Pete Derizotis


Pete Derizotis speaks at the El Rancho Hotel while introducing Jerry Sandel during his run for Lt. governor recently. Derizotis has been appointed magistrate judge by Governor Johnson in San Juan County.

Photo by Jeff Jones

 

 



Navajos looking for answers to violence
Hundreds attend conference


Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent

GALLUP — The Navajo Nation, stunned by recent acts of violence, is looking for answers.

As part of that search, the Office of the President and Vice President and the Office of Miss Navajo sponsored the first in a series of workshops around the reservation. "Restoring Family Values...Through Love, Peace, & Harmony" was held all day on Friday at the Best Western Inn in Gallup.

Miss Navajo Nation, Jolyana Begay, acted as emcee for the conference, which attracted about two hundred people, mostly from the tribe's social services, behavioral health, and public safety departments. About eight Navajo Council members were also in attendance. The guest speakers, almost all of whom gave their presentations in Navajo, ranged from traditional counselors, to
the acting chief of the Navajo Police, to a Christian pastor.

In his opening remarks to the conference audience, Navajo Nation Vice President Taylor McKenzie referred to personal experience gained in his 30-year career as a physician. During those years, he said, he saw many cases of child neglect and abuse, elder abuse, and domestic violence, and the incidents seemed to grow in frequency as the years passed.

The Navajo people have the creativity and intelligence to confront the problems facing them, he said. "Let's see that we can make a dramatic impact on this thing that we call domestic abuse and violence," he said.

McKenzie added that Navajo council members need to adopt a sense of ownership and responsibility for the problem of violence on the reservation.

Dark Cloud

Navajo Nation President Kelsey Begaye dropped by the conference and talked briefly before attendees adjourned for lunch. "Our whole nation has become sick," he said. "How do we heal ourselves?" Begaye said it was easy to point fingers of blame at others, but that Navajo people must take responsibility for themselves."It starts with us," he said.

Begaye said a "dark cloud" was hanging over the Navajo Nation, and cited child neglect and sexual abuse of children as a huge caseload for Navajo Social Services.

"The whole Navajo Nation has become dysfunctional," he said. Navajo people can't look to just the President's Office to solve their problems, or to just Navajo Council members, Christian pastors, or traditional medicine men. Everyone has to work together to find solutions, he said.

Begaye would like to see Navajo communities unite and take strong stands. "We're not going to tolerate bootlegging. We're not going to tolerate domestic violence," Begaye suggested as examples. "I hope that someday the Navajo Nation can get to that level."

Nia Francisco of the Division of Social Services discussed domestic violence from a woman's point of view, and Sevier Nelson and Dale Gonnie, both from the tribe's Department of Behavior Health Services, discussed the importance of traditional Navajo teachings and values.

Holding back a tide

Harrison Jim, representing the Eagle Plume Society, the traditional treatment program at the Na'nizhoozhi Center Inc. (NCI) in Gallup, also advocated this traditional approach when working with people who abuse alcohol.

In an interview after his presentation, Jim talked about NCI's work. "We're trying to hold a tide back with a bucket," he admitted. But based on his own personal experiences, Jim believes the traditional approach often works with people who can't seem to relate to the western approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12 Step program. According to Jim, the traditional treatment emphasizes self-awareness, responsibility and spirituality within the person. The consequences of substance abuse are emphasized, he explained, consequences that are mental, social, physical, and spiritual.

Milton Shirleson, pastor of the nondenominational Good News Church in Houck, Ariz., and a chaplain for the Navajo Police, offered a different perspective. In an interview before his presentation, Shirleson said he expected to offend some people with his comments.

The history of the human race, he said, has been marked by violence, and violence is simply part of human nature. "There's not a human answer," he said. "There's a divine answer."

Prior to a dramatic conversion experience in 1977, Shirleson said he was strongly anti-Christian. The son of an alcoholic father, Shirleson said much of his father's family had been "wiped out by alcoholism," and he himself was headed down that same path. But based on his own transformation, Shirleson believes that destructive human behavior can only be changed through the power of God. Human solutions deal only with symptoms, he said, "God deals with the heart of the problem."

According to Tilda Smith of the Office of Navajo Nation President and Vice President, Friday's workshop was the first of five
such conferences, on or around the reservation. The Navajo Nation plans to hold similar events for all reservation agencies.
Like the Gallup conference, each will be free and open to the public.

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Pete Derizotis: A classic American success story

Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON — When local Magistrate Judge Paris "Pete" Derizotis retired in 1993 and moved out of town, it was like the end of an era in Gallup. After working at numerous restaurants and owning several, serving 18 years as judge and four years as state representative, he knew practically everyone in McKinley County. He had either cooked for them, married them,
heard their problems, listened to their political concerns, or sent them to jail.

More than a few people were surprised to learn that after a stint in Oklahoma, Derizotis, 71, was back in Indian Country, living in Farmington, N.M., where he was appointed as magistrate in August 2001 to replace Judge Linda Eaton, who had retired.

But not everyone knew the full story.

Derizotis' wife, Minnie died in 1992 and after his retirement, he decided it was time for a change. He was visiting a lawyer friend in Albuquerque who suggested they go to dinner, where the lawyer was entertaining a client from South Dakota and negotiating the sale of her business. Derizotis told his friend he wasn't in the mood, and didn't have a jacket and tie to go to dinner at the Petroleum Club in Albuquerque, but the friend insisted, arranged the jacket and tie and dragged him to dinner.

The "client" was a woman whose husband had just died, and she was selling the family business, anxious to get out of the cold
climate of South Dakota. After a long uncomfortable silence at dinner, the two realized they had in common the loss of a
spouse and started talking. It turned out they had many things in common. After a time, a romance blossomed and the couple introduced each other to their grown children. Wanda had four and Pete had four and all eight children approved of the impending marriage.

The couple married and decided to travel. They spent years traveling in Greece and Europe before they came back to the U.S. to settle down.

Derizotis started getting sick in 1998. He had high blood pressure and diabetes, but was diagnosed with colon cancer, a serious ailment that caused kidney shutdown. Derizotis' children all volunteered a kidney, but a DNA test showed the children may also become diabetic and some day need both kidneys, so a kidney donation from the children was not a possibility.

Wanda was tested for a kidney match. Her blood and tissue matched perfectly, adding to the impossible combination of coincidences that brought the couple together initially. She went online and found a pioneer of donor kidney extraction at Johns Hopkins University, and the two traveled to Maryland in March, 2001, where Wanda gave one of her kidneys to Pete.

"I got a new life by the miracle of my wife. God sent it to me," Derizotis claims proudly.

Pete Derizotis' story is a classic American tale of success.

His family changed its name to Derizotis in 1821 after one of the patriarchs in Greece killed a Turkish man. Knowing the Turks would seek revenge by killing the entire family, the great-grandfather moved the clan to a different town, and the family took the name of the old town from which they came; "Derizotis." Derizotis and his wife visited the old town of Derizotis during their travels and people still remembered the killing of the Turk as part of the town's folklore.

Pete was a young teen-ager when Mussolini assured Hitler that he could take over the Southern part of Europe and invaded Greece.

"Mussolini couldn't do it," Derizotis said. "The Greeks clobbered him."

Defeating the Italians might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but Mussolini's failure incensed Hitler, who sent his army south to invade Greece. Greece had its own army and fought valiantly for more than three weeks (longer than France, Derizotis points out) but in the end, 1.5 million to 2 million people were killed, and Hitler claimed the country.

"Everyone fought," Derizotis recalls. "Women, children, everyone. We had guns, and we also threw rocks." This was from 1942 to '44. When World War II ended, Germany withdrew from its occupied lands.

Derizotis was 20 years old, and had attended law school for a couple of years, when he decided to emigrate to America. He went through immigration at Ellis Island in New York and then got on the bus to meet his uncles Jim and Pete Blatsios, who owned the White Cafe in Gallup.

The young adventurer spoke no English, so on the long bus ride west he carried a note in his pocket:

"I speak no English and I am trying to get to Gallup, New Mexico. Your assistance is appreciated."

Derizotis' plan was to come to Gallup, go to law school and return to Greece to practice law.

"While I was a student in law school in Athens, I studied the constitutions of many lands and found the U.S. Constitution the best written," he said about his decision to come to America.

Only one problem. Derizotis imagined the town of Gallup just like any other metropolitan area, say Athens or New York. Of course, there was no law school in Gallup, no post-secondary school at all in the fifties.

So Derizotis went to work at the White Cafe as a busboy and a dish washer and also worked at the Manhattan Cafe for Pete Lelekas. He tried to go to law school in Albuquerque but found it to be too expensive.

Derizotis opened the El Morro Cafe in 1955 on Coal Avenue in downtown Gallup and later he opened Pete's Fine Foods at the West Y (before it became Talk of The Town). In that location, he had a piano bar and a steady stream of regulars, including Dr. Kettle, Dr. Iverson and others.

Derizotis said he and Wanda moved to Farmington after trying out a few locations, including Oklahoma and Steamboat Springs, Colo. Gallup was not an option, Derizotis said, because it was too painful to be here after his first wife died. But he says he misses his friends in Gallup.

"That's the thing I have to brag about (in Gallup) is the friendship," he said.

"I've made a lot of new friends (in Farmington)," Derizotis says, adding that he changed his political affiliation to Republican in the heavily Republican community. "That's the way I am. Everywhere I go, I make new friends."

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Arts official embezzled, board says

Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — A former high-ranking Cibola Arts Council official may have embezzled what police describe as enough money to be multiple felonies, though the investigation is still on-going.

Grants Police Detective Marty Vigil said he was contacted Feb. 7, by one of the Cibola Arts Council Board of Directors members about "misappropriation of funds."

"I met with a couple of the board members and generated a report of embezzlement," Vigil said. "They allege the ex-director misused funds."

Vigil would not directly identify the ex-director, saying that would be up to the arts council board, but a Cibola Arts Council newsletter states: "Gayle McIntyre (of Albuquerque) was hired as executive director and started her duties on November 26th.
Unfortunately due to personal reasons, Gayle was not able to continue as ED (executive director) and resigned from the CAC (Cibola Arts Council) on February 4th."

On Feb. 7, the two board members contacted the police.

Vigil said that he is investigating five different cases of embezzlement, each of which could lead to a felony charge.

The police expect to end its investigation by the end of the month. "At that time we'll go to the district attorney to discuss possible charges," Vigil said.

He said there is little else to say about the case at the present time, other than the fact that he talked to the ex-director.

"The Cibola Arts Council Board of Directors made the right decision to come to us when they did," Vigil said.

According to the newsletter, after McIntyre left Mayranne Sears became the assistant director while the board searches for new executive director. Sears was formerly on the Cibola Arts Council board of directors.

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Navajo chief offers up a dose of reality

Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Special to the Independent

GALLUP - In case anybody was wondering, Navajo people aren't living in the idyllic television town of Mayberry, and Andy Taylor isn't sheriff.

Those insights and more were offered by Captain Francis Bradley, the acting chief of police for the Navajo Nation, who, like Sheriff Taylor, has a down-to-earth wisdom and a well developed sense of humor, if not a tad bit more blunt and zany.

On Friday, Bradley was a featured guest speaker at the workshop, "Restoring Family Values...Through Love, Peace, & Harmony," which was jointly sponsored by the Office of the President and Vice President and the Office of Miss Navajo.

In "What Kids Tell Police Officers," Bradley wove stories about rez ball, spam, fry bread, and gangsta rap, into an entertaining presentation that was lightened with humor, but full of wisdom and insight. Bradley drew on his experiences as a son, a father, and a police officer to talk about the problems Navajo families face, particularly the frequently thorny issue of parent and child relationships.

Parental responsibility was his major theme. According to Bradley, when Navajo children end up in trouble, parents frequently point fingers of blame at everyone but themselves and turn to tribal offices like social services, the police department, or the Navajo Nation president's office to solve their child's problem.

The primary responsibility of teaching values to children belongs to parents, said Bradley, and parents can and should control outside influences in their children's lives. Perhaps more importantly, Bradley added, parents have to behave responsibly themselves. "How are we going to teach responsibility if we don't take responsibility for ourselves?" he asked. As an example, he explained, he recently pulled over a motorist for a traffic violation. The driver, a mother with a car full of children, lied in front of her children and angrily reacted when the kids tried to contradict her story. According to Bradley, the message the
children received was loud and clear.

In another example, parental irresponsibility often comes through in the actions of parents at their children's sporting events. A videotape of a girls' basketball game between Tuba City and Ganado, he explained, could offer a good example of "just how ugly we are" as parents sometimes.

Parents are often guilty of making hurtful comments to their own children that have long lasting consequences. "Before you let loose with this," he said, motioning to his mouth, "that hole in your face, you better have thought about it first."

Children often reach out to police officers for attention and affection, Bradley believes, because children feel a sense of safety and protection. However, he said, Navajo parents need to reach out to their own children and offer them supportive and affectionate touches, hugs, and kisses.

Bradley also emphasized the need for parents to spend time with their children. His own father, the person Bradley called the greatest influence in his life, spent a lot of time with Bradley, talking with him and teaching him practical life skills.

Based on his experience as a police officer, Bradley said, many children who get in trouble with the police don't have a father in their life. Parents, particularly fathers, can't be influential in their children's lives if they don't spend time with them, he said.
Bradley asked the conference audience to consider how their behavior will live on in the lives of their children and grandchildren for generations to come and to ask themselves, "How significant a life force am I in their lives?"

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Clarification

A Gallup Police officer corrected his police report from last Saturday because two different addresses appeared in the report listing where an inmate escapee was captured. The address in the story in Tuesday's Independent should have been 613 E. Princeton Ave.

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Navajo Nation closed Monday

Dine' Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — All Navajo Nation government workers, except on-duty public safety workers, will be off work Monday for the American Presidents Day holiday, as will public schools, county, state and federal offices, including the U.S. Postal Service.

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Tribal forum Monday at Lupton Chapter


Dine' Bureau

LUPTON CHAPTER — The Lupton Chapter will hold the first public forum for Navajo Nation presidential candidates and those seeking the new Arizona First Congressional District seat.

The forum will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, the President's Day holiday, at the Lupton Chapter House at the northwest corner of BIA Route 12 and Exit 357 on Interstate 40...

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Teen killed in sledding accident

SANTA FE (AP) — A Santa Fe teen-ager has been killed in a sledding accident after he and some friends sneaked into the Santa Fe Ski Area after hours, authorities said.

Eli Farmer, 18, a senior at Santa Fe Prep, died from head injuries he sustained when he struck a padded post around 12:30 a.m. Friday, said Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department Maj. Ron Madrid.

Paramedics were taking Farmer by ambulance to meet a helicopter that would transport him to a hospital when he died.

No alcohol was involved in the accident, Madrid said...

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Stabbing mars love holiday

Andrea Egger
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Stabbing someone in the chest isn't what most people consider a proper Valentine's Day present.

But Delbert Perry, 36, a homeless man, got this "present" before noon Thursday, according to a Gallup Police report.

Officer Demeter "Bronco" Woloshen met with Perry at 12:10 p.m. at the bus station, on Highway 66 near Strong Drive. Perry was "very combative," Woloshen noted.

All Perry would say was that he was at the Ambassador Motel, 1601 W. Highway 66, when a stranger came up and stabbed him, according to the report. He described the suspect as Hispanic or Indian, with long hair, a white T-shirt, black pants and a leather coat...

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Man arrested for trying to run down two tribal cops

Jim Maniaci
Dine' Bureau

SHIPROCK — Two local men were arrested late Tuesday night on a variety of tribal charges in a window-breaking incident that ended with one of the men allegedly using a car to try to run over a pair of Navajo police officers on foot pursuing his companion.

According to the Shiprock Law Enforcement District report, the incident began when Beverly McKinley, 45, who lives west of Thats-a-Burger Restaurant in Shiprock, called the station about someone breaking windows in her mobile home. Windows in the home of her neighbors, Delvin Howe and Georgia Litson, also were broken, the report added.

Officer Ronald Williams spotted the suspects' vehicle by the Southern Non-Profit Housing subdivision and gave chase. The report said the suspects' vehicle stopped west of the Alcoholics Anonymous Building in Shiprock...

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Deaths

Brandon Patrick Yazzie


TWIN LAKES — Services for Brandon Yazzie, 9, will be held at 11 a.m., Monday, Feb. 18 at Rollie Mortuary Palm Chapel. Burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park.

Yazzie died Feb. 14 in Gallup. He was born Aug. 20, 1992 in Farmington into the Salt People Clan for the Yellow Meadow People Clan.

Survivors include his parents, Joann Yazzie of Twin Lakes and Willis Yazzie of Yah Ta Hey; brother, Michael Francis, Gregory McCabe and Adrian Yazzie all of Twin Lakes; sisters, Charlena McCabe, Charlotte McCabe, Maria McCabe and Felica Tom all of Twin Lakes; grandparents, Esther Yazzie of Rehoboth, John K. Yazzie of Twin Lakes and Marion Yazzie of Rehoboth.

Yazzie was preceded in death by his grandmother, Marie B. Yazzie.

Pallbearers will be Willie Harrison, Craig Smith, John Yazzie Jr. and Kenneth Yazzie.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Jonah Joe Price

CHINLE, Ariz. — Services for Jonah Price, 26, will be held at 11 a.m., Monday, Feb. 18 at Chinle Christian Center. Pastor Artie Aragon will officiate. Burial will follow at private family cemetery, Chinle.

Price died Feb. 11 in Phoenix. He was born June 11, 1975 in Fort Defiance, Ariz. into the Big Water People Clan for the Red Running into the Water People Clan.

Survivors include his daughters, Alyssa Corrie Price and Jonessa Jolynn Price both of Chinle; mother, Barbara Bahe of Chinle; brother, Patrick James Crosby and Peter Crosby Jr. both of Many Farms, Ariz.; sister, Jacinta Bahe-Davila of Sedona, Ariz. and grandmother, Irene E. Scott of Chinle.

Price was preceded in death by his father, Joe Price Jr. and grandparents, Billy Blake, Joe Price Sr. and Mary Reed.

Pallbearers will be Tully E. Allen Jr., James Begay Jr., Derrick Blackhorse, Larry Blake, Harrison Nez and James Scott Jr.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Clara Yazzie Robertson

MANY FARMS, Ariz. — Services for Clara Robertson, 74, will be held at 1 p.m., today at Chinle Catholic Church. Rev. Blane Grein will officiate. Burial will follow at private family cemetery, Old Valley Store, Ariz.

Robertson died Feb. 13. She was born June 25, 1927 in Valley Store, Ariz. into the Water Flowing Together People Clan for the Near the Water People Clan.

Survivors include her sons, Julius Robertson of Many Farms and Wilfred Yazzie of Old Valley Store, Ariz.; daughters, Sadie Charley of Old Valley Store, Linda B. Tsosie of Phoenix, Jacquelina Robertson and Shirley Robertson both of Many Farms; brother, Edward Begay of Salt Lake City, Utah; five grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Robertson was preceded in death by his parents, Elsie and John Yazzie; brother, Jackie J. Begay and sisters, Margaret Begay and Rachel Towne.

Pallbearers will be Benton Charley, Hoskie Deswood Jr., Jackie Robertson, Julius Robertson, Herbert Teller and Wilfred Yazzie.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Maggie A. Mescal

CHINLE, Ariz. — Services for Maggie Mescal, 71, were held at 10 a.m., today, at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, Chinle. Father Blaine Grein officiated. Burial followed on family land, Chinle.

Mescal died Feb. 11 in Phoenix. She was born Oct. 28, 1930 in Chinle into the Towering House Clan for the Coyote People Clan.

Survivors include her husband, Lee Mescal Sr.; sons, Wilfred Attson, Murphy Jake, Phillip Jake, Lee Mescal Jr., Elvis Jake and Hoskie Jake Jr.; daughters, Loretta Mescal, LeAnn Mescal and Ethylene Begay; brothers, Alfred Attson and John Attson Sr.; sisters, Sadie Tsosie and Jessie Nez; 38 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Mescal was preceded in death by her sons, Freddie Jake and Orsino Jake; parents, Nellie and Jimmie Attson and sister, Mae Attson.

Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Jeanita Kanisha Johnson

PREWITT — Services for Jeanita Johnson, six, were held at 10 a.m., today at Mount Taylor Mortuary, Grants. Angela Begay officiated. Burial followed at Grants Memorial Cemetery.

Johnson died Feb. 13 in Prewitt. She was born Nov. 10, 1995 in Crownpoint.

Johnson attended Thoreau Elementary School, where she was a first grader. Her hobbies included drawing roses and playing
outdoor sports.

Survivors included her parents, Jennie Abeita of Prewitt; brothers, Julius Johnson and Cornell Ross both of Prewitt; sisters,
Trisha Johnson and Latasha Johnson both of Prewitt; grandparents, Nancy R. and Freddie Abeita and Leonard Johnson all of
Prewitt.

Johnson was preceded in death by his father, Lawrence Johnson and grandmother, Alice Johnson.

Pallbearers were Paul Ryan, Ervin Ross, Herman Abeita, Casz Abeita, Fabian Abeita and Joseph Delora.

Mount Taylor Mortuary is charge of arrangements.

Thomas S. Blatchford

FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. — Services for Thomas Blatchford, 74, will be held at 10 a.m., Monday, Feb. 18 at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. Burial will follow at Fort Defiance Community Cemetery.

Blatchford died Feb. 14 in Fort Defiance. He was born Jan. 10, 1927 in Fort Defiance into the the Towering House People Clan for the Edge of the Water People Clan.

Survivors included his wife, Alice Blatchford of Fort Defiance; sons, Edison Blatchford of Fort Defiance, Wilson Blatchford and Anderson Blathford both of Shiprock; daughters, Lena Ann Blatchford of Fort Defiance, Ariz. and Rose Ann Tanner of Shiprock; parents, Ursula and Jim Blackgoat; sisters, Sadie Robbins of Tuba City, Ariz., Mary Smith, Esther Jumbo and Margaret Foster all of Fort Defiance and eight grandchildren.

Blatchford was preceded in death by his parents, brothers, Leo Blatchford, John Blatchford, Paul Blatchford and Anson
Blatchford.

Pallbearers will be family members.

Tse Bonito Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.

Thomas Vernon "Pete" Peters

GRANTS — Graveside services for Thomas "Pete" Peters, 94, will be at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Feb. 19 at Grants Memorial Park.
Peters died Feb. 13. He was born Oct. 4, 1907 in Kerens, Texas.

Peters was a volunteer firefighter in Milford, Texas. He was a member of the D.A.V. and was known as the "Zuni Mountain Pie Man".

Visitation will be held from 3-6 p.m., Monday, Feb. 18 Grants Mortuary Chapel.

Survivors include his son, Thomas Edwin Peters; daughters, Margaret Jo Reardon, Martha Ann Peters-Moore, Muriel E.
Smith, Gloria Gale Weaver, Joann Barnes and Glenda Barber; brother, Joel Peters; 18 grandchildren and 23 great-
grandchildren.

Lea Caterine Riffle

GALLUP — Services for Lea Riffle, 63, will be announced at a later date.

Riffle died Feb. 15 in Gallup. She was born Oct. 29, 1938 in Gallup.

Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.


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