Looking back: Contest held to find ‘most popular young lady in eastern Idaho’ and hospital patient escapes, drowns in river

Ricks College Basketball Team circa around 1925.| Courtesy photo
IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Jan. 2 to Jan. 8 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
BLACKFOOT — A Blackfoot woman received a $400 piano “as the result of a voting contest” to determine the “most popular young lady in eastern Idaho.”
The Blackfoot Idaho Republican announced on Jan. 3, 1908, that a bookkeeper at the Standrod Bank, Lilly Dipple, won. The contest was put on by the Evening Capital News of Boise.
“The contest lasted several weeks, it being not alone a contest of good looks, sweet temper, intellectuality and the ordinary accomplishments, but also a measure of business ability,” the Idaho Republican explained. “The girl whose popularity and business ability would enable her to organize her forces so that the greatest number of voting coupons would be saved and voted for her, had the best chance to win.”
The paper said winning the contest was an “honor that comes to but few young ladies” and a “training that any ambitious girl might be glad to have as it brings her into social and business circles that no amount of schooling can do.”
“Of course, I am glad I made the race because I won the prize,” Dipple told the Idaho Republican. “But even if I had lost, I can see now where the contest would have been a benefit to me.”
1926-1950
RIGBY — Local radio owners said there was a “power line disturbance on the radio” due to kids throwing rocks, The Rigby Star reported on Jan. 6, 1938.
Utah Power and Light Company Manager W.M. Fisher found five broken insulators on one power line. The glass was broken by “boys throwing rocks or by a rifle shot.” The paper said “such malicious destruction” not only interferes with the power circuit but “creates disturbances over radios for considerable distances.”
“Parents of such youngsters will confer a favor to the power company, and incidentally radio owners of this vicinity, by impressing on the minds of the youthful rock yielders the errors of their ways in such destructive mischief,” The Rigby Star stated. “Such admonition might save embarrassment and other annoyance to the yielders of such missiles by being brought before the judge to answer serious charges.”
1951-1975
POCATELLO — A Pocatello man died after plunging into the Portneuf River, the Idaho State Journal said on Jan. 3, 1951.
Jack Correll, 36, “dived headlong through the glass door of the General Hospital” before running down to the river, where he jumped into the “swift current.”
“Police Officers George Lonchar and J.T. Schwarz and Identification Officer Y.D. Black arrived at the scene to find Correll wading along the bank on the westside of the river with the nurse (who reported she was bit by a dog while chasing after Correll) urging him to come out,” the article reads.
Lonchar stopped an Idaho Power Company truck and grabbed a long pole. He tried to reach Correll, but the water was “too swift.” Correll’s body was eventually recovered. Firefighter Spence Herridge tried artificial respiration and a resuscitator for about 30 minutes before he was pronounced dead.
“A woman at the scene urged police officers to enter the stream and save Correll, but all three officers said it would have been suicidal to battle with him in the swift, icy current,” the Journal wrote.
Hospital authorities said Correll “voluntarily entered the hospital” on New Year’s Day. He left behind his wife, who lived in California, and four children.
1976-2000
POCATELLO — Two men were facing grand larceny charges after allegedly walking away from two Pocatello stores with shopping carts full of unpaid merchandise.
The Idaho State Journal said on Jan. 2, 1976, Osmyn Anderson, 22, and Douglas Carlson, 26, were arrested shortly after more than $450 from Grand Central and $250 from Osco Drug had been reported stolen.
“Both thefts were accomplished by loading shopping carts full of goods and walking past cash registers,” the Journal said.
Both men were arraigned and bond was set at $1,000 each.
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Source: eastidahonews.com