Friday, June 20, 2008

'She is Bellevue'

Anna Faye O’Donnell to sit on 2008 Heritage Court


By JON DUVAL
Express Staff Writer

Anna Faye O’Donnell will be honored Sunday as a member of the 2008 Heritage Court. Photos courtesy of Mary Eskridge

Last in a four-part series.

It would be difficult for anyone to match the community involvement of Bellevue's Anna Faye O'Donnell.

With little fanfare or recognition, O'Donnell worked tirelessly behind the scenes, whether making sure schoolchildren had a hot meal at lunchtime or working until the small hours of the morning to hand-write the minutes from a City Council meeting.

This contributions did not go unnoticed or unappreciated, however, as O'Donnell was nominated by the Bellevue Historical Society to represent the city in the Blaine County Museum's 2008 Heritage Court.

"This is the smartest move they ever made," said Wynn Bird, a longtime Wood River Valley resident whose two aunts, Eunice and Myrtle, worked with O'Donnell providing lunch to Bellevue students when Bird herself was a young girl. "Anna is Bellevue—she's watched it move from a booming mining town, then die down to under a hundred residents and then thrive once again."

O'Donnell, who moved to Twin Falls earlier this year, first came to Bellevue with her parents in 1936 when they made the move north from Jerome, where her father had an 80-acre farm.

In order not to interrupt his prolific egg production, which averaged 60 dozen per week, O'Donnell's father listened to a friend's recommendation and moved the chickens in the dead of the night, which, as it happened, was on Halloween.

It was at her family's new residence on Broadford Road that O'Donnell first noticed a young man, Jack, who lived a quarter mile away and would pass by on his way to and from school.

In 1939, after O'Donnell graduated high school, the two married and set about making a life and family in Bellevue.

"They were truly community-oriented," said Mary Eskridge, one of O'Donnell's three children and her only daughter. "They wanted to make sure all of the kids in Bellevue had as good a life as possible."

To this end, Jack laid a concrete slab in his front yard and built a basketball court, as there was nowhere to play in town at the time.

"Any kid was welcome to come and play on the court or the swing set in the backyard," said Eskridge, who also lives in Twin Falls and is now able to visit with her mother every day.

In addition to helping the children, O'Donnell provided an invaluable service to the city itself, acting as clerk when there wasn't even an office in which she could work.

"She kept pretty busy and would pay the bills and write the minutes at home," Eskridge said. "After meetings, she would be up all night writing in the huge bound books."

In addition to working as clerk for nearly 30 years, O'Donnell also began working with Bird's aunts, putting on lunch at the Catholic Parish Hall, as there was no room large enough in the school to accommodate all the students.

"Those ladies made the best lunches in the world—their homemade Parker House rolls were to die for and kids would always get back in line for seconds," said Bird, who would later, as the water and sewer clerk, would work with O'Donnell for the city. "Back then there weren't any choices, you got what they cooked that day and it was all from scratch."

Her duties went beyond cooking, however, as O'Donnell was responsible for purchasing food for schools in Ketchum, Hailey, Bellevue and Hailey and then put it on the school buses to be delivered.

"Anna has done anything and everything in Bellevue forever," Bird said.

With her two sons, Jack and Jim, living out of state, and her close friends having moved out of the valley, O'Donnell has headed south out of the snow, where she claims with a laugh that her "main job now is holding down a chair."

However, her impact on the city is still felt, as evidenced by O'Donnell Park, named in her honor after decades of dedication to the city.

When she visits, O'Donnell said that Bellevue is no longer the sleepy town it was while she was a regular at City Hall.

"There's been so many changes," O'Donnell said. Now if I get lost if I get off Main Street."

2008 Heritage Court

The Blaine County Museum will honor a quartet of ladies this month as its fifth annual Heritage Court. Each lady was chosen for her longevity and commitment to her town. The new court will be honored from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 22, at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. There will be a reception after the event, at which the ladies will "hold court" to meet their public.

The four ladies will ride in a vintage carriage in Hailey's Fourth of July Parade, Carey's Pioneer Days Parade, Ketchum's Big Hitch Wagon Days Parade and Bellevue's Labor Day Parade.

Sponsors for the event are Sun Valley Co., D.L. Evans Bank, Wood River Welding, Ketchum/Sun Valley Rotary, Hailey Rotary, Anderson Asphalt, Power Engineers, Mike & Irene Healey, Scott & Devra Mary and Sun Valley Title.




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