Helen and Anthony Lemos, from a photo album belonging to Bertha Reep Mason. (Gift of Bertha Mason)
February 20, 1929 – A serious accident occurred at the grammar school just as the children were entering the school building at 9am, according to the Mendocino Beacon. Ten-year-old Helen Lemos was walking up the school steps with a friend “when she was hit on the head by a baseball accidentally thrown by James Cleary.”
“The blow felled her to the ground. She was immediately picked up and taken to the home of her parents by Mrs. Hayter in the latter’s car. An examination showed that the ball had struck the child on the right side of the head just above the temple. She was taken to Fort Bragg to the hospital, her mother and brother Arthur accompanying her there. Dr. Bowman took an X-ray of the injury and found that the skull had been fractured and that a portion of bone was pressing on the brain. He operated on the injury that afternoon and removed a piece of bone.” Helen was released from the Redwood Coast Hospital two weeks later, and the Beacon reported that she had almost fully recovered from her injury.
Born at her parents’ Mendocino home in 1918, Helen was the eighth of the ten children born to Antone and Emily Brown Lemos. Helen graduated from Mendocino High School in 1936 and married Oliver Harmon later that year. At the beginning of their marriage, they lived in Caspar where their children were born. Later they moved to Ukiah, where she worked for 20 years at the California State Employees Credit Union #8. Helen passed away in 1990, following a two-year battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). She was survived by Oliver, her husband of 54 years; two sons, Oliver “Pappy” Harmon of Lakeport and Patrick Harmon of Ukiah; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and three brothers, Jack and Richard Lemos of Mendocino, and Albert Lemos of Ukiah.
Angela Lansbury: Muse of Cabot Cove – Celebrate Angela Lansbury, the beloved actress known for her prolific career in theater, movies, and television, who passed away recently at the age of 96. The exhibit explores Lansbury’s illustrious life and career, in particular her role as the charming sleuth, Jessica Fletcher, in Murder, She Wrote. The iconic TV series was filmed in Mendocino (which doubled as the fictitious town of Cabot Cove). Enjoy vintage photos of the actress on set and in candid conversations with folks around town. See what a “shot list” looked like. Leave a note on the tribute wall where visitors’ stories and memories of Angela Lansbury will remain for the duration of the exhibit. Most of all, the exhibit honors Lansbury for the generosity and kindness she showed to the people of Mendocino. Thursday-Monday, 11-3, now thru March 5.