Farewell To Karen Marchioro

Washington state politics are a little duller today, as Karen Marchioro died of cancer today. Marchioro was best known as chair of the Washington State Democrats during the 1980s. The Republicans also had a woman state chair named Jennifer Dunn. The two women reflected their parties well. Dunn was demure and stylish, Marchioro was outspoken and hardscrabble.

She was active with anti-Vietnam protests when she first got involved in politics. She most recently was our representative to the Democratic National Committee. I rubbed elbow with Karen many times at Democratic meetings and I was always a little wide-eyed running into her. I mean she had such a history. She was very cordial and always had time to share her opinion. We exchanged many e-mails discussing the issues of the time.

Thank you to washblog for the picture. (Karen with Senator Warren Magnuson)

Farewell To My Beloved Cousin

Jan Curran has passed away at 73. Jan was my second cousin, my father's first. Her blog, Jan Curran Events, inspired me to begin a blog of my own.

Jan was born in Walla Walla and graduated from Walla Walla High School, she went to the University Of Washington and met and married Alan Goldberg. Together they had 4 children. Jan and Alan divorced in the early 70s. She was briefly married to Donald Curran. Although she lived in California for almost all of her adult life, she would bring her children to Walla Walla every summer to visit the Grandparents, which is how I would meet Lee and Karen and later, Linda and Tod. Just about a year ago, she completed the book "Active Senior Living" a warm hearted comedy, based on life in a senior living center.

Through her blog, she was able to start what she called the "Jan Curran Fan Club", the idea behind it was for members to donate their old magazines and books to cancer treatment centers rather than throw them away. The Jan Curran Fan Club currently has a group on facebook with over one hundred members.

Click here for a wonderful article in the Desert Sun, the daily newspaper in Palm Springs.