STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
She had just celebrated her 107th birthday on Dec. 19. On Monday, Dec. 28, Myrle Bradshaw passed away.
A private graveside service will be held in the coming days with a memorial gathering when conditions permit.
Bradshaw was born in Gooding, the daughter of a sheep rancher and a mother who once taught school in the Bruneau/Bliss area.
She married a bee keeper’s son Doug “Buzz” Bradshaw and raised two sons as Doug built a very successful honey and food empire.
She and her husband donated the land on Knob Hill near their Austrian-style home to the city of Ketchum for a city park where people often like to trek for a view of Ketchum’s night skies. And she and Doug, who died in 2011 two months shy of his 102nd birthday, were honored as grand marshals in the 2005 Wagon Days parade.
On her birthday her son Doug Jr. rolled out her wheelchair on the porch as far as the cord on her electric blanket allowed. And she smiled as well-wishers drove by, some dropping presents off on a card table at the curb.
Bradshaw was especially excited to hear a few choruses from members of Colla Voce and Enchante high school girls’ groups.
“And they were so happy to sing for her,” said R.L. Rowsey.
BRITISH INVASION POP STAR DIES
Chad Stuart, half of the British pop duo Chad and Jeremy, died last week at his home in Hailey of non-COVID pneumonia.
Stuart and Jeremy Clyde rocketed to stardom in the 1960s by combining their sweet harmony on such songs as “A Summer Song,” “Yesterday’s Gone” “Willow Weep for Me” and “Distant Shores.”
They disbanded in 1968 and, after trying his hand in Hollywood, Stuart shucked the rat race of southern California to follow the late actor David Hemmings to the Wood River Valley in 1990.
The two reunited in 2004 for a PBS Sixties Pop Rock Reunion. And they spent that summer at Stuart’s home in Hailey prepping for a tour that took them as far afield as the Philippines. They also recorded a couple albums during that year together in Sun Valley and performed a benefit concert in Ketchum for a young guitarist that Stuart once taught that was battling for his life.
Stuart was also involved in a number of Sun Valley theatrical productions over the years, including Laughing Stock Theatre’s “Oliver” where he played Fagan.