. “I was fortunate to still have one daughter, Vernette Brauer, living in Thompson Falls. Just knowing she was near was a great comfort,” Annie reminisced.

At that point, Annie was able to receive some Social Security benefits. Although her benefits were low, this extra money meant she no longer needed to work such long hours. It also permitted her the freedom to take part in community activities, even the leisure of participating in Pinochle games.

She remained active, however, putting in 3-4 hour shifts at the county fair hamburger stands for several years along with helping Lillian Beamish with the vegetable section at the fair.

At the same time, she was substitute cook for Betty Shultz, wife of Sheriff Harvey Shultz. “In November of 1982, she asked me to take over for two weeks while her husband was in the hospital for surgery. When Harvey died and Jim Doxtater, then undersheriff, took over, he asked me if I would stay on and help him, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” recalled Annie.

Because she enjoyed history and law enforcement, in 1987 Annie and her daughter Vernette researched and put together a plaque documenting the 100-year chronological history of the sheriffs of Sanders County. Joyce Bybee (Lillian Beamish’s daughter) enlarged some of the photographs and Barbara Laws (Fay Hoy’s daughter) engraved the names beneath the pictures. The plaque hangs in the Old Jail Museum at Thompson Falls.

Annie Sloan says she is not retiring from her job as cook for the prisoners in the county jail – a job she has done since 1983. “Retire? I like my job and the people I work for. My life has had its ups and downs, but I feel I am lucky…to have my job, my family and my friends.”

I can lay the blame for my love of local history at Annie Sloan’s feet. She accosted me on the sidewalk in the 1980s and informed me that I should join the Old Jail Museum because I came from one of the oldest families in the area. Annie was like everyone’s grandmother and when she told me what to do, I did it.