People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Bart Owens
- Cattle rancher in Mack in the early 1900's.
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- Basil T. Knight
- He was born in Ontario, Canada to Henry Knight, a Scottish immigrant and farm laborer, and to Selena Jane (Lucas) Knight, a homemaker. They moved in 1903 to an island in Michigan at the mouth of Lake Erie named Gross Isle, where he helped his family set up a small farm. He attended school at Michigan Agricultural College and studied agriculture and education. He joined the ROTC while in college and his unit was called to active service during World War I. While in school he met his wife, Velma Roe. They purchased a seven-acre orchard on 35 road in Palisade, Colorado in 1922. When a local teacher died in 1923, Knight was asked to step in for her at the Mt. Lincoln School because of his college background. He did so, and it became the start of a long career in education. He was soon asked to become principal of the school, which was a 1-8 school at that time. In 1925, he began teaching mathematics at Grand Junction High School, a job he kept until 1956. Upon his retirement from teaching he became a social worker for Mesa County Valley School District 51 and was known as Hooky John, presumably for his work combating truancy. He was elected Superintendent of Schools for Mesa County in 1962 and held the office until 1967, when he abolished it because it no longer served much purpose (after the creation of the three county districts, Mesa, De Beque, and Plateau Valley, each with their own superintendent). While superintendent, he reintroduced the spelling bee to Mesa County schools. Upon dissolving the office of superintendent he became the family contact person, in essence a social worker, for Mesa County School District 51’s new school for migrant worker children, a position he kept until around 1980. He was skilled at working with migrant students. Because many migrant workers in the Grand Valley were Navajo at that time, he toured the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Basil received an award from the Colorado Educational Association for being an outstanding educator, helped form the Mesa County Teachers Federal Credit Union, chaired the Mesa County Spelling Bee, and collected clothes for the Navajo in Kayenta, Arizona. Today, the Mesa County School District 51 administration building is named for him. The Kiva in the Mesa County Library Central Branch, which was demolished during the building's latest remodel, was also named for him. *Photograph from the 1943 Grand Junction High School yearbook.
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- Bea Holden
- A beautiful waitress in the Rio Grande Lunchroom in Grand Junction, Colorado (nicknamed “The Beanery”). She was known for “playing the field” with regard to her many admirers and also known to keep company with suspicious characters. She became involved with Jake Fleagle of the Fleagle Gang after the Lamar bank robbery, and traveled around with him for a time. She eventually left him and returned to Grand Junction. According to Dudley Mitchell, it is possible that she offered information to the police concerning Jake Fleagle’s whereabouts.