Looking Back: Man saves woman from being run over by train; and woman accidently gives ‘severe reprimand’ to local sheriff
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of May 18 to May 24 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
BLACKFOOT — A woman was saved from being run over by a train thanks to a stranger who acted without hesitation, The Bingham County News reported on May 18, 1911.
Tina Gorley, who was described as being “badly crippled” and could only walk with crutches, was walking across train tracks in Blackfoot when suddenly and without warning, a train backed up.
The train knocked her down, and a Mr. Hodson, who was standing near by, rushed over to Gorley. He quickly pulled her from beneath the wheels of the train and got her to safety.
“She would have been seriously, if not fatally, injured,” the article states.
1926-1950
PRESTON — A woman was arrested on a charge of “lewd cohabitation” roughly six months after her daughter was murdered, the Idaho State Journal reported on May 24, 1950.
Mrs. Maxine Brisbois was the mother to seven-year-old Glenda Joyce who was killed by a 16-year-old Heyburn High School athlete in 1949. Her body was found in an irrigation canal in November 1949, and the student-athlete later confessed to the murder.
The mother was arrested on a charge of lewd cohabitation with former Burley assistant police chief Forester R. Talbert.
READ: A high school athlete’s confession and the chilling crime that shocked a small Idaho town
The pair was arrested in Preston Wednesday morning. The crime was allegedly committed in Bonneville County on Sunday. Bonneville County sheriff Dean Wilkie was headed to Preston to return them to Idaho Falls to face the charge.
“Mrs. Brisbois only last week denied from Idaho Falls that she had deserted her husband and her other daughter, Sonra,” the article stated.
Her husband had filed a divorce complaint in Burley charging Brisbois with desertion. In reply, Brisbois said she had been living in Idaho Falls for two weeks and that she had been with her daughter Sonra a week before.
1951-1975
POCATELLO — A local woman gave a “severe reprimand” on the phone to a local sheriff not realizing she was talking to law enforcement, the Idaho State Journal reported on May 18, 1952.
Clemence Karaboyas, auditor at the Bannock Hotel, called the hotel switchboard and asked to be connected with the chef. The girl on the switchboard apparently thought she said “sheriff” not “chef” so she connected her with the local sheriff.
“Karaboyas gave the sheriff a severe reprimand and when he protested he had done nothing wrong that he knew about, the auditor asked him his name,” the article states.
“Marley’s the name,” the sheriff replied.
“I don’t know any Marley,” Karaboyas stated.
“Why I have been here about 20 years,” the sheriff said.
Finally, it dawned on Karaboyas that she was talking to the sheriff and not the chef.
“I have been blamed for a lot of things,” the sheriff said. “But this is the first occasion on which I have been taken to task for failure of duty in the kitchen.”
1976-2000
POCATELLO — Community members were coming together to help a man who lost everything in a devastating house fire, the Idaho State Journal reported on May 19, 1976.
Neighborhood children reportedly found the man, who went by the name George and was between 60 and 70 years old, rolled up asleep in a rug after a fire burned down his home near Pocatello. The neighborhood children then put up a tent for him to temporarily live in.
“Everything he had was lost. The only thing left was what he had on his body — a t-shirt, pair of pants and shoes,” DeMar Day, a Bannock Humane Society member, explained. “He’s been like a grandfather to all the children of the neighborhood. The kids kind of idolized him. They asked me if there was something I could do.”
Day and Aliana Moyer, another member of the Bannock Humane Society, were organizing a project to rebuild George a home to live in. The building was going to be built on the same site his fire-gutted home was located on.
Local businesses donated items to help with the house including pre-finished paneling, doors and windows. Other businesses donated canned goods and groceries. Donations for a small refrigerator, stove, bed, plywood, insulation, studs, nails and paint were still needed.
“He doesn’t ask for charity. He doesn’t have money, and he doesn’t believe in being put on relief,” Day said.