'97 Year In Review

It's good to check in the rear-view mirror every now and then. So as we speed toward 1998, we glance back on the highway we've been traveling. It's been a fascinating, newsy year and we found ourselves living the stories either directly or emotionally almost every day.

------- January -------

1/1/97: Stormy weather launches the new year, sending walls of mud down the steep slopes of Seattle neighborhoods, forcing many families to evacuate their homes. A Redmond man is killed when a tree topples onto his car. Support spans beneath the Magnolia Bridge snap, closing it for months.

1/2/97: The Federal Aviation Administration orders changes to correct 737 rudder-control problems. In May, the National Transportation Safety Board adds 747 fuel tanks to its high-priority problem list.

1/5/97: William and Rose Wilson, and their two daughters, are killed in Bellevue. Trials for Alex Baranyi and David Anderson, who were acquaintances of one of the daughters, are scheduled for May, 1998.

1/10/97: Vice President Al Gore looks at sinkholes and other storm damage in the Puget Sound area, and promises more federal aid.

1/13/97: U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, is accused of leaking an illegally tape-recorded cellular-telephone conversation involving House Speaker Newt Gingrich. A federal investigation continues through the year.

1/13/97: The Mariners are no longer for sale, announce owners who have negotiated new, more favorable lease terms with local officials to keep the stadium project on track for 1999.

1/19/97: Dwight and Jennifer Herren, and their two young children, are killed when their home on Bainbridge Island is buried in a mudslide.

1/23/97: Jeff Smith, the "Frugal Gourmet," is sued by eight men who claim the TV chef raped and molested them as teens. Trials are scheduled for April 1998 in Pierce County Superior Court.

-------- FEBRUARY --------

2/6/97: Two suspects are arrested in the death of Rigel Jones, who was stabbed in a Pioneer Square parking lot a year before. His family posted his picture on a billboard near the site and asked witnesses to step forward. Phillip Lara Lopez is convicted of the murder in May.

2/8/97: The Frye Art Museum reopens after two years and a $12 million remodel.

2/12/97: Three Coast Guardsmen die trying to rescue a sailboat in distress off the coast of La Push. One officer survives the accident, which is later attributed to poor preparation and inadequate training. The Coast Guard launches a nationwide review of lifeboat operations to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

----- MARCH -----

3/19/97: Another round of mudslides and floods closes roads and bridges throughout the area.

3/23/97: Comet Hale Bopp makes a showing.

3/26/97: A statewide initiative is launched to roll back state affirmative-action laws. Supporters have until Jan. 2, 1998, to collect enough signatures to send it to the Legislature.

3/31/97: Three people die in an Easter windstorm that topples trees, peels off roofs and knocks out power to 170,000 customers in Puget Sound area.

-------------------------------------------------- A love affair - with each other and with their art --------------------------------------------------

MARCH

It's the end of the year, and things are appropriately quiet in Bertha Kuvshinoff's apartment. Endings bring closure, and Bertha can relax now, maybe even sit for a spell, as she considers the events of the year.

Nicolai Kuvshinoff, her marriage partner of 57 years, died in March. It wasn't unexpected. He was old and his heart had worn out, even if his creative genius had not. The apartment still pulses with the vibrance of his art - paintings and sculptures on every wall and shelf. It had been his life's work, and hers too. Rarely had two people been so bound by art and love.

Well. Nicolai died, but Bertha presses on. On the slow walk between her kitchen and bedroom, she passes his picture and says, "You're such a cutie." Before a fall sent him to the hospital in March, they had never been apart. It seems that is still true today.

"I talk to him every day, tell him what I'm doing," she says. "And I work in here, his studio, a lot."

Bertha sketches in the quiet hours of the night, silent, silent, until the sun comes up and then she rests. Nicolai had been restless, too, unable to sleep for the images in his mind. Near the end, he created an apocalyptic series of paintings, ravaging the eye with depictions of loss, doom, war and horror.

So unlike him.

"Nicolai was so at peace his whole life," she says. "He was just a wonderful person."

She sits on the edge of a chair, a knot of hair atop her head. Her shoulders are rounded and thin like a bird. Her sweater is buttoned from throat to waist. She is so tiny and yet so present. At 82, she still believes in the magic of life and the connections that make it great.

"I have to live to keep this going," she says of the couple's art, which is featured in many American museums. She's made it her mission to catalog Nicolai's work and arrange a final showing.

"I'm so at peace with myself," she says. "I don't feel sorry for myself. Never have."

Is art a part of that inner peace?

The question brings a puzzled expression to her face.

"Hairpiece?" she asks. And then, "Oh, I don't hear so well."

She chuckles.

"Inner peace. Hairpiece. That's cute."

----- APRIL -----

4/1/97: The demand for Seattle-area homes grows, sparking bidding wars and higher prices.

4/1/97: A search for Deborah Palmer, a missing 7-year-old Whidbey Island girl, ends when her body is found on a beach. Her killer has not been found.

4/2/97: The Mariners open their 20th baseball season before a sell-out crowd, which is treated to two home runs by Ken Griffey Jr.

4/3/97: James Sewell, a veteran firefighter from Ventura County, Calif., is chosen as Seattle's new fire chief.

4/3/97: A sword-wielding Tony Allison holds Seattle Police at bay on a downtown street corner for 11 hours, disrupting the comings and goings of thousands before police finally subdue him with water from hoses.

4/7/97: The Seattle Times wins two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting about abuses in the federally funded tribal-housing program and safety problems with Boeing airplanes.

4/10/97: Seattle Mayor Norm Rice announces he won't seek a third term, leaving the race open. At year's end, he still hasn't announced his future plans.

4/15/97: Richard M. Clark of Everett is convicted in the kidnapping, rape and murder of 7-year-old Roxanne Doll, two years before. He is sentenced to death.

4/18/97: Microsoft's profit tops $1 billion for the quarter, a record for the Redmond company. The net worth of Paul Allen, the company's co-founder and the new owner of the Seattle Seahawks, climbs $969 million - enough to bankroll two football stadiums.

--- MAY ---

5/1/97: The biggest divorce case in state history continues between Wendy and Craig McCaw. She eventually settles for $200 million in the stock of Nextel, a wireless company, and a 27 percent stake in Nextlink, a Bellevue telephone company. McCaw's fortune is estimated at $2 billion.

5/9/97: Microsoft's Bill Gates opens his unfinished estate for a private dinner featuring Vice President Al Gore and 100 technology leaders.

5/9/97: Eric Smiley is sentenced to 33 years in prison for the murder of Seattle Police Officer Antonio Terry, during a gunbattle on the Swift-Albro offramp on Interstate 5. Terry had stopped his car and approached a disabled vehicle.

5/16/97: Nordstrom announces plans to build a $70 million office tower on the site of the former Music Hall Theatre in downtown Seattle.

5/21/97: The King County jobless rate falls to a 20-year low of 3.5 percent.

5/21/97: Two 6-year-olds, Jimmy Goldsmith Jr. and Shakeem Satterwhite, are riding bikes when a car hits and kills them on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.

5/23/97: A small town in Eastern Washington reels when four Quincy teenagers kill two of the town's most respected residents. The four were sentenced in December.

5/24/97: Thousands of men flock to the Kingdome for the annual spiritual gathering of Promise Keepers.

---- JUNE ----

6/3/97: Heavy weekend rains send another home on Magnolia's Perkins Lane sliding toward Elliott Bay.

6/13/97: Former King County Police Sgt. Mathias Bachmeier is found guilty of murdering James Bradley Wren, whom Bachmeier was trying to use as a scapegoat as police investigated Bachmeier in the arson of his own home.

6/16/97: Trimpin, a Seattle artist whose work blends music, computers and junked instruments, and Sister Kathleen Ross, a Catholic nun who runs a small college on the Yakima Indian Reservation, win MacArthur Foundation "genius grants."

6/16/97: Bellevue businessman Samuel Lau kills his wife, two sons and then himself in the family's south Bellevue home, apparently desperate over business dealings.

6/18/97: In a special election, Washington voters approve taxes for a new Seahawks stadium after Allen spends record millions on lobbying, public relations, campaign ads - and even the cost of a special election.

6/26/97: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the state law banning physician-assisted suicide.

6/30/97: A British Columbia court bars the extradition of Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns, charged with first-degree murder in King County for the slayings of Rafay's parents in Bellevue.

---- JULY ----

7/1/97: The Federal Trade Commission approves Boeing's acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. The deal is completed in August, making Boeing the largest aerospace company in the world. Its products now range from commercial jets to military fighters and space rockets.

7/4/97: The Federal Aviation Administration approves the proposed third runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. But the project, part of a $1 billion expansion, still faces court battles with neighboring communities.

7/16/97: A jury says former death-row inmate Benjamin Harris should not be confined against his will at Western State Hospital, recommending a less restrictive setting. He becomes the first death-row inmate freed since Washington reinstated the death penalty in 1981.

7/19/97: The Alaska ferry Malaspina is blockaded in Prince Rupert by 300 Canadian fishermen who claim that Alaskans have plundered Canadian fish runs. The blockade continues three days, until the boat and its 300 passengers are released.

7/31/97: Martin Pang will not face a murder trial, says the Washington state Supreme Court, but he will be tried for arson in the warehouse fire in which four Seattle firefighters died in 1995. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the decision.

-------------------------------------- Amnesia leads to new life for reporter --------------------------------------

JULY

The past dozen years were bittersweet for Jim and Marilyn Roberts, whose daughter Jody Roberts vanished inexplicably in 1985 while working as a reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune.

But the anguish and uncertainty turned to elation in July, when their daughter was located in Sitka, Alaska.

Now known as Jane Dee, she had a brief visit with her parents in July and is reuniting over the holidays with 22 members of the Roberts family.

Dee, who says she suffers from profound amnesia, has a few newcomers to introduce to the Roberts clan: her husband, Dan Williams, and their two sets of twin daughters.

"It's the best Christmas since the first one in Bethlehem," Marilyn Roberts said from her home in Lake Oswego, Ore.

The former Jody Roberts assumed her new identity after she turned up disoriented and unkempt in a mall parking lot in Aurora, Colo. Mall security said she was carrying a copy of the book "Watership Down," a reporter's notebook and a car key that didn't match any vehicle parked nearby.

Eventually, she chose the new name Jane Dee - one letter different from "Jane Doe" - and started taking classes at the University of Denver. She later moved to Alaska, where she was found by King County detectives in July.

The Roberts' reunion, at an undisclosed location, will be taped by the tabloid television show "American Journal" and broadcast in February.

Dee first appeared on "American Journal" in November and said she remembers pre-1985 historical events and even plots of old "Gilligan's Island" episodes, but can't recall a shred of her former life as Jody Roberts.

Marilyn Roberts said her daughter is working on a book, to be released in mid-1998. And she's hired an agent to represent her in negotiations for a made-for-TV movie.

"She's basically Jane Dee, but it's hard for us not to call her Jody," Marilyn said.

------ AUGUST ------

8/4/97: UPS workers go on strike, slowing delivery service for 15 days until the dispute is settled over pay, pensions and part-time help.

8/22/97: A national survey finds the Seattle area is the second-best spot in the nation in which to look for a job. Prospects are brightest on the Eastside and in South Snohomish County.

8/23/97: After a 140-year wait, tribal status is restored to the Snoqualmie Indians, once one of the Northwest's most powerful tribes.

8/24/97: Retired firefighter Stanley Stevenson is fatally stabbed while walking to his car after a Mariners game. Dan Van Ho, a mentally ill man, is arrested and now faces murder charges.

8/28/97: Tacoma SWAT-team officer William Lowry is shot and killed during a standoff with Sap Kray, an estranged husband who had barricaded himself inside his wife's home.

------------------------------------- Memories of marriage sustains pilot's widow: `I think of him all the time' -------------------------------------

AUGUST

Linda Vick had been browsing the Internet at her Everett home on Aug. 7 when she got a call from a family member. Two ultralight planes had collided in midair near Arlington - the same place where her husband was flying.

Could it be him?

Jim Vick, 47, perished in that accident, along with Dan Compton, 33, and Stephen Levine, a 56-year-old passenger in Compton's ultralight.

The Vicks had been raising five foster children and had plans to adopt three of them. Linda's thoughts immediately turned to the children that day.

"My biggest concern is that I might lose the kids," she said at the time. "Jim and I did a lot of work with these kids. They've come a long way."

So has she. With support from family and friends, Linda Vick is going forward with plans to adopt the three children, ages 3, 5 and 7. It will be hard, but she is guided by memories from her 16-year marriage.

"I think of him all the time," she says of Jim. "If he was in my house as much as he's been in my mind, I think I'd get sick of him by now.

"Things are better than they were," she adds. "I'm just now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Life goes on."

--------- SEPTEMBER ---------

9/10/97: Two violent offenders escape from King County's new jail in Kent by eluding the roof-top motion-detecting system. They are both caught in California weeks later.

9/13/97: A helicopter searching for a missing hiker in the Olympic National Park crashes, killing three rescuers and injuring five others.

9/16/97: Two young men, Son Hoang-Vu Le and Visa Khamvongsa, are fatally shot on the West Seattle Freeway while changing a flat tire. Three young women are wounded in the drive-by assault. Two men have been charged in the slayings.

9/23/97: The Mariners clinch their second American League West title in three years with a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Angels. The win is highlighted by Jay Buhner's 40th home run and Randy Johnson's gritty performance for his 19th victory of the year.

9/25/97: The Sonics trade disgruntled Shawn Kemp to Cleveland in a three-way deal that sends another All-Star forward, Vin Baker, to Seattle. Kemp, unhappy with his relatively small contract, later signs a seven-year deal with the Cavaliers worth $107 million.

------- OCTOBER -------

10/2/97: Gov. Gary Locke embarks on a sentimental 12-day journey to Japan and China.

10/5/97: Mariner fans grin and bear it after the team is defeated by the Baltimore Orioles three games to one in the first round of the American League playoffs.

10/8/97: U.S. District Court Judge Bill Dwyer reduces his workload after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

10/10/97: A new trial is ordered for David Lewis Rice, who was convicted of killing the Charles Goldmark family on Christmas Eve, 1985. U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner said Rice did not have effective assistance of counsel.

10/11/97: Locke is greeted by a crowd of about 5,000 as he arrives at Taishan, China, near his ancestral village. Locke is the U.S.'s first Chinese-American governor, and his visit to Asia is met with enormous enthusiasm.

10/21/97: Ronald C. McDonald, a 71-year-old man who plays Santa Claus and baby-sits children in Lake Forest Park, is charged with child rape in cases that prosecutors say go back 26 years.

10/22/97: Boeing announces that production snarls and parts shortages will cost the company $1.6 billion. It reports a third-quarter loss, the first loss in five years.

10/23/97: The International Whaling Commission grants the Makah Indian Tribe permission to hunt gray whales. Lawsuits challenging the hunt are expected.

10/23/97: The Seattle SeaDogs beat the Houston Hotshots 7-1 to sweep their best-of-three series and win the team's first Continental Indoor Soccer League title. Goalkeeper Juan De La O is named MVP.

10/28/97: The Most Rev. Alexander Brunett, bishop in Helena, Mont., is named Seattle's new archbishop. He is installed in December.

-------- NOVEMBER --------

11/4/97: Seattle developer and Port Commissioner Paul Schell is elected mayor of Seattle, while voters reject several initiatives statewide, including a measure that would have required safety locks on handguns.

11/7/97: Fred Meyer announces it will buy the QFC grocery chain.

11/13/97: A fire kills four in Bremerton's Kona Village apartments, which lacked sprinklers and fire walls. Some surviving residents have sued the owners.

11/13/97: Damon Jump, a 14-month-old boy, is found malnourished in an apartment where he'd been alone for a month, with only periodic visits by his mother. The child is put in foster care; the mother is charged with child abandonment.

11/14/97: Mary Kay LeTourneau, the 34-year-old Burien teacher who became involved with a 13-year-old student of hers and gave birth to his baby, is not sent to prison. Instead, she gets 80 days in jail, followed by treatment in a program for sex offenders. Her husband, who filed for divorce, has moved to Alaska with their four children.

11/22/97: The Washington State Cougars defeat the Washington Huskies 41-35 in the Apple Cup at Husky Stadium, clinching the school's first Rose Bowl berth since 1931.

11/29/97: Seattle University earns its first national championship in any team sport by winning the NAIA men's soccer title in Birmingham, Ala., with a 2-1 victory over Rockhurst College.

-------- December --------

12/1/97: Tests by federal safety officials show that electrical wiring on Boeing 747s could send enough electricity to fuel tanks to ignite an explosion. The tests were part of the investigation into the 1996 midair explosion of TWA flight 800.

12/3/97: The saga of killer Mitchell Rupe continues as his lawyers ask a judge to not hold a third court hearing on whether he should die. Rupe was twice sentenced to be executed for the 1981 slayings of two Tumwater bank tellers during a robbery. But higher courts twice set aside the death sentences.

12/7/97: Seattle sky diver Steve Mulholland is killed with two others when his parachute fails on a sky dive at the South Pole.

12/9/97: Real-estate investor and talk-show host Michael T. Martin disappears, taking more than $100,000 of investors' money. He shows up a week later, and turns himself into the FBI.

12/11/97: A federal judge orders Microsoft to stop forcing computer makers to install its Internet browser software on machines that run Windows 95.

---------------- VITAL STATISTICS ----------------

3/9/97: Emily Nicole Locke, daughter of Gov. Gary Locke and Mona Lee Locke, is born 2 1/2 weeks early. She's the first baby born to a Washington governor in three decades.

6/26/97: Archbishop Thomas Murphy dies at age 64, leaving a legacy as "A pastor who loved his children."

7/1/97: Washington State University bans drinking at all fraternity parties.

7/10/97: Joe Camel, the jazzy cartoon character blamed for luring kids to smoking, is retired by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and replaced by the more lifelike camel seen on the cigarette-pack label.

8/14/97: The Jell-O Mold building, an artists' collective encrusted with 400 or so gold-and-silver Jell-O mold tins, is demolished to make way for a Harbor Properties project.

10/9/97: Joel Pritchard, the former Seattle congressman and lieutenant governor, dies at age 72 after a 10-year battle with cancer.

10/26/97: William Hutchinson, the doctor who founded the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (and named it after his brother), dies of natural causes at age 88.

11/19/97: The Blob, a lumpy landmark at the base of Queen Anne Hill, is demolished and nary a tear is shed.

12/7/97: Overlake Christian Church has its first Sunday services in the largest megachurch in the Pacific Northwest.

12/18/97: Archbishop Alexander Brunett is installed, after Pope John Paul II appointed him to be the spiritual leader of the 372,000 Catholics in Western Washington.