October 2020

MIDDLETON / TOWN OF SPRINGFIELD–Richard E. "Dick" Williamson, a witness to much of his beloved country's history, passed away on Sept. 24, 2020. Born in Dayton, OH, on Aug. 15, 1928, Dick had to get away from his hometown to discover his love of aviation. He attended elementary school and graduated from Fairview High School in Dayton in 1946, but it was the summer of 1945 when he convinced himself there was a big old world out there and he wanted to be more than just a spectator. Having hitchhiked across the country with one of his boyhood buddies that summer, Dick found himself high in the mountains of Idaho, manning a US Forest Service fire lookout on Clark Mountain where he spotted many Japanese "Fire Balloons” launched by submarine and intended to cause massive forest fires in the US. It was there that on Aug. 15, 1945, he celebrated his 17th birthday and heard the news of the Japanese surrender ending World War II.

MIDDLETON–Jeanne Demergian, nee Betty Jeanne Boeing, passed away peacefully on Sept. 25, 2020 at her home in Middleton, after a lengthy illness bravely borne, with family at her side.

Jeanne was born on July 17, 1929 in Woodstock to Edgar and Alice (Ferguson) Boeing. She grew up on a farm in Richland County, where, as a small girl, she harnessed the big horses that helped work the farm, and where her inseparable playmate was a pony named Chief. While attending Richland Center High School, Jeanne played the French horn and also played piano and sang in a trio. She loved cheerleading, especially at football games, and she became a lifelong Packers fan.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) was a champion for human rights, those of women, minorities and the LBGT community. She was one of a small handful of women accepted at Harvard Law School in the early 1960s before transferring to Columbia Law School, something that was unheard of at the time.

I was 26 years old when she was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), and remember it was a big deal because she was only the second female Supreme Court Justice and the first female Jewish justice. At that time, she was considered a moderate, and had previously been appointed to an appeals court in the District of Columbia by President Jimmy Carter. As the SCOTUS shifted to the right, she became a more liberal voice on the court and would often dissent.