Document text
Gold Hill book lovers were 'real characters' Betty Hoddersen and Bob Patrick will be give unique honor as part of new library project By BUFFY POLLOCK GOLD HILL - Two community members known for their love of learning will be memorialized in the place they spent so much of their lives - the local library. Friends of the Gold Hill Library plan to create a memorial to 25-year companions Bob Patrick and Betty Hoddersen once a new library is built as part of a $38.9 million countywide bond project. Construction has not yet been scheduled for the building, which is still in the planning phase. Contributions for the memorial can be sent to Friends of the Gold Hill Library, P.O. Box 258, Gold Hill, OR 97525. Patrick and Hoddersen, both of whom died this year, were well-known throughout the community and often could be seen walking up Second Avenue to the library. "She was tall and lanky and he was short and Irish," remembered library supervisor Anne Boydston. "Everyone knew them. They were here all the time when they could make it. When they got older, people would bring them up or I would deliver books. They were both real characters." After their deaths - Hoddersen on Jan. 7 from lung cancer, Patrick on March 1 with Alzheimer's disease - their family and community felt a memorial was in order. Linda Annecston, the couple's caregiver and a longtime friend, said the idea couldn't be more perfect. "Both of them were very intelligent people and very interested in lots of different things," she said. "If you saw (their) book collections, it would blow your mind. There was something there for everyone, a little bit of everything. All their books and magazines had tabs to mark certain stories or articles." Annecston remembers meeting Hoddersen more than 15 years ago when she showed up with a stack of library books for homebound seniors for whom Annecston was caring. Books played a big role in both their lives, say their children. Hoddersen, who was born near Seattle, was an avid reader, interested in the arts and active in sports, family members say. She earned her bachelor's degree in philosophy from Seattle University and married her husband, artist William Hoddersen, after World War II. They lived in New York City, where they raised their son, Eric. Betty worked for Doubleday Publishing and later lived in Mexico until 1971, when William died and she returned to Seattle. "When I grew up, we always had books in our house," remembered Eric Hoddersen, a Cleveland resident. "If we would have had to choose between food and books, we'd have wound up with books. That was always her big thing." Books were less available to Patrick as a boy, but that did little to stop him. One of eight siblings born to poor Kansas farmers, Patrick left home at the age of 13. He lost a leg riding the trains from place to place. He completed high school on his own in Ellensburg, Wash., and attended two years of college at Central Washington in the late 1930s. His working years were spent as a carpenter and shipbuilder and a well-known activist in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. He raised two sons, Don and Tim. Tim Patrick of Spokane, Wash., remembered his father's bookless childhood. "His mother wanted him to stay home and help with the farm and not go to school, but he managed to disobey his mom and go to school as frequently as he could," he said. "Dad was always a tremendous reader, and we had quite a library of politics and history. It was not uncommon for him to read 24 hours straight, and he used to read long novels, an hour each night, to us kids." Patrick and Hoddersen met in the early 1970s and opened The Conscious Exchange, a bookstore and popular hangout for social activists in Seattle, Eric Hoddersen said. In 1984, the couple sold their business and began looking for a place to retire. Eric Hoddersen said they sort of happened upon Gold Hill on a road trip to the California border. "They had spent months looking, and one day they stopped for lunch at the El Rogue Caf�, and met some people they liked. So they kind of said, well, maybe Gold Hill's OK. And that was that," he said. Gold Hill resident Loretta Klaus said she was pleased Patrick and Hoddersen would be remembered with a library memorial. "They loved books. (The memorial) is exciting because these people were so much part of Gold Hill that they'll live on through the library," she said. "Even though Bob had Alzheimer's, he would wander up to the library. He always knew where he could find a safe place and people would bring him back home. "I was fortunate enough to become friends with them in the last few years. It was just a real unique friendship. Older people have a certain insight to life that gives you hope and encouragement," she said. "They knew a lot of people and everybody knew Betty and Bob." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected]. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.