By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
YACHATS – Don Dougherty’s friends – at least 150 of them — and family came out to his 65th birthday party Sunday evening, although several said he would have balked at the attention.
They shared a meal, a drink or two, listened to “Birthday” by the Beatles and “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull – and told stories of how Yachats’ longtime resident impacted the community.
Dougherty died Oct. 28 after being found unresponsive in his car parked outside the Yachats Post Office where he had been living. He had been without a house for the more than 30 years he lived in Yachats.
But as several said Sunday, Dougherty was not without a home.
“I loved Don. It’s clear that you all loved Don,” said Bob Barrett, pastor of Yachats Community Presbyterian Church who helped close friend David Horst organize the birthday party and remembrance. “Don may have been houseless, but he was not homeless.”
Don’s mother, Barbara McKinley and sister, Darla Davis, arrived Friday in Yachats with Davis’ two sons. They mingled with the crowd, oftentimes overcome with emotion, and heard from individuals what their son and brother meant to the community.
“I thought he was a lost soul,” Davis told the audience during a brief, tearful address. “But he had a safe harbor. He was blessed. You have made me believe in the good of people again.”
McKinley said people often asked why Don’s family didn’t relocate him to the Midwest.
“There wasn’t a day we didn’t think about him,” his mother said. “But we knew he had his family right here.”
Declining health
Dougherty had been in declining health the past few months, catching the Covid-19 virus a few weeks before he died. The Air Force veteran also went to the Veterans Administration hospital in Portland, friends said, but came back discouraged about his health.
Dougherty was born Nov. 20, 1957, in Oceanside, Calif. to Barbara and Daniel Dougherty. His father died in 2008. McKinley and Davis live in Chillicotte, Mo. He is also survived by a sister, Debra Ward, and a brother, Doug Dougherty.
Over the years Dougherty worked as a mechanic, did odd jobs, collected bottle and cans and more recently signed up for Social Security benefits. He lived in his car, in a lean-to behind the current SeaNote restaurant, inside the Underground’s new addition, in a camp trailer he had for awhile, and a long time ago, under the Landmark restaurant.
People around Yachats generally understood Dougherty didn’t want to have a traditional living situation. Although his vehicles were stuffed with his belongings, there were rarely complaints or problems.
The birthday party
The crowd at Sunday’s party was a mix of longtime Yachats residents, friends and members of the area’s homeless community. Horst met Dougherty 8-9 years ago and “became the best of friends.”
“I’d say I’m a brother from a different mother,” Horst said, choking back emotions as he told a story about Dougherty’s ability to collect discarded cigarettes and roll his own.
“Don was an amazing intellect,” Horst said. “He could hold a conversation about anything.”
Other’s told stories of Dougherty’s kindness, fixing and sharing bicycles, jokeful nature, and eccentricities.
Keith Johnson of Willows, Calif. was Dougherty’s best friend growing up in Carlsbad, Calif. and shared stories of them doing what boys did in the 1970s. Later, Johnson said, Dougherty came to live with him in Riverside, Calif. but that didn’t last and they lost touch for the next 35 years.
Seven years ago Johnson tracked his friend down in Yachats and came to visit.
“We saw him. It was emotional. We both shed a tear,” Johnson said, and again asked him to return to California to live. Dougherty simply answered, “Why would I? I’m happy here,” Johnson said.
“I love all you people for putting up with him and being there for him,” Johnson said.
Legacy lives on
Dougherty may be gone, but his legacy will live on in Yachats.
A cemetery plot and gravestone have been donated, although Barrett and Dougherty’s family have small jars containing his ashes. Underground Pub patrons are collecting money for a commemorative bench to be put in the small patch of grass at the corner of Beach and Pontiac streets.
Yachats Community Presbyterian Church is setting up an emergency, bad-weather homeless shelter in its west parking lot with $70,000 from the city of Yachats, the help of volunteers, and the donation of one year of operating expenses by a Yachats family.
“We have decided to call it “Don’s Place,” Barrett announced, to claps and cheers from the audience.
Thank you so much Quinton