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Edith Renee Tedrick
July 21, 1945-September 17, 2020

Edith (Edie) Renee Tedrick, age 75 of Ely, passed away peacefully Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Edie was born July 21, 1945 in Ely to Lillian and Tom Richards. She was a graduate of Ely Memorial High School class of 1963. Edie married Dennis Tedrick on February 15th 1964. Together they had two sons, Gary and Pete.

Edie was an active member of the Ely community. She was a devoted member of the Ely United Methodist Church, where she enjoyed making pasties and knitting prayer shawls. She was an active member of the Eastern Stars and also was an Ely City Council Member.

by Tom Coombe

At least one resident of an Ely assisted living facility has died from COVID-19, and four deaths were reported there over the weekend.

A news release issued Tuesday by Carefree Living reported “with a heavy heart, four resident deaths within our community."

The news release did not identify COVID-19 as a cause of death, but an obituary notice indicated that the death of one of the residents, an 83-year-old woman from Ely, was attributed to the virus.

Local health officials indicated last week that there has been “an outbreak" of COVID-19 cases as the Ely assisted living facility, involving both residents and at least one staff member. Since Aug. 27, the cumulative count of COVID-19 cases within the Ely 55731 zip coded climbed from nine to 21, with several cases attributed to Carefree.

Roy Clarence Carlson, 93, of Ely, died on Friday, September 11, 2020 at Carefree Living in Ely.
He was born on May 14, 1927, the son of Waldemar and Anna (Hendrickson) Carlson. He grew up in Tower where he attended school. He served in the Army in Korea during 1945. He worked for Tomahawk Timber, then 30 years at Reserve Mining as a foreman before retiring at the age of 57.
Roy was united in marriage to Katherine Preblich on August 30, 1952 in Ely. They established their home in Ely, where they raised their four children.

We’re looking for a little normal right now.
Last weekend we looked at the shack. Former Ely eye doc Mike Saxerud moved out west 16 years ago. He’s been back a few times and on this trip he brought his 17 year-old daughter Lily.
While she may not remember her birth place, she has heard many stories of Ely and wanted to meet those her father talks about.
I was fortunate enough to be on the list. Mike and Lily were only in town for a few days so we tried to make the best of our time together.
Our first task was to get Lily driving a wheeler. She did great, first we stopped by the lake and had the landing to ourselves. Mike and I caught up on life while Lily took to catching a frog on the shoreline.
Mike said Lily won a lottery in the fourth grade when she was one of the students chosen for a classroom in the forest. The school district has a forest where a teacher takes a group of fourth graders out in the woods for real world learning.

Ready or not, ATV riders will invade the Ely area this coming weekend as part of ATV Minnesota’s Fall Ride and Rally.
The Prospector ATV Club is hosting this year’s event that had to be toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We had to scale back for this year’s event but next year we will be hosting again so we’ll get a chance to really put on a show,” said
Prospector ATV Club president Nick Wognum.
The event kicks off Friday with a pancake breakfast outside at Timber Hall with a VIP ride from Embarrass to Tower to following including an outdoor catered lunch from Fortune Bay Resort and Casino.
Later on Friday the city of Ely will hold a ribbon cutting at the Ely Trailhead Project starting at 4 p.m. On Saturday there’s a 12-pack of rides for ATV riders to choose from as they head
out on the trails.

by Tom Coombe
After steering clear for several months, COVID-19 is making its presence felt in the Ely area with a sizable jump in new cases, including 12 in the last two weeks.
The latest statistics re- leased by the Minnesota Department of Health and St. Louis County show that 21 residents of the 55731 zip code have tested positive for the coronavirus since March.
But that number was just nine as of Aug. 27, and classified at “five or less” the week before.
Those numbers have since been on the rise, in
part because of cases linked to the Carefree Living as- sisted living facility near the hospital.
“We have an outbreak at Carefree,” Ely physician Joe Bianco said Tuesday.
But Bianco added that the growth in cases “is not just CareFree. There are other cases with other stories behind them.”
Merle Sampson, who owns the CareFree facil- ity, said last week that a staff member and two resi- dents had tested positive for COVID-19.

Raymond Alexander Nickolson, 86, passed away Saturday, September 12th at Carefree Living in Ely MN. He died among caretakers who put their lives at risk every day to make dying during this horrendous time a little less painful. COVID-19 took his life a little sooner than his body wanted but his mind was ready to let go. We are comforted in knowing his struggle with dementia is finally over and he can now be at peace.
He was an up north native, born in Two harbors, raised in Robinson, and lived most of his life in Ely. He met his wife, Veronica, in Ely and they spent many years together in Robinson with Ray’s family, eventually settling into their home in Ely with their daughter Ruth.

Anita Peterson, 82 of Ely died Saturday, September 12, 2020 with family by her side. She was born on July 11, 1939 in Menahga, MN to Harry and Francelia Luukkonen. She graduated from Ely H.S. She was married to Earl Palmer Peterson for 47 years. She worked as a beautician and enjoyed her flower gardens. She is survived by her sisters; Delores Potter of Ely, Jeanette (Dean) Theel of Nenana, Alaska, and Vicky Koski of Virginia, MN. Her brothers; Edwin (Judy) Luukkonen, Edward (Diane) Luukkonen, Alland Luukkonen all of Ely. She was preceded in death by her husband and parents. Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, September 16 at 1pm at the Ely Cemetary. Family arrangements have been entrusted to Kerntz Funeral Home.
Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 1:00 pm at the Ely Cemetery. Family arrangements have been entrusted to Kerntz Funeral Home of Ely.

Gloria Smuk, lifelong resident of Ely, passed away at Carefree Living on September 11, 2020. Sadly she was a victim of COVID-19.
She was born on June 13, 1939 to Peter & Marcella Bianchi of Ely. She married William Smuk on October 29, 1955. She was a member of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. She raised five children and lost two daughters to cancer.
Gloria was very active in her community. Starting with PTA and then President of many organizations; VFW Auxiliary, Slovenian women, Yugoslav National Home, and also volunteering at the church for many positions. She worked at Barbara Ann Bakery and catered many events. She worked as a “lunch lady” at the Ely school for many years and later Northern Expressions.

by Nick Wognum
The leaves are turning, the temperatures are dropping and DNR wildlife manager Tom Rusch out of Tower gave his outlook on the fall hunting seasons in the Ely area.
Bears
The bear season started on Sept. 1 and the DNR expects it to be a good year.
“The bottom line is St. Louis, Lake and Cook counties were in a severe drought all of May and June and it wiped out all the summer bear foods. No blueberries, raspberries or pin cherries,” said Rusch.
“That’s why when you have a drought, you lose your summer foods and that correlates with extreme bear complaints and that’s what I have all summer. And since I’m short staffed we don’t have the response time.”
Rusch said the DNR has had to authorize shooting two bears that were entering houses.
“Cabin and house break ins happen when you have nuisance bears and generally that’s August, this year it’s been all summer.