Yachats community will gather Sunday, Nov. 20 to throw Don Dougherty a going-away 65th birthday bash

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

YACHATS – Don Dougherty is getting a birthday party and a sendoff.

Dougherty, 64, who lived in and around Yachats for the last 30 years, died Friday, Oct. 28 at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport after being found unresponsive in his car parked outside the Yachats Post Office where he had been living.

Dougherty would have turned 65 on Sunday, Nov. 20 so Bob Barrett, pastor of Yachats Community Church, and Dougherty’s friends are organizing a celebration of life from 5-7 p.m. in the Yachats Commons on his birthday.

“Several local restaurants have agreed to cook for the occasion, there will be good food, good music and good conversation,” Barrett said in a Facebook post announcing the event. “We hope you will come and share your memories.”

Barrett said community members are also working on other ways to remember Dougherty with “more details to follow soon.”

Dougherty had been in declining health the past few months. He contracted the Covid-19 virus a few weeks ago, said Joan Davies, a longtime acquaintance and manager of the Yachats Visitors Center. Susie Adams, the bar manager at the Underground Pub, said Dougherty had gone to the Veterans Administration hospital in Portland a few weeks ago, but came back discouraged about his health.

“He was very proud and didn’t want to go to the doctor,” Adams said Friday. “He didn’t look good the last couple of weeks. I think he knew he was dying.”

Dougherty was born Nov. 20, 1957, in Oceanside, Calif. to Barbara and Daniel Dougherty. His father died in 2008 in Prescott, Ariz. His mother, Barbara McKinley, now lives in Chillicotte, Mo. He is also survived by two sisters, Debra Ward, Darla Davis, and a brother, Doug Dougherty.

Don Dougherty was an Air Force veteran and never married.

McKinley and Davis told YachatsNews Friday evening that they appreciated how the Yachats community accepted their son and brother and looked out for him over the many years.

“Everybody who is homeless has a family,” McKinley said. “He knew were everybody was … we knew where he was and he knew where we were.”

An outpouring of memories

Word of his death spread rapidly through the Yachats community last week, including remembrances on the Yachats residents Facebook page and around the tables at the nearby Underground Pub, where Don would regularly stop by to chat and do odd jobs.

The car in which he had lived, an Oldsmobile sedan given to him by Sage Parks of Yachats a year ago, turned into a small shrine with signs, flowers and battery-powered candles.

“Today we remember Don, who cared so deeply for this community,” said one sign taped to the car’s windshield.

Parks, a partner in the Saint Perpetua Patio restaurant, said she gave him the Oldsmobile when his other car no longer functioned and he “needed a place to sleep.”

“We loved him very much,” Parks said. “He looked out for this community.”

Over the years Dougherty worked as a mechanic, did odd jobs, collected bottle and cans and more recently signed up for Social Security benefits. Over the years 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.

His mother said he wanted to live near the ocean and resisted efforts to find what others considered stable housing. “Don was doing what Don wanted to do,” McKinley said.

“He was genius smart,” said Davis, his sister. “… but with all that smart, you always wondered what was going on in there.”

If there was a party, gathering or community potluck Dougherty would show up, said Barrett, and hang in the background. He would soon be encouraged to step up and get a meal.

“He always showed up where there was food,” Barrett said, “and he was always welcomed.”

David Horst of Yachats considers himself one of Dougherty’s best friends because he was always willing to listen.

“He’d talk your ear off and sometimes you’d feel like you came in the middle of a deep conversation,” Horst said. “He’d sit in his car and read constantly … and it was complicated stuff.

“He didn’t like the bureaucracy and he never wanted to be inside,” Horst said. “All his issues were understood. He had a mental illness that as acceptable.”

People around Yachats 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. Law enforcement seemed to understand and looked the other way.

Barrett said Dougherty mixed with other homeless around Yachats or those traveling through. He could point out to church members helping the homeless who would likely cause problems. “He was rarely wrong,” Barrett said. “He was a good judge of people.”

Barrett and others said it will be different not seeing Dougherty around town.

“He was part of Yachats,” Barrett said, “and lived and died on his own terms.”

• Quinton Smith is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com