Irrigation Festival 2013
6 • Wednesday, April 24, 2013
By Patricia Morrison Coate
Irrigation Dignitaries and Royalty Grand Marshal Elaine Grinnell Elaine Grinnell will serve as grand parade marshal during the 118th Irrigation Festival this coming May. Over her 76 years, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe citizen has clung close to her cultural and geographic roots, having been reared by her grandparents, David and Mary Prince, until age 10 in the tribe’s original Jamestown community, established in 1874. She graduated from Port Angeles High School, earned a degree in counseling and worked for the Port Angeles School District as a counselor to Native American students. She married Fred Grinnell 52 years ago and the couple has three children: Jack, Julie and Kurt, plus nine grandchildren. After their children graduated from high school, the couple moved back to Jamestown on property that had remained in her family over the decades. Long before the tribe was federally recognized in 1981, Grinnell served on its tribal council in the early 1970s and today is an honored elder of the tribe. She continues to take an active role, as a member of the housing improvement committee, and working on education and scholarship opportunities with the tribe. For the past several years, Grinnell has been a storyteller of S’Klallam legends to other tribes and non-natives, including at the annual canoe journeys. She is a member of the Northwest Native American Basket Weavers Association and Northwest Native American Storytellers Association, teaching others how to tell stories. Upon being named grand marshal, Grinnell said, “I can remember going to the Irrigation Festival as a small child. My mother, Mildred Judson, was a grand marshal, too, and I think it’s the most exciting thing to happen during this lifetime of mine, to represent the people of Clallam County. I am especially honored because I think it’s the first time a native person, other than my mother, was selected. I am very excited because all of my kids are going to try to make it back for the parade.”
Elaine Grinnell
Grand Pioneer Esther Heuhslein Nelson Esther Heuhslein Nelson’s roots in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley run a century deep. Her parents, Nicholas and Esther Heuhslein, arrived between 1902-1909 and established the 150-acre Agnew Dairy and Poultry Farm in the early 1920s. One of four children, young Esther, born in 1928, was an expert in milking cows and putting up hay, not only on her own family farm, but also on neighboring farms during World War II when most of the young men were serving their country. For 10 years she was active in 4-H, raising a large garden and rabbits, canning, baking and sewing, for which she won a trip to Chicago, Ill., in 1946. Now 84, Nelson is a 1946 graduate of Sequim High School and earned her associate of arts degree from Peninsula College, as well as a business degree. For 32 years she was employed as a counselor for the Washington State Employment Office in Port Angeles, retiring in 1982. She and Ray Nelson have been married since then and she has two children from a previous marriage, Vickie Crane and Nick Larson, two grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Nelson has received numerous awards and honors, including 1996 Sequim Citizen of the Year, 2001 Washington Volunteer Information Center Volunteer of the Year and 2004-2005 Ladies of Elks Woman of the Year, as well as being grand marshal of the 2006 Irrigation Festival parade. Organizations she has served with include the Agnew Helpful Neighbors Club, Clallam Transit Advisory Board, Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce, Retired Public Employees Council of Washington, Sequim Valley Lions Club, Sequim Senior Activity Center, Sequim Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary. In 2009, Nelson was named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Sequim Rotary Club. She also helped with the publication of two “Sequim Pioneer Family Histories” and gives presentations on information she compiled about the county’s old schools. She has been the volunteer trainer at the chamber for more than 10 years. Nelson said at first she almost said no to being chosen a Grand Pioneer because she feels there are many deserving contenders but decided to accept the honor “while I’m still able to enjoy it.”
Esther Heuhslein Nelson