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Obituaries 5-3 |
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Tuesday, 06 May 2008 |
The following is the complete selection of obituaries that ran in the May 3 edition of The Inyo Register.
Earl Vern Brown
1929-2008
Graveside funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6 at the East Line Street Cemetery in Bishop for Earl Vern Brown. A celebration of life will follow at Brown’s Town Campground in Bishop. Services are under the direction of Brune Mortuary.
Born in Glendale on Nov. 20 1929, Earl died on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. He was 78.
Earl was an only child, the sole survivor of twins. He grew up in Compton, but spent many weekends and summers in the Owens Valley hunting and fishing with his father and uncle who resided in Independence.
In 1946, at a Christian youth group, he met his true love, Jeannine Drury. They were married in 1948.
Since he was an only child, Earl was determined to have a large family. In 1950 the Browns moved to Bishop with the first of their six children in tow. Earl worked a few jobs before coming to the conclusion that he wanted to be his own boss. He began his first business, a janitorial service, in 1953. Since then, it seems he has always had his hands in the trash. He owned a second-hand store, managed the county dump for several years and operated a salvage yard. His dreams did not end at the waste basket. His other business ventures have included a newspaper business, E & J’s Corral and a boat shop.
The Browns now own several area campgrounds, a hot springs resort and a hardware store. They still operate the salvage yard.
Earl valued his family above everything else. He wanted to keep them close. He taught his children how to work hard and always had a job for them to do. Along with the hard-nosed work ethic, he found the time to have fun with his family. He enjoyed water skiing, hunting and fishing with his children. Racing quarter midgets was also a favorite pastime.
Earl was a Free Mason and an Elk for 50 years. He always participated in protecting rights to hunt, fish and recreate in the outdoors. He was admired and loved by many in the community. He was not born in Bishop but this was his only home and his spirit will forever remain in the Owens Valley.
He will be greatly missed but not forgotten.
Earl was preceded in death by his mother, Lila Brown, and his father, Everett Brown.
He is survived by his large family, including his wife, Jeannine; sons and daughters-in-law, Bert and Bev and Doug and Kelli, all of Bishop; daughters and sons-in-law, Earlene and Dave Beaver and Gail and Randy Slee, all of Bishop, Cindy and Sam Lamb of Iowa and Suzi and Mike Doyle of South Dakota; grandchildren, Stacy and Tyson Sparrow, Cherie Hoersting, Kammi and Greg Foote, Beau Brown, Jon Brown, Dan Brown, Randi and Eric Pritchard, Robin and Matt Fisher, Reagan and Tina Slee, Jennifer Foreman, Brandi and Coley Neider, Nolan Yocum, Bucky and Amanda Brown, Nick Brown, Dennis Brown, Gary Brown, Amanda Doyle, Jacob Doyle and Shannon Doyle; great-grandchildren, Noah and Annika Foote, Andruw Allen, Dagan Sparrow, Jordan and Garin Pritchard, Wyman Fisher and two more on the way; and many friends.
“We know that anyone who knew Earl has a story to tell,” the family said.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the California Deer Association, Advocates for Access to Public Lands, Eastern Sierra Wildlife Care or a charity of one’s choice.
Gladys Wallace-Chambers
1954-2008
A celebration of life for former Bishop resident Gladys Wallace-Chambers will be held at 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 4 at the Salvation Army on Line Street in Bishop.
Born Dec. 9, 1954 in Newport News, Va., Gladys died peacefully the evening of March 24, 2008 in Reno after a four-month battle with cancer.
Gladys was a dedicated volunteer and attended church services at the Salvation Army. She was an encouragement to everyone with whom she came into contact because of her love for the Lord and her optimistic outlook on life. She is especially remembered for her quick wit and her “Gladysisms,” those funny little phrases that made her unique.
Ernest S. Kinney
1944-2008
Ernest Kinney always said that if he had even just a 10 percent chance of victory, he was confident he would win his case.
That tenacity was always on display in Fresno courtrooms during his three decades practicing law as a defense attorney. And in his last few days, Kinney stayed true to form, embracing life the same way he charged into so many high-profile cases.
Though his health was failing, he went on a cross-state road trip last week to visit friends and family, enjoying simple pleasures like the taste of watermelon and catching up with old high school buddies. Then a day before he died, he grabbed a phone, ordered $90 worth of Chinese food and invited friends, judges and attorneys to his house.
He said he wanted to throw a party. And he got one.
Late Tuesday, after a hard-fought battle against leukemia, the popular and charismatic Kinney died in his Fresno home surrounded by close family members. He was 63.
“His daughter gave him a kiss on his forehead, and he gave his last breath,” said Galatea DeLapp, Kinney’s niece.
Kinney’s death was a blow to the Fresno legal community, where his take-no-prisoners approach made him a well-known and respected figure by defense attorneys, judges and prosecutors alike.
In his 32 years in the courtroom, Kinney, a former Marine, represented some of the region’s most notorious defendants. Dana Ewell was convicted in 1998 of murdering his family. Paul Hurth, the former Fresno police officer and Baptist pastor, was found guilty in 2000 of voluntary manslaughter for killing his lover’s husband – but avoided a murder conviction.
Kinney never shied away from the media spotlight. In fact, friends say, he thrived on publicity. Kinney was often cited as a legal expert in news reports and he readily gave interviews even on short notice. The hallway that leads to his office on the seventh floor of Fresno Pacific Towers – the former Security Bank building in downtown Fresno – is lined with framed clippings of stories printed in The Bee about cases he tried.
Mike Idiart, a longtime friend and fellow defense attorney, said he once told Kinney: “You don’t drink and you don’t do drugs, but you’re like a heroin addict when it comes to publicity.”
He said Kinney wouldn’t disagree, but insisted it was for a good cause.
Though he readily admitted that his knowledge of the law was not his strength, Kinney’s ability to connect with jurors and argue vigorously for his client impressed even prosecutors.
“For a defense attorney, he had an extremely high acquittal rate,” said Fresno County prosecutor Jon Skiles, who tried more murder cases against Kinney than any other prosecutor. “If you had a trial with him, you knew you better bring your A-game. If someone could pull off an acquittal, it was Ernie.”
From 1987 until the Ewell trial, Kinney enjoyed a decade in which all of his clients charged with murder were either acquitted or convicted of a lesser charge, DeLapp said.
His last trial, a four-defendant murder case, ended in February.
Kinney’s client, Michelle Molina, was charged with first-degree murder. But after Kinney’s impassioned arguments, a jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter – a verdict considered a victory for the defense in the legal community.
“He loved the idea of fighting as an underdog and he loved taking on authority,” Idiart said. “His battle cry to the (prosecutors) was always, ‘Buckle your boot straps!’”
Though emotions sometimes grew raw in the courtroom, Kinney would often make peace with attorneys soon after a case was resolved, Idiart said. You couldn’t stay mad at Ernie,” he said.
After graduating from then-Fresno State College in 1967, where he served as student body president, Kinney enlisted in the Marine Corps and attained the rank of captain. After leaving the Marines, he earned his law degree from the San Joaquin College of Law in 1975, spent two years in the Fresno County Public Defender’s Office and then became a private defense attorney.
Kinney and Eric Green, a former Marine and fellow defense attorney who tried nearly a dozen murder cases with Kinney, often joked about their Marine days in open court during trials. Green said Wednesday that when he and Kinney were representing gang members, they took comfort in the fact that they “belonged to the biggest gang in the world – the Marines.”
Many knew that Kinney’s condition had been quickly deteriorating.
In 2004, he was diagnosed with the beginning stages of leukemia, DeLapp said. On March 21 this year, Good Friday, doctors told him that his leukemia had become serious. He was ordered to undergo chemotherapy at a Bay Area hospital.
But after more than a month at the hospital, less than half the leukemia had been eradicated. To make matters worse, doctors were unable to locate a matching bone marrow donor. Kinney soon began to develop pneumonia.
Last week, doctors said Kinney had two to eight weeks to live.
They said they could either prolong his life with an extended stay at the hospital or he could leave.
“As soon as he found that out, he wanted to live life and get out and not let people dwell on sad ness,” DeLapp said.
Kinney and family members went on a road trip to visit his nephew in Sacramento and his parents in Bishop, the small town on the other side of the Sierra where Kinney was born.
By Monday, Kinney’s condition had worsened – though he kept on throwing out his famous one-liners, DeLapp said.
Idiart, who was beside Kinney during much of his last few days, said that his friend would start a sentence, suddenly fall asleep for a minute, then wake up and pick up exactly where he’d left off.
On Tuesday night, friends were asked to come over and say goodbye.
“Even as people were paying their last respects, there was laughter and joyousness as people were recounting past stories,” DeLapp said.
At 11:40 p.m., Kinney passed away. He is survived by his wife, Marion, his daughter, Lisa, his son, Scott, and five grandchildren.
Before he was hospitalized last month, Kinney was handling about 50 criminal cases, including the murder case of Robert Quiroz, a former Marine accused of killing his 3-month-old son.
Idiart said he and other attorneys will try to pick up those cases.
But Kinney, Idiart said, “is a tough act to follow.”
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 10 a.m. at Wolf Lakes Park, 11646 E. Ashlan Ave., in Sanger.
– Chris Collins The Frenso Bee, courtesy Farewell Funeral Services
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 )
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