Harrington High School holds graduation activities

HARRINGTON – Harrington High School's Baccalaureate service was held Sunday, May 30, in the city park. The seniors next event will be June 4 at 5 p.m. for the Harrington High School Graduation Parade, "marching towards greater heights," walking up 3rd Street to the school for Commencement at 5:15. Banners, each with a photo of a graduate, are flying on 3rd Street near city hall bearing the following names: Nagib Ayache, Riley Roller, Izabelle Burke (Kramer), Ashley Breault, Aidyn Lee and Alexys Crawford (Miss Harrington for the 2020-2021 year). "Community members, friends and family are invited to gather along Third Street to show support for our graduates before the official graduation ceremony at the school" (quote from school website invite).

Memorial Flags

In spite of excessive winds on Friday, May 28, Hillcrest Cemetery was beautifully decorated throughout for the weekend, and large flags were flying along the west end of the cemetery while smaller flags marked the military graves. The traffic through the cemetery was never too congested in spite of the beautiful weather that encouraged visitors to stay longer than on inclement days.

Harrington Alumni Association

This past week LaMar Larmer of the Harrington Alumni Association presented a request to the Harrington Library for information regarding an alumna of our school, Katherine Applegate. She was a member of the 1921-22 Harrington senior class (other members were Hubert Adams, Ules Birge, Con Callahan, Mildred Baker, Darrel Turner, Rose Harberson, Ward Ellis, Earl Grant, Edna Reker, James Tierney, Elna Swenson, Guy Grant, Delbert Talkington, Vivian Witt and Cecil Griffith. Individual photos are in the high school annual, Cardinal and Black and are archived at our Public Library.

The Arthur M. Applegate family moved to Harrington in 1909 when Arthur took the job of manager of the Harrington Flouring Mill, a position he held until after 1922. They were originally from Dayton, Columbia Co, Wash. Their sixth child was born after coming to Harrington, and they left following the graduation of Katherine from high school in 1922.

In a family file on Applegates, there are speeches and compositions that Katherine Applegate had created that have been preserved in the local papers. She was the fourth child of six of A.M. Applegate and his wife Clare. Following graduation, Katherine was enrolled at WSC in 1922, taking zoology, history and four English courses, literature, journalism, composition and public speaking. In 1924 she was Secretary of the U.S. Veteran Hospital in Portland, Ore. In 1927, while her sister Dorothy was gaining recognition at Lick Observatory near San Jose, Cal. for achievements in mathematics and astronomy, Katherine Applegate was making headlines as one of a duo of stowaways on the steamer Maui from San Francisco to Honolulu, accompanied by a cousin, Katherine Waters. Katherine Applegate attended both Washington State College and Stanford University. By 1930 she was assistant to Keeler in the Northwestern University Crime Detection laboratory to whom she was married. Her second marriage was with Lt. Renee Dussaq in 1941 with their home in Washington, D.C. She entered flight training to become a WASP at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas on Aug. 9, 1943 and graduated in Feb. 1944. She was killed on Nov. 26, 1944 in an air crash of the U.S. Army Air Corps near New Carlisle, Ohio. Among other highlights from her life was the praise she had received as a handwriting expert and her testimony in the trials of more than 250 election officials charged with vote fraud. Her first diploma came from Harrington High School.