100 years no small potatoes

Family reunion celebrates Jerry Rajnus’ first century

Lee Juillerat
For the Capital Press

November 16, 2007

MALIN, Ore. - Jerry Rajnus has been many things, but first and foremost he's a farmer.

He's had many years to pursue a variety of interests. Earlier this year he started something new - his second century.

It's been an active century for Rajnus, who turned 100 last summer and celebrated his milestone at a large family reunion in the Southern Oregon town of Malin , where he lived most of his life.

"My mind is as clear as a bell. I live by myself. I do the gardening. I do the cooking. I wash my clothes, I take my pills," said Rajnus, who lives in a mobile home in Roseburg, Ore., near his daughter and son-in-law, Jean and Tom Ridenour.

"He's as sharp as a tack. He just doesn't hear or see that well," Jean said of her father, who greeted visitors at the combination family reunion/birthday celebration with vocal welcomes and firm handshakes. He also proudly showed off two framed birthday notes, one from the White House signed by President George Bush and first lady Laura Bush, another from state Rep. Peter DeFazio.

Rajnus was born June 7, 1907 , in Baltimore , Md. , and moved to Malin with his family in 1913. He farmed in Malin before adding to his workload by serving eight years as a county commissioner from 1951 to 1959.

Don Rajnus, Jerry's nephew, says his uncle's term was marked with two notable happenings: a shooting that nearly took his life, and the fulfillment of a campaign promise to pave country roads outside of Klamath Falls .

"None of the roads out here were paved," Don Rajnus said. "He promised to have them paved, and by the time he ran for a second term, they were."

The shooting happened in January 1957. Guy E. Cramer, a welfare recipient who was unhappy with the size of his monthly check, entered a meeting of the welfare board with two hidden weapons. Cramer shot Commissioner Fred Peterson and administrator Altha Earkhard before shooting Rajnus in the back. Earkhard was injured. Peterson was killed instantly and, it was thought, so was Rajnus, who was pronounced dead.

At the hospital the doctor injected Rajnus with a new serum, and - as Rajnus wrote in his newly published personal history, "My First 100 Years" - "about hour later I was able to breathe and hear voices."

Rajnus has been vocal ever since.

His hearing isn't so sharp, but Rajnus was a very alive, animated stand-up host for the family gathering/100th birthday celebration.

"I'm the commissioner who got shot in the courthouse. I'm still here," he said with a chortle and evident pride.

"We've been having big birthday celebrations every five years since he turned 65," his granddaughter Tricia Cole said during the reunion. "After he was shot and in the hospital, we were worried that he might not live very long. We didn't think he'd outlive all of us."

Cole - who spent part of her life growing up with her grandfather and grandmother, Helen Rajnus, who died in 1986 - now lives in San Diego , Calif.

"I considered him my dad," Cole said of Rajnus, who to most everyone in Malin is known as "Uncle Jerry." "He was my father figure. Grandpa taught me to ride a horse, and my grandmother taught me how to entertain. Grandpa was a farmer - potatoes, wheat, alfalfa, everything. He was strict, and I was afraid to death of him."

About 80 friends and relatives celebrated the birthday and the family's 66th annual reunion. Several family members, like Don Rajnus and his son, Gavin, are still potato farmers.

"He helped get Malin on the map when it came to selling potatoes to the San Francisco Bay area. Once the people down there had these Malin potatoes, they didn't want the Idaho potatoes." Don Rajnus said, noting Jerry also helped develop a potato-packing business in the San Francisco area.

"He was a farmer, but had a lot of other interests," Don Rajnus said in tribute. "But he was a farmer first."

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