May 11-17, 1961 Four months into his presidency and weeks after the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, John Kennedy called for a "hemisphere of freedom and hope" as he began his first international goodwill tour in Ottawa, Canada.
But for Montanans and movie buffs everywhere, the big news was the death of native son Gary Cooper.
He was bigger than life, and Cooper's death left a stunning void in Hollywood as well as Montana.
Cooper succumbed to cancer in his Hollywood home at 12:30 in the afternoon - 1:30 in Montana. Outside his death room, his two poodles and a mongrel commenced barking and howling moments later. Reporters and photographers waiting outside the one-story home heard the dogs but didn't learn that Cooper had died until 30 minutes later.
He was born Frank James Cooper in Helena in 1901 and attended high school for a time in Bozeman. He changed his name to Gary after his first Hollywood role in the 1927 silent Western "The Winning of Barbara Worth."
Cooper went on to win best-actor Academy Awards in 1942, for "Sergeant York" and in 1953, for "High Noon." His father, Charles Henry Cooper, was a former British barrister who became an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court.
Gary's experience as a cowboy in Montana proved golden when he got to Tinseltown. A cartoonist for the Helena Independent Record for a short time, he moved to Los Angeles in hopes of landing the same job, but found no takers. He was ready to take the train home when friends from Montana told him he could make money by falling off horses and doing other movie stunts.
Four years before his death, Cooper made plans to retire to a real ranch in Montana. He bought an interest in a 35,000-acre ranch near Philipsburg. Cooper's pallbearers included Jack Benny, who on the evening of Cooper's funeral, won a television Emmy in the field of humor. Benny didn't attend the ceremonies out of respect for Cooper.
Also this week in 1961:
Friday, May 12
Project manager P.J. Soukup announced that five companies contracted to build the Yellowtail Dam near Hardin would begin work the following week.
Sunday, May 14
Benny Reynolds of Melrose, a future world all-around champion, won the saddle bronc and all-around titles at the KO Ranch rodeo up Miller Creek.
Monday, May 15
A threatened walkout by members of the Butte teachers' union came about as scheduled, but it was only a walkout from negotiations. The teachers kept teaching.
Harry McCann, division manager for the Montana Power Co. in Missoula, said the city's new business district parking lot would be ready for use in about two weeks. It was (and is) at the site of the old power company heating plant northeast of the Higgins Avenue bridge.
Tuesday, May 16
Interstate 90 from Bonner-Milltown to the Wye nine miles west of Missoula will cost about $15.5 million, Donald Wilson of the Missoula Chamber of Commerce told a women's club meeting. I-90 will have six intersections in the stretch, at Milltown, East Missoula, Madison Street, Urlin Street, Reserve Street and the Wye. The interstate project will be completed in 1966, he said.
The same day, St. Regis Paper Co. announced plans to build a plywood plant in Libby by the following spring. It would have 200 employees, and use the forest reserves of J. Neil Lumber Co., a subsidiary that operated sawmills in Libby, Troy and Klickitat, Wash.
Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com.
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