Sally and Mike Wiley at their East Valley home, which they've sold in preparation to move to Oregon in mid-June.
One native Nevadan is back in the Silver State in time for Nevada Day after spending the last year or so up in Oregon.
Gold Star Mom Sally Wiley was born in Winnemucca and lived in Carson Valley for years.
Sally moved to Oregon two years ago, but after losing Mike last year hankered to be back in Carson Valley.
She’s living at the Chateau with her little dog and reconnecting with old friends.
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Jerry Hylton, who taught school in Mono County for three decades, stopped by the office on Friday to pick up some editions that included Bob Ellison’s story on the movie, “Charley Varrick.”
Jerry said that in the early 1980s he was driving through Hope Valley when he saw a knot of trucks and vehicles near Pickett’ Junction. He stopped to find out what was going on and stumbled across the filming of the Robin Williams’ movie “Survivor.”
He said Williams spotted him and asked who he was, and he told the actor that he was traveling to California to videotape the Coleville boys basketball team.
“He said, ‘basketball, cheerleaders,’ and then he went into a cheerleading routine,” Jerry said. “It asked if I could tape it to show my fourth graders and they said, ‘sorry, no.’”
I watched that movie when I was in the Navy and it was the first time I’d heard the connection to Hope Valley, and Kingsbury Grade, according to an ad for the Meadowdale Theater. That Williams and Walter Matthau stayed at Sorensen’s for the shoot is apparently part of the lore of that place.
Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Reach him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or 775-782-5122.
