100 years ago in Sandpoint: Acclaimed Spokane tenor’s divorce and new marriage keeps him from returning to Washington

Julius Frederick Stone, a well-known Spokane tenor and voice instructor, had an exceptionally busy month on the matrimonial front.

On April 17, he divorced his wife Mildred Stone. On April 28, he arrived in Sandpoint with his accompanist, Lucile Randle. There, they were married by a Presbyterian minister.

A few days later, the couple embarked for Vancouver B.C. on a trip that would serve two purposes. Stone had an eight-week singing engagement at a large Vancouver theater. The second reason had to do with Washington state laws, which decreed that divorced persons could not get married within six months of the final decree.

As a consequence, their return to Spokane “inside of six months is not expected.”

From the forest fire beat: Two relatively new technologies – radio and airplanes – were being deployed to fight fires in the region.

Fire spotters in planes were to be equipped with radios, which had been perfected to the point where they could be used to direct firefighters on the ground.

From the missing persons beat: Police had still found no trace of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hicks, who left the cows on their Sprague farm in the care of neighbors while they took a short trip to Spokane.

They had now been gone six days.