I was saddened to read last week about the June 22 death of Earl Spencer, a longtime local resident whose dedication as Southwest Washington Fair manager for more than 14 years helped the fairgrounds recover from three horrific floods.
The last time I saw Spencer, 88, was on Sept. 23, 2023, at the anniversary celebration of the Centralia Church of the Nazarene on West First Street. I chatted with him briefly, grateful for his tremendous help when I compiled the book, “Chapters of Life at the Southwest Washington Fair.”
When I started researching the 100-year history of the fair during its centennial in 2009, I received wonderful assistance from former fair managers Lee Coumbs and Earl Spencer as well as from Margaret Wildhaber, the widow of former fair manager Tony Wildhaber. I interviewed all three for details about what transpired during the years they spent involved in guiding the only fair mandated by the Washington state Legislature.
Spencer, who was born May 3, 1937, along Deep Creek near Adna, graduated from Centralia High School in 1955 and worked for Pacific Northwest Bell, where one of his coworkers was Faye Palmer of Galvin. He and Faye, the first couple to marry in the new Church of the Nazarene, were wed on Dec. 3, 1960.
At 21, he started operating a charter fishing boat on weekends. After working 14 years for Pacific Northwest Bell, he quit his job in 1969 and launched into his fishing entrepreneur adventure full time, moving his family to Westport and captaining his charter boat, the Flamingo, built in 1972. For six years, he also lobbied state lawmakers at the state Legislature on charter fishing rights.
In the early 1980s, the family returned to Centralia, and Spencer assumed the job of Centralia Chamber of Commerce director, where he encouraged leaders in business, education, health care and the community to band together to form the Lewis County Economic Development Council.
Then, when Lee Coumbs stepped down after seven years as Southwest Washington Fair manager, Spencer applied to fill the vacancy. He started in December 1984 and retired at the end of May 1999.
As a child, he participated in 4-H and showed his heifer at the fair, but he knew little about organizing the event. He learned quickly, working with Bob Sobolesky, who had served 45 years as fairgrounds foreman when he retired in early 2018.
Spencer trimmed $30,000 from the fair budget immediately, which wasn’t easy or popular with many of the nearly 150 volunteers. After a couple of years, he started holding a Superintendent Appreciation Dinner a week after the fair to show how much he valued the work of volunteers. He loved the team effort among the handful of employees and cadre of volunteers.
In 1985, Spencer brought Bengal tigers to the fair, with sponsorship of The Daily Chronicle. I remember covering the fair that summer and taking photos of Spencer with the tigers. The newspaper covered the fair every day, every year, sometimes with interns and other times with reporters.
Spencer worked closely with Jerry Owens, who arranged the fair’s entertainment and filled in that summer with his band when singer Freddy Fender failed to show up. Owens and his wife, Eileen, also helped organize Centralia’s first Summerfest in 1976, and they served as the Fourth of July event’s parade grand marshals last summer.
When Owens resigned from the fair board to tour with his band, Mary Ann White arranged the fair entertainment. Also working with Spencer the first year was Kent Hojem, who later managed the Thurston County Fair and then the Washington State Fair in Puyallup.
As manager, Spencer started the Friends of the Fair to encourage businesses to underwrite the costs of top-name fair entertainment like Johnny Cash, Roy Clark, Ricky Skaggs and Jan and Dean. He knew many of the business leaders from his work as chamber director. During his tenure, Spencer told me the fair set a Guinness World Record in 1993 for the Largest Country Western Line and Circle Dance, a record that has long since been broken.
He oversaw the fairgrounds during three horrendous floods — one in 1986, another in 1990 and a third in 1996.
When the Chehalis River flooded in November 1986, water poured into homes and businesses and breached a dike at the fairgrounds, filling buildings with 10 feet of water. It damaged the fair office, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid $60,000 for a new building. Although not as severe as the 1972 flood, the water swept slick silt and ash from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption onto the fairgrounds and into buildings.
Another flood in January 1990 killed two local residents and swamped the fairgrounds, causing $1.3 million in damages there and $19.2 million altogether in Lewis and Thurston counties.
Six years later, in February 1996, water again flooded the fairgrounds and seeped into the new office, filling the nearby Twin Cities Senior Center with four feet of water while eight feet filled Sunbirds Shopping Center. That flood, ranked No. 8 on the National Weather Service’s list of significant 20th century weather events, caused $800 million in damage throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Spencer and Sobolesky rowed a boat through the fairgrounds to assess the damage as up to 14 feet of water filled some buildings.
The flood destroyed the sheep and goat barn and eventually led to construction of the Blue Pavillion. Spencer said the flood damage gave the fairgrounds new life by forcing replacement of aging buildings. It also led to demolition of more than 10 flood-damaged buildings in Olde Towne, which was later torn down and provided room for another 300 seats near the Saloon Stage.
Under his leadership, Spencer led the fair board to develop a master plan that looked at becoming self-sustaining by providing year-round activities to make better use of the property and attract more visitors.
When I attend the fair, I think of Spencer, Coumbs, Wildhaber, Owens, Sobolesky and so many others who shaped the fairgrounds and the event itself through the decades. I certainly appreciate all their help sharing stories and editing the fair book. And I hope they realized how much of a legacy they have left through their hard work and commitment to the community.
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at memoirs@chaptersoflife.com.
