An Evening with Legendary Thea Foss Featuring Local Storyteller and Film

Thea Foss, a legendary Tacoma historical figure, will come to life in Browns Point in person and on film at an evening gathering Wed, March 25 at 7pm at the BPIC Clubhouse–co-sponsored by BPIC and Points Northeast Historical Society.

 The amazing story of Thea Foss, who founded Foss Tugboat company in 1912, and whose name is honored today on Thea Foss Waterway and Thea’s Park in Tacoma, will be reenacted live by Karen Haas, an accomplished storyteller, musician, and historian as well as an experienced teacher and museum educator. She is active locally in re-enactments at northwest historic sites such as Fort Nisqually, Whitman Mission National Historic Site and San Juan Islands National Historic Park and is on Humanities Washington’s Inquiring Minds speakers list.

Complementing this live performance will also be the showing and discussion of an award-wining video, “Finding Thea.” which artfully portrays this Norwegian immigrant who arrived in Tacoma in a 1889, took her place in a man’s world, and through her life and work became a pioneer archetype for women in the first half of the twentieth century. (See: www.FindingThea.com] One reviewer wrote: “…Two state of Washington filmmakers [Nancy Bourne Haley, Lucy Ostrander] smoothly combined old photos, old moving–picture film including clips from the pre–WWII Hollywood films featuring Marie Dressler’s ‘Tugboat Annie,’… and current video to tell Thea’s story with imagination and considerable insight.”

 The program, provided free, is another in a projected series of presentations exploring local history and featuring the Historical Society’s famous variety of homemade cookies.

Please provide ideas for speakers or topics for future programs and interested in helping to organize (or baking cookies) jimharnish@comcast.net. 927-6019.