Fame Can Be Fleeting -- Many '93 Newsmakers Are Forgotten, But Not Gone: Where Are They Now?

What do mayoral candidate David Stern, undercover hooker Valerie Jean and street singers the King Jesus Disciples have in common?

They all made headlines this past year and then fell out of the media limelight.

So here are some updates of local people and events that made 1993 such a special news year.

STERN CHALLENGE

David Stern, who failed in his spirited attempt to unseat Norm Rice as mayor of Seattle, is keeping busy golfing and writing, finishing up the second draft of a book,"Fixing Seattle," which has yet to find a publisher.

Stern also is doing marketing consulting work for several clients, including television commercials for an out-of-town bank. No smiley buttons involved, though. - Joni Balter

FOOD-POISONING SURVIVOR

Her struggle is far from over. But Brianne Kiner, who survived some of the worst effects of the E. coli food-poisoning epidemic last winter, carries on with the same stout spirit that saw her through five months in the hospital.

"This child is running so hard to grasp life, she sometimes won't even recognize when she's tired," said her mother, Suzanne Kiner. "It's that same drive that had her choose to survive."

Brianne, 10, is one of about 500 Washington residents sickened last January by a strain of E. coli bacteria, almost all from eating tainted Jack in the Box restaurant hamburgers. Three children died; at least 45 were hospitalized. Brianne survived against all odds and was finally discharged from Children's Hospital on June 30 with damage to her kidneys, lungs, pancreas, liver and heart.

Now she's back in school two days a week and working hard toward three. At home she receives 24-hour nursing care. Daily treatments on two machines help keep her damaged lungs clear. She gives herself daily insulin injections for diabetes stemming from the pancreas damage. She has regular occupational-therapy sessions. Her voice is whispery from vocal-cord damage.

Suzanne Kiner is not daunted by the continuing struggle. The same religious faith that sustained her and her family strengthens them for the long road ahead. Hundreds of strangers have called or written, offering their prayers and support.

"That's Brianne's miracle, too," Suzanne Kiner says. - Warren King

BOOTH THE AMBASSADOR

Former Gov. Booth Gardner, having stepped down from office in January, is in Geneva, Switzerland working as the U.S. ambassador on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

But Gardner is on orders not to grant interviews until he's been confirmed by the Senate, and the Senate adjourned this year without taking up his name. His first choice was the ambassadorship to Japan, but President Clinton gave that to former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Gardner's name still pops up on the rumor list of potential Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. But as popular as he was with Washington voters, Gardner admitted last year that he didn't have the "burning desire" to pursue higher office. - Barbara A. Serrano and David Schaefer

GOING TO THE DOGS

Richard Scott likes dog doo-doo. So much so that the Puyallup man has built up quite a brisk business cleaning it up from the yards of his many clients.

A story last February in The Seattle Times about Scott's unique, profitable business brought him calls from across the country from people interested in starting their own such business. He also was featured in a story in The National Enquirer.

Now he's trying to patent his name as the Dog Butler and his logo - a man in a tuxedo with a shovel. He also now has a toll-free number: 1-800-303-POOP. - Helen E. Jung

LOW PROFILE

Convicted child-rapist Joseph Gallardo is keeping a low profile in Snohomish County, but not in the neighborhood near Lynnwood from which he was driven from during the summer.

Gallardo briefly fled to New Mexico after he was publicly vilified and his family home was destroyed by an arsonist hours before he was to move into it after his release from prison in July. He now lives in another part of the county.

Gallardo served nearly three years in prison for the first-degree statutory rape of a 10-year-old girl. The victim and her family said Gallardo didn't deserve the treatment he received from the public.

The victim's mother said she was tricked by authorities into making statements against Gallardo. But that provides little comfort for Gallardo and his family. They're waiting for an insurance settlement for the burned home and then plan to sell the property, according to Gallardo's father. - Karen Alexander

CONTINUING TO APPEAL

William and Kathleen Swan, convicted in 1986 of raping their 3-year-old daughter and another young girl, have completed their prison sentences but continue to appeal. In October, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the convictions. The Swans and their supporters immediately vowed to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Swans contend their Sixth Amendment rights to confront their accusers were violated when adults were allowed to relay the girls' statements to the jury after the children were ruled incompetent to testify.

The Swans' case has been the subject of numerous national news programs. Their two children, one whom was born after they were charged, are in the custody of relatives. - Richard Seven

FRIENDS AGAIN

Judith Billings and Terry Bergeson are now buddy-buddy even though a little over a year ago they hurled chalk and criticism at each other in a fierce battle to become state superintendent of public instruction.

Challenger Bergeson accused incumbent Billings of having no vision and publicized a study about the state agency's low morale. Billings accused Bergeson of resorting to low blows.

This summer, Bergeson was nominated by Billings to serve as executive director of the state Commission on Student Learning, the group charged with implementing school-reform legislation. Billings is one of the commission's 11 appointed members. - Paula Bock

CUTTING EDGE

Former Speaker of the House Joe King, whose designs on the governor's mansion crashed, is back with his Vancouver insurance firm and still paying off a $200,000 personal loan he took out to finance the campaign.

King has given up back-room political deals for a new passion: cutting horses. - Jim Simon

CONSOLATION PRIZE

Former Yakima Valley Congressman Sid Morrison, whose dream of becoming the first governor from Eastern Washington ended with harsh last-minute attacks by the National Rifle Association, got another job in Olympia.

The winner of the governor's race, Democrat Mike Lowry, found a spot for the Republican Morrison as the $111,000 per year secretary of the state's Transportation Department. - Jim Simon

LEADING THE GOP

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Eikenberry returned to the job he held in the 1970s - head of the state Republican Party.

Eikenberry, who lives in Olympia, has stepped up fund-raising and identifying absentee voters and has the party cooking along the way he did the last time he was running the show. - David Schaefer

REMEMBER FREDERICK'S? David Sabey, who owned Frederick & Nelson when the department-store chain went out of business in 1991 after 101 years, is still active in his other business: real estate.

Although he works primarily out of Seattle, where he owns and manages several office buildings, his prime focus is his ownership of Spokane's Northtown Mall, considered one of the more financially successful malls in the country.

And he's not poor, according to one former associate.

"I'd exchange assets and liabilities with him any day," said David Fisher, F&N's former publicist, who is now a vice president at The Rockey Co. - Scott Williams

IN THE MOVIES

Valerie Jean, a former call girl who worked undercover for federal and local authorities as an escort-service employee, will be the subject of a made-for-TV movie.

The movie is scheduled to come out in the spring. Jean, who helped police shut down numerous Puget Sound-area escort services that authorities say were fronts for prostitution, stays in contact with police.

"We're on each other's Christmas lists," she said.

She also stays in contact with "the girls," women who work as prostitutes. She proudly notes that many "have gotten out (of that life) and gone back to school." - Peter Lewis

FALLEN UNION LEADER

Tom Baker, the former leader of The Boeing Co.'s largest union, is heading to a federal prison camp early next month, possibly in Oregon. He was recently sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William Dwyer to spend one year and one day in jail for embezzling more than $33,000 from the union he served for 35 years.

The colorful, outspoken president of District Lodge 751, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, last fall pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to embezzling the money from the union by charging for first-class air travel and traveling coach, then pocketing the difference.

Baker, 56, agreed not to hold union office for 13 years. He was not fined because the judge said he wouldn't be able to pay. He has filed for personal bankruptcy. He is being required to pay restitution to the union and to amend his income-tax statements. - Polly Lane

ASSISTED SUICIDE

In July, the Rev. Ralph Mero and his organization, Compassion in Dying, helped provide assistance to a terminally ill man who committed suicide. That was the fledgling organization's first such assisted suicide, and it put it into the spotlight on the ethics of assisted suicide.

Since then, Mero says, the organization has helped about a dozen patients directly. Some of them have "hastened their death" with the counseling and support of Mero and other Compassion members. Others, aided by what Mero calls the "feeling of control" provided by Compassion, were able to await a natural death "in a more comfortable condition."

Mero and a half-time office assistant are the only employees of Compassion in Dying, and the organization is still scrambling for money.

During the holiday season, members of the board and advisory committee have been asked to talk money with 25 friends apiece.

"Checks are coming," said Mero. In his hand is a letter and a typical donation. The check was for $10. And the note was short, written in a shaky scrawl: "My fear is that I will run through my small savings, and then what?" - Carol Ostrom

STREET SINGERS

The King Jesus Disciples, who met at the Union Gospel Mission, have not gone gold with the recording they made earlier this year, but they are getting airtime on 36 radio stations across the nation and just signed with a national distributor.

Johnnie Gray, Roosevelt Franklin and James Young were discovered singing on the street at the Pike Place Market by Terry MacDonald of Seattle's MacDonald Recording Co. With Cliff Lenz as producer, the group recorded "The Wings of Faith," struggling to finish songs in time to meet the Gospel Mission's strict curfew.

So far, about 2,000 cassettes and 500 compact discs have been sold, according to Karen MacDonald, executive producer.

The men still draw crowds at the Pike Place Market almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. - Sherry Stripling

LIFESAVER

All Michael Winsberry meant to do was save Todd Travis' life when he rescued him from a near-fatal beating in early November.

But he and Travis got more: friendship and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Winsberry, a maintenance supervisor, came upon a 15-year-old kicking Travis' head against a wall in a Rainier Valley apartment complex while three others surrounded him, one with a .357 Magnum. Travis had drawn their wrath because he preferred to buy cocaine from their rivals.

Winsberry drove them off and breathed life into the unconscious Travis. The Oprah Winfrey show invited the two for a show this past week on people who undergo life-changing experiences.

The two men have become friends, the younger Travis idolizing the older Winsberry, who is encouraging Travis in his determination to turn his life around.

Meanwhile, Winsberry was promoted at Oxford House, a national, mutual-support network of ex-alcoholics and ex-drug addicts.

He's been asked to open a new Oxford House as president and to become vice president of the entire Oxford House operation.

It has all been great, except that all the publicity still hasn't produced what Winsberry wants most: a job as a maintenance supervisor.

Winsberry had lost his job after he went into treatment last summer to become clean and sober. Travis who underwent severe trauma, including memory loss, from the beating, is a screen printer and is seeking a job. - Carey Quan Gelernter

UNSOLVED MURDER

For years, Mary Grace worked to stop drug dealing in her Yesler Terrace neighborhood.

Unknown to most people was the fact that her son, Robert Grace, 23, had major problems of his own involving drugs.

It is unclear if that played a role in his fatal shooting. He was killed early July 24 as he stood outside a Yesler Terrace building at the corner of Yesler Way and Broadway.

A car came by. Shots were fired. The crime is still unsolved.

Drug dealing was widespread in the Yesler Terrace area about two years ago and residents organized a Block Watch program to fight the crime. The citizens had set up card tables and played cards on corners where drug dealers used to work. - Peyton Whitely

TAKING ON TOBACCO

Al Deskiewicz made national headlines in summer with his small-claims court effort to get Philip Morris Inc. to pay him $1,154 - reimbursement for his cost to quit smoking Marlboros.

But King County District Court Judge Linda Jacke agreed with Philip Morris, rejecting Deskiewicz's claim that the company was liable because there was no warning that smoking is addictive. Jacke said Deskiewicz should have been aware of the hazards of smoking long ago.

Deskiewicz, 51, then tried to muster "a campaign assaulting the tobacco giants" by giving educational talks in schools and encouraging other tobacco users to sue.

What's happened since then?

"It burned out," Deskiewicz said. "I'm trying to find personal employment."

Deskiewicz couldn't get money to support his efforts and says anti-smoking groups are fractured and ineffectual. The men who initially agreed to file their own lawsuits later declined.

Yet, he says he has no regrets. Come Jan. 1, it will be a year since Deskiewicz has had a cigarette. "Do I still have the desire?" he said. "Yeah. Oh, yeah." And though he lost his court case, he still has his memories.

"This summarizes the entire experience," said Deskiewicz: "We made 'em blink." - Nancy Montgomery

HIS HODELNESS

Dan Hodel, former Seattle School District's spokesman, left his $55,000-a-year district job in March to volunteer as a publicist for His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

After the Dalai Lama's June visit to Seattle, Hodel flew to India with his significant other, Kunzang Yuthok, an activist with the local Tibetan Rights Campaign.

Hodel was last seen during the APEC forum here, arguing with police about the right of saffron-robed monks and other protestors to picket the president of China. - Paula Bock

DODD'S ATTORNEY

Darrell Lee, the attorney for executed child-killer Westley Allan Dodd, is no longer practicing law.

Dodd, who confessed to killing three boys in the Vancouver, Wash. and Portland areas in 1989 and wanted to be killed by the state, was executed Jan. 5.

Lee is now involved in business interests with China, including helping provide kidney transplants, sending Chinese students to United States schools, and starting a chain of fast-food burger stands. - Peter Lewis