- Date
- 1979-08
- Kind
- Celebration
- Followed by
- Beaver Island Homecoming weekend program, 1980
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- celebrationcommunityheritagereligion
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The 1979 Beaver Island Homecoming weekend included a dance, a chicken-and-whitefish barbecue dinner, raffles, and the Annual Homecoming Invitational Softball Tournament sponsored by McDonough’s Store. Erber Auto of Charlevoix won the softball tournament over the Beaver Island team, which finished as runners-up. No exact date is given in the source, which is a late-summer recap issue rather than a dated announcement or report.
Program
Dance. “As usual, the dance was a ‘ball.’” No musicians or venue named.
Dinner. A “Chicken-Whitefish Barbeque Dinner,” reported “a huge success.”
Raffles. Basket of Joy won by Walker Hill; an Irish-colors afghan won by Liz Lafreniere.
Softball. The Annual Homecoming Invitational Softball Tournament, sponsored by McDonough’s store, which “provides the trophies for the winner, the runner-up, the special trophies as well as the individual players.” The Beaver Island team — Jim Wogan, Blake Vance, Bill McDonough, Dan McDonough, Jim McDonough, Tim McDonough, Tom McDonough, Richie Gillespie, John Hanley, Mike Green and Mark Lafreniere — finished runners-up to champions Erber Auto of Charlevoix. John Greene of Erber Auto was named MVP as pitcher; Tim McDonough of the Island team was the tournament’s home run champion; Kirk Lieberman of Erber Auto was batting champion at .666. Other teams: Flight Deck, Townhouse, C.R.E., Beebe’s G-Men, and the Sundew (a U.S. Coast Guard cutter’s team).
Evidence limits
No exact date is given for the 1979 Homecoming weekend; the source issue is
itself undated beyond “Summer, 1979” and reads as a retrospective published
after Labor Day. No venue is named for the dance or dinner, so
spatial_status is approximate. No organizing body is credited for the
dance or dinner (McDonough’s store is credited only as the softball
tournament’s sponsor, which this article records in prose rather than as
carried_out_by, since a retail sponsor of one sub-event is not the same as
an organizer of the day). No dollar total is reported.
Open questions
- What was the exact 1979 Homecoming date? The traditional “second Sunday in August” rule would place it on August 12, 1979, but no source states this directly.
- Where were the dance and dinner held? Not stated.
See also
Sources
- The issue's own masthead reads "SUMMER, 1979," and its editorial opens "It's hard to believe summer has come and gone already, but September is here" and is postmarked September 1979 — despite the filename's "06" key, its content is a late-summer recap, not a June report; this is noted as a corpus filing quirk, not corrected. Reports: "Homecoming weekend this year was full of lots of lively activity. As usual, the dance was a 'ball' and the Chicken-Whitefish Barbeque Dinner was a huge success. Winner of the basket of joy raffle was Walker Hill and the Irish colors afghan winner was Liz Lafreniere. Going on all weekend was the Annual Homecoming Invitational Softball Tournament. The tournament is sponsored by McDonough's store... Our Island team which consists of Jim Wogan, Blake Vance, Bill McDonough, Dan McDonough, Jim McDonough, Tim McDonough, Tom McDonough, Richie Gillespie, John Hanley, Mike Green, and Mark Lafreniere, were the runners-up... Erber Auto of Charlevoix ended up as the champions, with John Greene, pitcher for the team, being named as most valuable player. Tim McDonough of the Island team was the homerun champion, and Kirk Lieberman of Erber Auto was the batting champion with an average of .666 for the tournament." Other teams: Flight Deck, Townhouse, C.R.E., Beebe's G-Men, and the SUNDEW. No exact date is given for the weekend. Read in the in-repo data/ tree. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1979-06_Beaver-Beacon
- The held twelve-page Summer 1979 issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the Homecoming report.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1979-06_Beaver-Beacon
- Records that Grossel, three-times mayor of Harper Woods, died April 30, 1979, and "was in charge of the Homecoming Parade for a few years in the late 1950's, donating trophies for prizes." Cited here as the issue in which it appears; it documents the 1950s parade chairmanship discussed in the 1957 and 1958 edition articles, not the 1979 event itself. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1979-05_Beaver-Beacon
- The held ten-page May issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the historical Homecoming connection in Grossel’s obituary.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1979-05_Beaver-Beacon
Added 3 August 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 1979”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-homecoming-1979/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, "Summer, 1979" combined issue (filed as 1979-06), "Homecoming - 1979" report. (and 3 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 1979”RIS for “Beaver Island Homecoming weekend, 1979”