November 18, 2006
More sad news. I just got word from Charlie Waters that his older sister, Sara Ann (Waters) Hargrave, passed away this morning.

She had just returned from UCLA Medical Center, where she had started a new round of chemotherapy on Thursday. She got up Friday morning, said she felt fine, went to a weekly breakfast she had with some fellow teachers at Mohave High School, then went home instead of to school and told her husband that she couldn't breathe. He called 911, paramedics arrived quickly and worked 20 minutes trying to save her. She was pronounced dead at the hospital a few minutes after that. She had had a mild heart attack several years ago and it was her congestive heart failure in March that lead to the discovery of the lung cancer.

Sara Ann was the oldest daughter of Martha and Dick Waters who published the Mohave County Miner when I grew up there. She graduated from Mohave County Union High School with the class of 1962 and and was our student body president that year. She promised us a “Career Day” for her campaign pledge and she was true to her word. We all picked five or six careers and then we went from room to room to listen to people in those professions. I only remember a couple I picked, like coach, actor and artist. I remember when I went into Mrs. Burnett’s class (she had been an actress in New York I believe) to hear about becoming an actor and she said to me as I walked in, “What are you doing in here? Actors lead miserable lives.” And, frankly that was the best career advice I could have ever gotten. Thanks Mrs. Burnett and Sara Ann!

I also remember that she was once on "American Bandstand" with Dick Clark and we watched the TV at Charlie's house to see her. She didn't dance, but sat in the bleachers and we spotted her. She was the coolest and I always looked up to her.

Sara’s funeral will be Tuesday at 11 at Sutton Funeral Home in Kingman. An obituary will be in the Miner and the Bullhead City paper on Sunday and you should be able to see it online.

In happier news, J.D. and I finished wiring the chicken house today. I still need to do some interior wiring, but the sucker is up and ready to be inhabited. And speaking of which, I’m considering an ad campaign, sort of like the ones they run in the paper. You know, like: “Cock-Ah-Maimee Manor” or “Casa de Aricana Nirvana”, starting in the low 80s.

Or not.

J.D. nominated it as “Old Tucson.” Ha. I made victory tacos to celebrate our achievement and we chowed down at about one. His wife is still in L.A and he's baching.

Worked on more fire scenes and previewed two documentaries which I will be introducing tomorrow at the Phoenix Art Museum as part of their Cowboy Artist’s coverage and celebration. The two docs are: “Reel West: Cowgirls and Indians.” I enjoyed them both. More later.

“The Vatican is against surrogate mothers. Good thing they didn't have that rule when Jesus was born.”
—Elayne Boosler