Slain men honored, one year later

By Sol Cranfill

July 3, 2000 Web posted at: 9:56 AM EDT (1356 GMT)

REDDING, California (Redding Record Searchlight) -- On a lawn outside the Carter House Natural Science Museum in Redding on Saturday, the same museum Gary Matson and former wife Marcia Howe founded in the 1970s, several hundred people gathered to remember Matson and his partner, Winfield Mowder.

It was one year ago July 1 that Matson, 50 and Mowder, 40, were found shot to death inside their Happy Valley home.

They were honored on the first anniversary of their slayings in an event organizers hope will become an annual event. The Celebration of Life and Diversity was organized by the Matson-Mowder Pride Alliance and other groups dedicated to tolerance.

Many of those who attended the event at Caldwell Park were friends, acquaintances or relatives of Matson and Mowder.

"I knew Gary through Carter House when I was a docent," said Marlys Richman, 75, of Cottonwood. "I didn't know him as well as I knew Gary but he (Mowder) was a wonderful person too."

The featured speaker, Renee Mullins, whose father James Byrd Jr., was dragged to death in Texas behind a pickup, was unable to attend due to conflicts, said Jonathan Bernstein of the Anti-Defamation League office in San Francisco.

But the celebration went on, before an estimated crowd of 400 to 500 who gathered on the lawn next to the river to listen to speakers and enjoy dancing and music.

Speakers included Howe; Brian Matson, brother of Gary Matson; Charlie Menoher, superintendent of Shasta County Schools; Shasta County Supervisor Molly Wilson; and others.

Leading the evening's events were dancers, ages 2 to 17, from the Fancy Dance Troupe of the Local Indians For Education center in Shasta Lake. The troupe performed tribal dances to chanting and beating of drums played by the Mountain Water Singers drum group.

The dance's purpose was "to let everyone know that there's still culture," dancer Andrena Simmons, 16, of Redding said.

"There's one race: the human race," said Michon Eben, 31, of Shasta Lake, who coordinated the troupe's dancing.

After that, Roberta Watson, a Jewish member of the community, taught the crowd how to dance a Jewish dance.

During the event, scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m., Isaac Lowe, 78, of Redding remembered back to 1950, when she was president of the Shasta County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"That's how long I've been fighting violence and racism," Lowe said. "The biggest problem is the hate and the violence that comes along."

Next week, a work day will take place at a garden, also started by Matson, across the Sacramento River from the Carter House Natural Science Museum. Soon, a speaker said, the garden may be dedicated to Matson.

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