Former Idyllwild residents for 20 years Tillie and Earl Haarsager have died in Bakersfield. They were known to many locals at their lower Pine Crest Avenue home and through the 39ers Club, the Idyllwild Community Presbyterian Church, the Idyllwild Garden Club, the Mountain Quilters and as cribbage players. Mr. Haarsager was an electrician for 35…

Mary Ann Crocker, 62, a resident of Idyllwild for about 10 years, died at Hemet Valley Medical Center on Wednesday, March 29, 2000. Ms. Crocker was born Feb. 11, 1938, in South-gate in Los Angeles. She was a housewife most of her life but sang light opera between the ages of 19 and 22, and…

John Frederick Wanamaker, a former Idyllwild resident, died on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999. He had just returned from a 14-day trip to Turkey. Dr. Wanamaker, a world-renowned ornithologist, graduated from Principia College in Elsah, Ill., in 1939. He received his doctorate degree in conservation education at Cornell University. Dr. Wanamaker later returned to Principia College…

Leland M. Swanson, 82, of Hemet, died Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003, in Hemet. He was born the fourth of seven children to Rueben and Bernice Swanson on April 12, 1921, in Walla Walla, Wash. He graduated from WaHi in 1939. Mr. Swanson worked for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin as a paper carrier in his…

Jean Kowal Jerome died Nov. 28, 2010. She was born Sept. 9, 1927 in Janesville, Wis., the youngest of the six children of Harry and Mary Kowal. After graduating from Janesville High School in 1945, she showed the adventurous independent commitment to service that would guide her life by enrolling immediately in Walter Reed Army…

“Magic is the hearth where the welcome-fire burns — where joy lifts a beacon in the gathering night,” wrote Stephanie “Stefi” Marianne Chase, a published and prolific poet who fell deeply in love with Idyllwild, writing fondly about the mountains throughout the half-century she lived here. Stefi died about 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, 2005,…