Last Changed

Aaron Lee Merriman

    Aaron Lee Merriman was born March 13, 1939, in Salina, Kansas. He died peacefully at home with the wonderful assistance of Marian Hospice at the age of 69 in Santa Maria, CA, on Saturday, April 12. He battled heroically for over four years with the diagnosis of Frontal Temporal Lobe Dementia and ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).
     After graduating from high school, Aaron joined the Army Reserves for 6 months. In 1957, he moved to California, where he worked for Williams Brothers Markets for 34 years. After Williams Brothers sold to VONS, he worked for Scolari's Markets for 5 years, where he retired in December 1999. He enjoyed golf, gardening and traveling in retirement.
     Aaron is survived by his wife of 46 years, Jo Ellen; 4 daughters: Cameron Myers (husband John) of Colorado Springs, CO, Kelly Merriman of Houston, TX, Sheridan Gonzalez (husband Victor) of Santa Maria and Paula West (husband John), also of Santa Maria; 8 grandchildren: James Parsley (U.S. Army, Afghanistan), Rebecca Hokanson (husband Joel), U.S. Army, Hawaii, Michael Aaron Cunningham, Margery Willis, Victoria and Derek Gonzalez, and Genna and Scott West; and two great-grandchildren: Cierra and Issabella Hokanson. Aaron also is survived by siblings Mary Lou Arnold (husband Brooks), Claudine Ashcraft (husband Dick), Glenda McAfee, Larry Merriman (wife Bonnie) and Joyce Satterlee (husband Ken); sister-in-law Diane McAfee; and numerous nieces and nephews.
     Aaron was preceded in death by his parents, Harry and Jessie Merriman; brother, Raymond Merriman; and brothers-in-law, Robert McAfee and Lloyd McAfee.
     A memorial service [was held] Friday, April 18, 2008, at 11 a.m. at the chapel of the Dudley-Hoffman Mortuary, 1003 E. Stowell, Santa Maria, with Pastor Tim Petty of the Crosspoint Community Church officiating.

The Mustang Hall of Fame Welcomes Bill Welsh

For the class historical records, Allene (Cox) Grossman discovered several years ago that a Hall of Fame exists, she and Betty (Harr) Baxter worked with Bill and the high school to get the long process started, and Betty pursued the string of details involved in eventually getting Bill accepted into the Hall.

To formally induct Bill into the Hall of Fame, an assembly program at SHS(Central) was scheduled for 1:25 PM on Thursday, April 10, 2008. Bill had a flight from Tucson to Wichita set for the previous day, giving him plenty of time to get to good old SHS. However, his air carrier was American -- just on the day when they canceled 1000 flights. He got another plane to Denver but was stuck in the terminal overnight. The plane to go from Denver to Salina the next morning was delayed for hours in Wyoming by a snow storm.

At noon, it seemed impossible that he would get to the assembly program in time. The airline representative at the Salina airport didn't think his plane had even left Denver yet (which proved to be wrong, fortunately). Sheri kept the school appraised of the developing situation and some of us decided that Bill Flemming would accept the plaque and I (Phil) would give a lame speech to fill the 7 minute time slot allocated. Sheri hung out at the airport in case of a miracle arrival while the rest of us gathered in the auditorium.

The students are filling the auditorium while we of the Class of '57 enjoy some time to talk. Seated are Gary McCausland, Diane Nelson, Betty Harr, Lydia Flemming, and Gary Rowson (Class of '56). Standing are Bill Flemming and Jeanette Turner.

The full group of the cheering section are shown here, with Anne Sawaya on the far left, the same crew mentioned in the other photo, and my place beside Jeanette when not taking photos.

Wonderfully, Bill's plane landed about 1 PM so Sheri let the school know and perhaps they began the program a little late to help out. The rest of us in the above photos didn't know any of this and still didn't think Bill could possibly make it.

Bill changed into a suit at the airport and Sheri got him to the school at 1:35 PM. Bill Flemming was on stage just seconds away from receiving the plaque and I was still trying to remember how to talk from Mr. Bilger's communications class in '57.

Bill Flemming was called to the stage and stood by patiently while two representatives of the Booster Club/PTO spoke for a few minutes. The combination of these formerly separate organizations raises money at athletic events to spend for scholarly purposes, including the Hall of Fame. A woman translated what was said into sign language.

I worried that they had forgotten Bill was up there and Bill seemed to be scanning the auditorium for Bill Welsh. Perhaps the speakers were in on the "secret" arrival and were stalling for a little more time. The next item on the program was the speech.

Just then the principal interrupted the proceedings and welcomed Bill, standing at the rear, to come to the stage. The students were caught up by the drama of the moment and gave Bill a standing ovation for getting there at literally the last moment. So the plaque was given to the Bill it was intended for, Bill Flemming got to sit down, and I got to make a video of the speech instead of try to give one.

I know this photo is horribly blurred, but Bill (center) was moving quickly and I had the flash turned off. Regardless, perhaps you can sense the drama in the arrival.

The switching of the Bills on stage put the plaque in the proper hands and all was well.

Bill gave a talk challenging the students to solve the socio-economic problems created by the present generation. The event was covered by the Salina Journal and the school newspaper. Afterwards, a reception was held in the library (double, maybe triple the size of the original library, thanks to a building addition).

Seated on the stage and participating in the assembly were the Senior Class President, Student Council President, Bill, the School Board President, the two Booster Club/PTO executive board members, and the unflappable principal Stan Vaughn who took all the last-minute uncertainties in stride.

At the reception in the library Bill talked with the many teachers, administrators, and townspeople who attended.

A duplicate of Bill's plaque will join the others on this wall in the hall just outside the back of the auditorium. He is inductee number 17 since the Hall of Fame started in 1988.

I asked Bill to hold the plaque on the wall to give it a test run. It looked great.

Just for the evanescent record, I thought I had a good opening for my otherwise lame speech. I would have said something like this: "In summer baseball Bill was a pitcher and I was the catcher. His fast ball was so fast there was rarely a need to call for any other type of pitch. But today he's thrown me a curve." Then it went downhill quickly.

Thursday evening after the assembly a bunch of us met downtown for a dinner and some fun. Bill hadn't slept much in Denver so understandably sleep took priority over food for him that night.

Not seen in an earlier photo on this page are Bob Scuitte (Mr. Anne) and Kay Crouthers.

Sheri and Judy McCausland make a first photo appearance on this page.

Betty, Lydia, and Bill savor the meal and the company.

Gary Wooster and Phil Rinard are new faces on this page. We let Jeanette do our smiling for us because she does it so well.

Sheri turned the occasion into a celebratory 'tweener at her house starting Friday afternoon and going all evening. Among the many fine cooks who contributed wonderful dishes was Bill who made an intricate Hungarian dish.

Sheri, Bill, Betty, and other cooks used not only Sheri's oven but one next door. Believing that too many cooks spoil the something-or-other, some of us specialized in the eating part.

The Booster Club/PTO provided a cake with appropriate decorations.

For those who find themselves hungry while at the end of a slow-moving line, Bill Flemming demonstrated the survival technique of jumping right to the deserts. No baklava was hurt in this demonstration, aside from being eaten.

John and Ruth Ivan came from Kansas City for the Friday evening 'tweener. My plate across from them was well used and left clean. Bill and Lydia came from Washington, DC.

Other new faces that evening from KC were Rosie & Randy Kiene (far left) and Salinan Betty Milliman with friend Dennis Hanson (far right).

Maybe we should have gone to Coronado Heights for the meal, but the wind would have blown it back to Sheri's anyway. The weather was in fine Kansas fettle for two days.

Sheri was not only happy to have a basement full of full bellies for the full evening but also to have KU win the full NCAA basketball championship. Seated with her back to the camera is Sharon Heatwole. Dixie Pierce was at the 'tweener too but a bad leg confined her to the upstairs.

Rosie was worried that this photo might be misinterpreted as showing her hogging all of Kay's brownies, so I assured her that I would show it to no one...no one who doesn't look at the web site. That's the kind of guy I am.