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A Tribute to Mort Gaines
Mort
Gaines, father of Mono Lake Committee founder David Gaines, passed away
on June 5 of this year. It was Mort and his wife Edie, who survives him,
who first brought David to the Eastern Sierra. By fostering David's love
of nature, they are in many ways responsible for the protection that
Mono Lake enjoys today.
Mort's
brother Richard recently shared this essay with us, reflecting on Mort
and his life, and we share it here with you.
A TRIBUTE TO MY BROTHER
Mortimer Bernard Gaines
24 May 1913 – 05 June 2005
Most of you who have supported The Mono Lake Committee will remember my
brother, Mort, as the father of the late David Gaines (Founder, with his
wife Sally, of the Committee to Save Mono Lake) and a regular attendee
at Mono Lake gatherings such as the Bucket Walk. I knew him in another
role as my older brother and surrogate father.
My brother was not a celebrity nor was he someone who was well known
outside of his inner circle of family, friends, and those with whom he
was associated in business. The world of importance for him was his
immediate family, his wife, Edith, his two children, David and Karen,
and his grandchildren, Vireo, Sage and Dylan, and, of course, his
original family before he married which consisted of his mother, Ruth,
his kid brother, me, his sister, Grace, and our Aunt Esther. These were
the people who were the focus of his life.
He was twelve years older than me and became my surrogate father after I
turned nine. He was the man-in-the-house to whom I looked for guidance,
help, and encouragement. He bought my first two wheel bicycle, first
gasoline powered model airplane, and first electric train set. When we
lived in Minnesota, he taught me how to fish, took me out on Christmas
Lake and Lake Minnetonka with a bucket of minnows to catch wall-eyed
pike. In the snowy Minneapolis winters, he showed me how to run and jump
on my sled and slide down the hill.
He didn’t write any books or screen plays nor was he a sports hero, but
the values by which he lived his life were etched in my mind and he was
always the model that I wanted to emulate in life. He was there for me
and for everyone in our family when we needed him. When he was a
traveling salesman during the Great Depression, he would take me with
him on a trips to San Diego. He taught me how to drive when I was only
14, two years before you could get a learner’s permit in California. On
those trips, he introduced me to the BLT sandwich and chocolate
milkshakes.
Of course, he wasn’t perfect, but he was always my Big Brother whom I
idolized during my childhood and adolescence. He kept our family afloat
during the Great Depression by working hard at whatever job was
available for him and when he was called to do his part in World War II,
he did his duty despite his personal hatred for war.
He was a member of what NBC Television News Anchor Tom Brokaw called the
Great Generation. As a staff Sargent in the 30th Armored Calvary
Division, he went ashore in Normandy at Omaha Beach, was among the first
Americans to enter Belgium and the first to enter Germany at Aachen. I
remember staying up all night at the Kaneohe Naval Air Station in Hawaii
listening to the radio when the Normandy landings took place because my
intuition told me my brother was there. He survived many of the major
battles in France, Belgium and Germany and came home for his happiest
moment when his wife, Edith, was waiting dockside for him.
I can’t close this tribute to my brother without a special word about
his wife, Edith. Her devotion to him during his final months of life
bore witness to the love she had for him. She gave him every ounce of
her loving care as his life slowly ebbed away. Mort died as he would
have wanted, peacefully in his own home with wife and daughter at his
side.
On June 19th of this year Edith, Sally Gaines, Mort’s Granddaughter
Vireo Gaines, and my daughter, Susan Gaines, gathered where Lee Vining
Creek flows into Mono Lake and paid tribute to both my brother, Mort,
and his late son, David. It was fitting that this tribute once again
brought Father and Son together in the spirit of the Lake they both
loved so very much.
I shall miss my brother, Mort, for the rest of my life.
Richard Gaines,
Member, Mono Lake Committee
Windsor, California
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