It’s a little place, really…Orting that its.  Little, but not without it’s impact on us.

There was Tony Cammarano; during the first World War he started what was to become the Mazza Cheese company when Charles Mazza took it over in 1929. Charles’ son, Louie bought the operation in 1934 and ran it with his son, Edward, and wife, Darlyne, until he retired in 1974.   Though Darlyne took over the reins, she relied heavily on Louie’s assistance until his death in 1977.

In 1963, the company was still in Orting and marketed to the Pacific Coast from California to Alaska.  Enid Bennett worked in the plant then.

In 1989 the company moved to a 95,000 sq. foot plant in Sumner processing 1.2 million pounds of milk and 1 million pounds of whey per day and was featured in a 1990 issue of Food Engineering Magazine, and then, 

Mazza Cheese plant, built in 1989

they disappeared.  In 1991 overwhelming financial difficulties led to Mazza’s sale to Beatrice Cheese which about that time became a property of ConAgra.  Today, the building houses Shining Ocean, Inc., a company specializing in Japanese style seafood products.

There was Casy Carrigan, a 1969 graduate of Orting High School, who was a pole vaulting member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team in Mexico City.  Unfortunately, he was disqualified when his pole fell forward, breaking the plane of the bar, even though the bar remained in place.  There was an appeal claiming that an assistant actually knocked the pole forward, but the ruling stood.  That rule that was changed the following May.  The event did nothing to blunt the pride in this elite athlete’s accomplishments.

public domain photo

A self taught vaulter who trained without a coach, at home, in Orting. He began to seriously pursue the sport in 5th grade; his Dad would take 8 mm films of collage vaulters for him to study and his brother Andy got him into weightliftng.  In 2004 he still held the the state high school record of 17′ 4 3/4″, although he cleared 17′ 10 3/4″ when preparing for the ’76 Olympics. Unfortunately, an Achilles tendon injury ended his pole vaulting career.

In 1995 he married his wife, Dione, and by 2004 he was captain of the Long Beach, CA, Fire Dept.

1990 Mrs. Washington USA Pageant – Photo courtesy of Mrs. USA Pageant

In 1986, Jackie McMahon was crowned Miss Washington.  She came from an Orting family; parents Jack and Judy (Wright) McMahon were both Ortng High graduates and Jackie followed in their footsteps.  She graduated cum laude and went on to Seattle Pacific University to study law, then returned to Orting where she maintains a law practice today.

In 1990, Jackie continued her pageant activities; she was in the top 10 competitors of the 1990 Mrs. Washington America pageant.

From food, to athletics, to aesthetics and on to music.

Born to John and Doris Buckingham, in Seattle, WA, in 1923,  Bonnie Buckingham was raised in Redondo Beach, WA, later moving to Auburn.  Around the late ’60’s she lived on an 82 acre ranch outside Orting.

Her Dad, and her uncle Bert were both fiddlers and her brothers took turns playing an old flat-top Gibson Guitar.  They had it to themselves until Bonnie turned thirteen, then passed it on to her.  She stepped up the game competing in local talent shows, winning her first at Seattle’s Rialto Theater.

More talent shows followed; touring the region with a musical review during the depression she honed her skills and developed her talent and by 1942 she took the stage name Bonnie Lane.  She studied with several prominent local pickers, including Paul Tutmarc. By 1943 Tutmac, 27 years older than Bonnie, became not only her instructor, but her husband.  They were together until 1955 and had daughter Paula, (who became a performer in her own right), in 1950.

Working together, Bonnie and Paul were recruited into a country group called the K-6 Wranglers who had a radio show on KVI from 1944-1947.  They played venues like the Eagles Nest Lounge–above the old Eagles Auditorium–and the Silver Dollar Tavern. Bonnie also guested with several orchestra’s; Abe Brashen’s, Wyatt Howard’s and Norm Hoagy’s as examples.

Record deals, concert dates with folks like the Everly Brothers, the Del Vikings, Jerry Lee Lewis and others followed.  Appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch and the Grand Ol’ Opry; even the Ed Sullivan show.  She played with Eddy Arnold, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Marty Robbins…and the list goes on.

At some point she hooked up with record producer Fabor Robinson of Fabor Records.  He convinced her that she needed a more marketable stage name and Bonnie Guitar was born.  She was a ground breaker in the industry, moving into numerous positions not previously open to women.  At the same time, recording tunes like; Honeycomb  and That See Me Later Look.  In 2007 she did an acoustic home video version of Shenandoah,  along with some friends and daughter, Paula, which includes conversation about playing this song for a special gig at Antoine’s, (now Mama Stortini’s), in Puyallup.

In Orting, she married Mario DiPiano and they raised quarter horses on the ranch outside Orting together, but she never fully left the music scene.  Some time after Mario’s death in 1983 she took a gig in Soap lake, WA and subsequently moved there. She lives there still; she turned 89 on March 25th,  and her music lives on.