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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A local businesswoman, pilot, proponent of education and lover of books died earlier this month following a lengthy illness.
Lynn Fegan died on the evening of Nov. 1 at her Kelseyville home. She was 70 years old.
Fegan, a vibrant and energetic woman, had been confined to her bed for several months as she suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.
For many people, one of the big, unfinished tasks is the telling of their own story.
But Fegan spent that time when her body’s strength was fading sharing her story with this writer and others who loved her.
In the telling, Fegan was as true to form as ever – interesting, introspective and dazzlingly funny.
She was a wife, mom, grandma, great-grandma and friend.
Over the years she worked in a number of professions. Among them, she was a flying instructor – husband Jack called her “a damn fine pilot.”
For a time she worked in mortgage banking and then spent 20 years as a nurse before she and Jack came to Lake County in 1990.
She said she led great life – “a charmed life,” she called it – surrounded by great people. “I've been loved all my life.”
She enjoyed her life and acknowledged that there had been ups and downs, but overall she seemed to have few regrets. That can be one of the real gifts of a life filled with love.
“I have all the things that matter,” she said.
Lynn Fegan was born Oct. 25,1944, in Milwaukee, Wis., to Bernard William Burgess and Dorothy Claire Burgess.
Her parents died in a car crash when she was 17, and she’s also predeceased by her son, Michael Fegan.
She leaves behind husband and devoted caregiver, Jack; daughter, Bonnie Kopazzewski-Lieberman and husband, Richard Lieberman of Minnesota; son, Patrick and wife, Kate of Phoenix, Ariz.; grandson, Shawn, of Arizona; five other grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter in Minnesota.
And then there is her dog, Sammy, the patient lab mix with white toes, who will grumble at strangers but is fast friends once he gets a Tootsie Roll or two.
Overcoming loss
Looking at the stretch of her life, Fegan recounted being a child that didn’t like reading.
She appreciated the irony that she would later go on to be a voracious reader and own a bookstore, Catfish Books, in Lakeport for 17 years before health led to her decision to shut the doors.
As a teenager, she faced the horror of losing both of her parents in a car crash.
“I had the best parents a girl could have,” and the best childhood she could have had, she said, adding that she doesn’t believe her perception is a matter of looking at her life through rose-colored glasses.
She recalled her father, Bernard, as physically and emotionally resembling actor Don Knotts.
Her father was a small man, maybe weighing 128 pounds. He was a church deacon, a workaholic and a “major genius,” which, she added, “During the war didn’t really matter much.”
When he wasn’t working he was playing poker with his buddies, she said.
She remembered him being a great teacher. “He taught me how to fly a kite, but first he taught me how to build it, precisely.”
He also loved his children and was “just a good man,” she said.
Her mother, Dorothy, was just like June Cleaver in “Leave It To Beaver.” Dorothy Burgess was a Girl Scout leader who was always waiting for Lynn when she came home from school each day.
“We were best friends,” Fegan said.
The fact that she has always been a happy person, with a positive outlook, helped her overcome the shock of her parents’ deaths in the crash.
She went on to live a life filled with many careers, family and a lot of fun.
She hated reading as a child, preferring to be out playing.
“As an adult, my curiosity took over,” she said. “I suddenly became curious about how everything had happened.”
After coming to Lake County, she opened Catfish Books in the Safeway shopping center on 11th Street in Lakeport.
“My customers became my friends, not customers,” she said.
During the years the bookstore was open, she hired a number of young people to work there.
“These kids became my kids,” she said, with children visiting the store calling her “Grandma.”
She would host Harry Potter book release parties – complete with costumes – and became involved with local schools.
When reading became difficult after she developed macular degeneration – “God likes his little jokes,” she said – her bookstore family purchased an iPad for her, which enabled her to enlarge text so she could continue to enjoy reading. It’s the iPad she kept with her up until her death.
In June of 2011, Fegan became very sick and nearly died. At that point, the prospect of going back to work was too much, and so she made the decision to close the store that November.
She said she had a prospective buyer for the store, but considering the economy and the difficulties just keeping local libraries open, she didn’t want the buyer to be saddled with what, in her opinion, had become more a hobby than a workable business.
“It made no sense for it to go on,” she said of the store.
Anticipating solving the mystery
During the waning months of her life, Fegan’s COPD necessitated taking drugs to keep her calm from the fear of not breathing.
She hated that the drugs made it so she couldn’t recall a word here or there that she needed to complete a sentence.
Increasingly, she had trouble typing on her iPad, which was an important point of keeping connected with her friends on social media.
Her failing lungs were the result of a variety of things, Fegan said – among them, use of lead-based spray paint and toxic insect sprays. Then, there were 50 years of smoking cigarettes.
Husband Jack was her primary caregiver. A kind-faced, silver-haired man, he quickly appeared in the doorway if he heard a cough or if she called to ask a question.
Lake County was one of the big “ups” in her life, she said. She and husband Jack made their Kelseyville vacation home their permanent residence in 1990.
They had married the year before, in July. She wasn’t sure of the date.
“Jack, when did we get married?” she called out during an interview.
He walked into the room. “Are you kidding me? I need to go to the book.”
Jack came back a moment later, to announce that they had married on July 6, 1989.
“Aren’t you glad I take notes?” he asked as he walked out of the room.
They were together since 1974. She met him when he was working in television production in Southern California. Most notably, he was one of the creative minds behind the production of the original “Star Trek” television series.
At one point they had a brief break in their relationship, at which point she dated Steve McQueen’s stunt double. But Jack and Lynn didn’t stay apart for long.
They eventually made a happy transition from Southern California to Lake County’s rural atmosphere.
“Look at where we live,” she said, looking out her window, calling Lake County a beautiful place where there have been “so many people whose sole purpose in life seemed to make my life a happy place to be.”
She wanted people to see Lake County for what it truly is.
She added, “I love Lake County. I love the kids that are growing up for tomorrow.”
And one of the things she wanted to communicate to Lake County is her gratitude for its residents’ thoughtfulness, support and love.
“I loved you back,” she said.
Fegan outlived her own estimates. She thought she wouldn’t last beyond the spring, but with Jack’s care she continued on, through what she called an “extraordinarily boring” summer.
However, at the end of the summer, as the fall began, Fegan said she began “seeing things” and having minor hallucinations.
At one point, she said she saw someone sitting in her room with her, an experience she continued having. Finally, she realized it was her father.
Then, there was the presence of her beloved cat that had died several years ago, also hovering nearby.
A desire to continue giving
She asked that there be no services after her passing.
However, as part of her desire to keep paying it forward, she asked that community members support the Imagination Library, which promotes and encourages reading, a cause about which she felt very strongly.
Singer/songwriter Dolly Parton founded Imagination Library in 1996 to foster a love of reading in the preschool children and families in her home county in east Tennessee by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month, according to the Web site, http://www.imaginationlibrary.com/ .
The Lake County Office of Education sponsors the Imagination Library program in Lake County with the help of a variety of sponsors and community donations.
For $25 a year, one book will be sent each month to a child from birth to age 5.
Donations can be sent to the Lake County Office of Education, c/o Literacy Task Force, 1152 S. Main St., Lakeport. CA, attention “Imagination Library.”
For more information on the Imagination Library contact Stephanie Wayment at the Lake County Office of Education, 707-262-4163 or
During one of the final times she sat for an interview about her life, Fegan – her eyes wide with the thought – said she was ready for the next big adventure, and was happy in anticipating that life’s big mystery, for her, was about to be solved.
“I don’t like mysteries that don’t have endings,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
“If you want to understand today you have to search yesterday.” – Pearl Buck
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Tom Dye Rock is located in southern Lake County, in the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains.
It rises like a pillar, at 3,100 feet, above Sacre Gap.
According to Lake County historian past, Henry Mauldin, and Napa Valley writer Ken Stanton, there are several tales about the infamous Tom Dye.
The facts are, however, that a Middletown resident named Charles Bates was killed on Oct. 1, 1878.
Bates, who worked for the Napa consolidated Quicksilver Mine, was said to have met up with Dye in a Middletown bar, where a quarrel ensued and Dye pulled a pistol and killed him.
Bates was a newlywed who worked at one of the many mines dotting southern Lake County, the Oat Hill Mine.
Most of the mining in Lake County was for quicksilver, or mercury, in those days; however, gold, silver, borax and sulfur were also found.
An occupational hazard in mining quicksilver was breathing mercury vapor. This job was typically delegated to Chinese workers, as there was much in the way of prejudice back in the “good old days.”
After breathing mercury vapors a person would typically have problems with their gums. Bates was suffering with bad gums and went to the bar to self-medicate.
Nobody seemed to recollect what the altercation arose from, but it ended with Bates being shot to death.
Dye was arrested and sent to the Lakeport jail. The October 9, 1878, issue of the “Weekly Calistogan” newspaper printed the following: “If he escapes the hangman's noose, we shall wonder.”
Because the grand jury knew of another man named W.A. Barnes who was egging Dye to shoot Bates, both Barnes and Dye were indicted for the murder.
Next, on Nov. 27 of the same year, the indictment was tossed out due to “illegal and improper evidence,” but Dye had to wait out his time in jail for the subsequent grand jury, while Barnes was acquitted for accessory to murder.
It appears that Dye, tired of waiting for his second trial, escaped from jail on March 7, 1879, via a complicated and intricate means.
His escape involved a stove wood ladder, the removal of brick with an iron spike and slicing a hole in the roof with a knife of unknown origins.
Dye slipped away, and was not seen for more than a year.
Legend has it that he hid up at what is now known as Tom Dye Rock for several of those months, wanting, no doubt, to be near his family.
In letters received by his family, Dye stated that Bates intended harm him, and that he shot Bates in self defense.
In August of 1880 Dye was apprehended in Reno and after a nearly two-week trial Dye was convicted of second-degree murder and sent to San Quentin State Prison for 15 years.
He was discharged from San Quentin on August 19, 1886, after around five years in prison and went to work in Napa County.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control this week has another shelter full of dogs of all breeds, sizes and ages.
Dogs available this week range from puppies to older dogs, including mixes of boxer, Chihuahua, dachshund, hound, Labrador Retriever, pit bull terrier and shepherd.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
Male Chihuahua mix
This male Chihuahua mix has a short white coat.
He's in kennel No. 2a, ID No. 1202.
Female Chihuahua mix
This female Chihuahua mix has a short tan and black coat.
She's in kennel No. 3, ID No. 1301.
Dachshund-terrier mix
This male dachshund-terrier mix has a short black and white coat.
He's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 1309.
Male pit bull mix
This male pit bull mix has a short tan and white coat.
Shelter staff said he is a very friendly dog with no food aggression or food guarding issues.
He was introduced to other dogs and never showed any aggression but was a little nervous until he got to know them better. They said he is a great boy who could use some socialization.
He's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 1233.
Female boxer mix
This female boxer mix has a short tan and white coat.
She's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 1247.
Male Chihuahua mix
This male Chihuahua mix has a short black and tan coat.
He's in kennel No. 12, ID No. 1311.
Hound-shepherd mix
This male hound-shepherd mix has a short brown coat.
Shelter staff said he is a very sweet dog that walks well on a leash and does not appear to be interested in cats.
He needs more socialization with other dogs; he does well with female dogs but caution is suggested around other males.
He has no signs of food aggression.
He's in kennel No. 13, ID No. 1107.
'Gizmo'
“Gizmo” is a male Chihuahua mix with a short tan and white coat.
Shelter staff reports that Gizmo is a very sweet and loving dog who is full of energy. He appears to be good with children. His ideal home will have an owner willing to spend time training and teaching him.
He's in kennel No. 17, ID No. 1229.
Female lab mix
This female Labrador Retriever mix puppy has a short black coat.
She's in kennel No. 24a, ID No. 1212.
Shepherd-boxer mix puppy
This female shepherd-boxer mix puppy has a short tan coat.
She's in kennel No. 24b, ID No. 1230.
Male pit bull terrier-shepherd mix
This young male pit bull terrier-shepherd mix has a short tan coat.
He's in kennel No. 25, ID No. 1135.
Lab mix puppy
This male Labrador Retriever mix puppy has a black coat with white markings.
He's in kennel No. 26, ID No. 1232.
'Frank'
“Frank” is a male Labrador Retriever mix puppy with a short black coat.
He's in kennel No. 27, ID No. 1037.
Male pit bull terrier mix
This male pit bull terrier mix has a short tan and white coat.
He's described as a sweet and friendly dog that walks well on a leash and has no signs of food aggression.
Shelter staff said he gets along well with both male and female dogs, but he would be best in a home with no cats and with children age 10 and above.
He's in kennel No. 30, ID No. 1201.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Back in 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts orbiting the moon photographed something very odd. Researchers called it “Ina,” and it looked like the aftermath of a volcanic eruption.
There's nothing odd about volcanoes on the moon, per se.
Much of the moon's ancient surface is covered with hardened lava. The main features of the “Man in the moon,” in fact, are old basaltic flows deposited billions of years ago when the moon was wracked by violent eruptions. The strange thing about Ina was its age.
Planetary scientists have long thought that lunar volcanism came to an end about a billion years ago, and little has changed since.
Yet Ina looked remarkably fresh. For more than 30 years Ina remained a mystery, a “one-off oddity” that no one could explain.
Turns out, the mystery is bigger than anyone imagined. Using NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a team of researchers led by Sarah Braden of Arizona State University has found 70 landscapes similar to Ina. They call them “Irregular Mare Patches” or IMPs for short.
“Discovering new features on the lunar surface was thrilling,” said Braden. “We looked at hundreds of high-resolution images, and when I found a new IMP it was always the highlight of my day.”
“The irregular mare patches look so different than more common lunar features like impact craters, impact melt, and highlands material,” she said. “They really jump out at you.”
On the moon, it is possible to estimate the age of a landscape by counting its craters. The moon is pelted by a slow drizzle of meteoroids that pepper its surface with impact scars. The older a landscape, the more craters it contains.
Some of the IMPs they found are very lightly cratered, suggesting that they are no more than 100 million years old.
A hundred million years may sound like a long time, but in geological terms it's just a blink of an eye.
The volcanic craters LRO found may have been erupting during the Cretaceous period on Earth – the heyday of dinosaurs.
Some of the volcanic features may be even younger, 50 million years old, a time when mammals were replacing dinosaurs as dominant lifeforms.
“This finding is the kind of science that is literally going to make geologists rewrite the textbooks about the moon,” said John Keller, LRO project scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
IMPs are too small to be seen from Earth, averaging less than a third of a mile (500 meters) across in their largest dimension.
That's why, other than Ina, they haven't been found before. Nevertheless, they appear to be widespread around the nearside of the moon.
“Not only are the IMPs striking landscapes, but also they tell us something very important about the thermal evolution of the moon,” says Mark Robinson of Arizona State University, the principal investigator for LRO's high resolution camera. “The interior of the moon is perhaps hotter than previously thought.”
“We know so little of the moon,” he continued. “The moon is a large mysterious world in its own right, and its only three days away! I would love to land on an IMP and take the moon's temperature first-hand using a heat probe.”
Some people think the moon looks dead, “but I never thought so,” said Robinson, who won't rule out the possibility of future eruptions. “To me, it has always been an inviting place of magnificent beauty, a giant magnet in our sky drawing me towards it.”
Young volcanoes have only turned up the heat on the moon's allure.
Said Robinson, “Let's go!”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Forecasters are predicting the potential for heavy rainfall around Northern California through Sunday night, with more rain in the week ahead.
The National Weather Service on Friday estimated that the Central Valley would see one half to an inch of rain through Sunday.
Lake County, however, is one of the areas where more rain is anticipated to occur.
The latest forecast put Lake County in the range of from as little as half an inch by Sunday night to almost 2 inches, with areas on the Northshore and Middletown expected to get more precipitation, especially overnight on Friday.
The National Weather Service said mountain snow is expected to be as low as 5,000 feet as snow levels drop on Sunday.
As the rains continue, temperatures are expected to be in the high 50s during the day and down to the low 40s at night, with wind gusts of up to 21 miles per hour in the Lucerne area, according to the forecast.
Beyond Sunday, a chance of showers also is forecast from Monday through next Friday, the National Weather Service reported.
By early Saturday, the National Weather Service was reporting 24-hour rainfall totals for Lake County including 0.46 inches at the High Glade Lookout near Upper Lake, 0.37 inches near Bartlett Springs, 0.28 inches near Lakeport, 0.26 inches near Kelseyville, 0.40 inches near Whispering Pines, 0.37 inches on Cow Mountain, 0.42 inches near Lower Lake and 0.41 inches near the Lake/Colusa County line.
The rain is showing marginal improvements in the level of Clear Lake, which on Nov. 20 had dropped to -0.85 feet Rumsey but by early Saturday was reported at -0.72 feet Rumsey, according to the US Geological Survey.
US Geological Survey stream gauges also show that water levels appear to be improving in local creeks and streams thanks to the rain.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Kelseyville American Legion Post 194 recently sent a record number of nine outstanding local students to participate in the annual Boys and Girls State program.
The boys honored by the post were Jafeth Silva, Brandon Huber, Andrew Vonwal and Luis Acosta from Kelseyville High School, Christopher Vincent of Clear Lake High School and Arthur Wilkie from Upper Lake High School.
All of the teens completed a weeklong trip to the State Capitol in June to represent the post at the 2014 American Legion Boys State program.
The girls honored by the post were Abigail McQueen of Kelseyville High School, Janee Swaney of Upper Lake High School and Kennedi Syphax from Clear Lake High School. They attended a five-day program on the campus of Marymount University.
A dinner was held in their honor and each as presented an award for their participation.
The schools recommend the most qualified students to the local American Legion, which in turn conducts interviews and selects its representatives for the program.
Only those who illustrate leadership, character, scholarship, loyalty and service in their schools and community are considered.
Kelseyville American Legion Post 194 officials said the organization was excited to send a record number of students this year from Lake County because American Legion Boys State is among the most respected and selective educational programs of government instructions for United States high school students.
Boys State and Girls State are participatory programs in which students become part of the operation of local, county and state government.
Boys State was founded in 1935 to counter the socialism-inspired Young Pioneer Camps. The program was the idea of two Illinois Legionnaires, Hayes Kennedy and Harold Card, who organized the first Boys State at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
American Legion Auxiliary sponsors a separate but similar program for young women, Girls State.
At Boys State, participants learn the rights, privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens. The training is objective and centers on the structure of city, county and state governments.
Operated by students elected to various offices, Boys State activities include legislative sessions, court proceedings, law enforcement, presentations, assemblies bands, choruses and recreational programs.
Legion posts select high school juniors to attend the program. In most cases, individual expenses are paid by a sponsoring post, a local business or another community-based organization.
