History Museum of HR County hosts annual fundraiser Nov. 5; tickets on sale now.

The past will come to life as you meet Harry DeWitt and Maltie Dukes of the Passtime Quartet (played by Chalcedony Oates and Kelly Mahon), Mid-Columbia Sinfonietta founder and conductor Dorothy Lingren McCormick (played by Kathy Williams), and Reinhard “Papa” Fraunfelder of The Swiss Family Fraunfelder (played by Bill Weiler), among others.

The fundraiser will be held in the Riverview Room at Riverside Community Church, downtown Hood River. Tickets are $50 per person at hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/annualfundraiser, and include generous hors d’oeuvres and a drink ticket; local beer and wine will be served. Besides performances by Cemetery Tales actors, there will be live music and live and silent auctions.

Funds raised will support The History Museum’s mission of engaging “all people in a better understanding of the community’s heritage that preserves the past, relates it to the present and shapes the future.”

The 2022 Cemetery Tales streaming run has been extended through Oct. 31 and free community screenings are also scheduled (see info box). Need-based complimentary tickets are available; contact museum Executive Director Anna Goodwin at 541-386-6772 or director@hoodriverhistorymuseum.org.

Cemetery Tales free screenings

The first of three free community showings of this year’s Cemetery Tales takes place this Friday, Oct. 28 at the Performing Arts Center at Wy’east Middle School in Odell. The film will have Spanish subtitles throughout. Free tamales and hot chocolate will be served at 5 p.m. and the screening will begin at 6 p.m. There will also be live mariachi music from the Hood River Middle School Mariachi band.

The free event is funded by local sponsor Pat Evenson-Brady, and a grant from the Gary M. Anderson Children’s Foundation of Oregon Community Foundation.

Free public screenings will also be held at the Hood River County Library on Friday, Nov. 11 and at the Cascade Locks Marine Park Pavilion Friday, Nov. 18; both will begin at 6 p.m.

Importance of Cemetery Tales

“The most important benefit of Cemetery Tales 2022 is that it accurately preserves numerous Hood River family histories of immigrant families, honors the diversity of our people, and their struggles to establish and maintain lives in America,” said Larry Ganders, whose family, the Fraunfelders, is portrayed in this year’s Cemetery Tales. “My Swiss family faced many obstacles and hardships including poverty and language before capping a relatively successful and unique music career with farms and orchards in Hood River and Klickitat counties.

“The personalities of my late mother, grandfather, and uncle came to life in Cemetery Tales. Their career spanned about three decades: Entertaining American soldiers, promoting Schlitz Beer, advertising dairy products, flirting with Disney and the motion picture studios, performing live radio shows, singing for the ‘Chatauqua Circuit,’ yodeling at state fairs, cutting records, appearing at Rotary and other civic clubs, and much more. Those careers were completed in Hood River where their three-part singing, yodeling and polkas continued through local events and a Hood River 78-rpm record label while they worked their Columbia Gorge orchards.

“I learned from Cemetery Tales that they shared much with other Hood River families, whether they fully appreciated it or not. Even the distinctly Swiss-German music I grew up with had many similarities to Mexican Mariachi performances.”