Help With Library Was No Short Story

The library in Mary Callahan Zeller’s century-old home is stuffed with Dick Francis, Agatha Christie, Anne Tyler, an ancient edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

The inviting armchair, standing lamps, books stacked on end tables say this room is a reader’s paradise. So why does Mary need the public library?

“The library is very important to me,” she says, her white hair bouncing with each convincing nod of her head. “You can find anything you want to know there.”

Mary ought to know. She’s devoted herself to the Wallace Public Library for nearly 65 of her 89 years.

“As soon as I could write, my parents took me to the library and I signed for a card,” she says.

Her father devoured books and passed the bar in Chicago with only a high school education. He moved his family to Wallace in 1919 to represent his brother, who started the Callahan Mining Co.

The Wallace library board decided to replace its elderly librarian in 1930 and offered the job to Mary. She had a master’s degree in history from Columbia University and didn’t want to teach. With the start of the Depression, the library job looked pretty good.

Mary trained in Spokane for three days, then began her job by scooping armloads of old, battered books from the Wallace shelves and dumping them in the nearby creek.

Advanced librarian training and another job took her from Wallace for five years. But her return in 1938 found her right back in the old brick building that houses the city library, this time as a board member.

It was easy for Mary to stay on the board until last January. No big controversies plagued the library; no one even complained about book selections. Still, she’d occasionally mention quitting.

“Every time I’d want to quit, they’d hire a new librarian, so I had to stick around to see if the new person would work,” she says, as if she had no choice. “But then I finally quit and they’re doing fine without me.”

Thanks to the steady course she set over 65 years.

A friendly voice

Your mother is old and alone, living in a town 200 miles from you or any other relative. She’s healthy enough to live on her own but fragile enough to need an occasional helping hand. That’s where telephone assurance volunteers step in.

These volunteers call elderly people living alone, chat with them and decide when they may need help. Lake City Senior Center lost its telephone assurance program coordinator last week to a new area.

Seems like a great program for a church to pick up. Call Louise Gillespie at 667-4628 if you can help.

Wild thing

Don’t let anyone tell you Coeur d’Alene isn’t a wild place. Artist Jacquie Marie Vaux is proof. The Coeur d’Alene artist captured stalking tigers and snow leopards on canvas with a brush so tiny that each strand of hair is visible on her animals.

Jurors at the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art Show were so impressed with Jacquie’s work that they invited her to exhibit in Tacoma last week with the most prestigious wildlife artists in North America - among them Bev Doolittle.

Catch Jacquie’s work at The Gallery, 507 Sherman Ave.

Nice neighbor

Washington State University is cleaning house and giving its science equipment castoffs to Idaho schools. Coeur d’Alene teachers are thrilled.

WSU wants to stay on the cutting edge. Its used science equipment is a boon for any public school lab. A few thank-you letters to Pullman may help WSU remember Idaho in the future.

Whose nice gesture do you want to recognize? Praise them to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID, 83814; FAX to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo