Ken McPherson is the creator of Story Lab West, a family/local history project. He is the son of Bob (1907-2005) and Ellen Laasko McPherson (1909-2002). The project is a compilation of photographs and oral history interviews of family members, chronicling the lives of Finnish immigrants living in the Pacific Northwest during the early 20th century.
Martha Sophia Laakso Christie was born on October 1st, 1907 in Winlock, WA, to parents Carl Wictor and Mary Familia Laakso. She married Stanton Earl Christie. She died in 2004.
Martha and Ellen Iida Laakso McPherson were the daughters of Carl Laakso, a Finnish immigrant and widowed father of six. After the death of Mary Familia Laakso, Carl married Anna Wirkkala, a widow who also had three children. Carl and Anna also had three children together. The couple also operated a dairy and poultry business, Standard Hatchery, during the Great Depression. Carl Laakso was a pioneer in the movement to establish co-operatives and was one of the first dairy men to use milking machines. He later became President and Appraiser of the local branch of the Federal Home Loan Association and Director of WASHCOEGG, the Cooperative Association for Western Washington poultrymen.
Five multimedia DVDs or CDs of interviews, interview transcripts, audio stories, photographs, music, and home movies relating to the history of the Laakso and McPherson families who lived in Washington and California, as well as one CD of the 1927 "Winolequock" yearbook. Also includes electronic files of family photographs and papers related to their lives, and interviews with transcripts.
Open to all users.
Creators' literary rights have not been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
Donor: Ken McPherson, 2013 and June 2024
Life story of Martha Sophia Laakso Christie (1907-2004) written by niece Mary Jane Moffat, accompanied by family photos, music, and brief excerpts from Ken McPherson's interview with Martha. Includes slide shows and a biographical section on Mary Jane. Many of the photographs included on this DVD were taken by Martha Laakso and Helen Wirkkala, as well as other members of the Laakso, McPherson, and Wirkkala families.
68 minutes. Full audio of Ken McPherson's 2001 interview with Martha Laakso about her early life and career. Interview is in three parts: The Laakso Farm, including a story about Ezra Meeker building a cabin on their property; Laaksos and Wirkkalas; and Leaving Home, including a story about working for the Office of Censorship during WWII. Many of the photographs included on this DVD were taken by Martha Laakso and Helen Wirkkala, as well as other members of the Laakso, McPherson, and Wirkkala families.
Audio interviews with Bob McPherson (1907-2005) as told to Ken McPherson in 2000 and 2002, accompanied by family photographs and music. Describes McPherson's life before meeting his wife Ellen Laakso, including life in Seattle from 1915 to 1925.
DVD of interview with Ellen Laakso McPherson that took place in October 2000, as well as photographs
CD with color scans of the 1927 Winolequock yearbook
70 electronic files. Scans of Ellen McPherson's 1927 yearbook from Winlock High School.
4 electronic files. Carl Laakso's oldest daughter, Esther, was the Laakso family's first historian and several letters in this folder record significant events in the early life of the Laakso family.
6 electronic files. Video recordings of Ken McPherson's interviews in Oakland, CA in April 2024 with his Aunts Carolyn Laakso Curran and Pearl Laakso Russo and Cousin Jeanine Laakso Iturbide (a graduate of UW). Links to audio interviews with his Mother, Ellen, and Father, Bob (W.R.) McPherson and Aunt Martha Laakso Christie, edited into movies made from those interviews.
8 electronic files.
9 electronic files. Images related to Laakso family genealogy.
12 electronic files. Daughter of Esther Laakso Pitts, publications, photographs, articles, narration, etc. – "An acclaimed author, teacher and lecturer", who taught memoir writing at Cal Tech, San Francisco State and DeAnza College and, at Martha's request, wrote her eulogy; who was also an actress, playing Juliette in Romeo and Juliette at the Ashland, Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
1 electronic file, "The LIfe and Times of Carl Laakso Chapters 1 & 2"
3 electronic files. Arvid (Slim) Leppaluoto grew up in the Laakso family and started Inland Navigation and Upper Columbia River Towing, 2 major lines of tugboats operating on the Columbia River. He became a mentor to many in the family, among them Carl Laakso's son Carl, his grandson Jerry Paul and his great grandson, Kris, all 3 of whom became tugboat pilots. Ken and his brother, Bob, both worked summer jobs as deckhands on Slim's tugboats
15 electronic files. Transcripts of interviews with Bob McPherson, Ellen, Martha, Carolyn, Jeanine and Pearl Laakso. Transcript of Mary Jane Moffat's biography of Martha Laakso, used as narration for Martha's Story.
4 electronic files. "The Big Egg and The Poultry Industry in Winlock, Washington During the 20th Century", 1994, 2004, by a member of one of the founding families (along with Carl Laakso) of the Washington Co-operative Egg and Poultry Association, once under the direction of Carl Laakso, and seen an example of "The Co-operative Movement" that Laakso championed; also, a photograph of the WashCoEgg building and its employees in the 1924 WashCoEgg Newsletter, including a brief autobiographical summary by Carl Laakso.