[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF ALICE YARISH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 18, 2005

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Alice Yarish of Marin 
County, California, who died at the age of 96 on May 9, 2005. Alice was 
a fixture of the Marin community for many years, known as much for her 
outspoken and occasionally flamboyant personal style as for her 
crusading journalism.
  Born in Nevada and raised in Redondo Beach, CA, Alice's first foray 
into journalism was a stint as the high school correspondent for the 
city's South Bay Breeze. She graduated from the University of Southern 
California during the depression and, unable to find a job, enrolled in 
law school, continuing a family tradition. She could not afford to 
complete the program and supported herself as a social worker for the 
next five years.
  In 1942 Alice married Peter Yarish who was in the Air Force. A few 
years later the couple moved to Hamilton Air Force Base in Marin where 
Alice lived the life of a military wife for several years while raising 
four children. In 1952, when her children were school-age, she was able 
to return to journalism at the age of 43. First a reporter for the San 
Rafael Independent Journal, she later worked for the Santa Rosa Press 
Democrat and the Novato Advance before establishing the Marin News 
Bureau for the San Francisco Examiner. In 1970 she became the assistant 
editor of the Pacific Sun where she gained a reputation for dry wit, 
investigative coverage of local government, social commentary on the 
hippie scene, and a strong passion for social justice.
  Prison reform became one of Alice's special crusades after she met 
well-known inmate George Jackson who was later killed in an attempted 
outbreak. ``Jackson opened my eyes and filled me with information which 
I had not known before,'' she wrote. ``I was shocked by what I learned 
. . . prisons tend to be breeding grounds of crime, generators of 
bitterness, destructive of men's souls. They are a failure.''
  A 1972 series on abuses in the Marin County Drug Abuse Bureau led to 
its abolition and replacement with an agency which operates under 
review by elected officials and city managers. This series led to an 
Award for ``Best Story in a Bay Area Paper'' from the San Francisco 
Press Club. Alice's enjoyment of her work and zest for life were 
contagious, whether leading her home-town parade in her newly purchased 
red convertible at the age of 77 or serving actively with community 
agencies such as the Adult Criminal Justice Commission, the Marin 
Association for Mental Health, and others.
  Alice is survived by her four sons, Peter, Tom, Anthony, and Robin 
Ell, and by seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, as a self-described ``outspoken broad,'' Alice 
championed those who couldn't speak out for themselves and inspired 
others to do likewise. We will miss her fearless voice, her compassion, 
and most of all her undaunted spirit.

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