Bartholomews selected festival's grand marshals

Tiffany Tuell

(Updated: Thursday, August 06, 2009, 7:24 PM)

Phil and Adele Bartholomew have been selected as Grand Marshals for the 2009 Heritage Days event that will be held Sept. 19.

Both have lived in Oakhurst and the surrounding areas their entire lives.

"The Bissetts and Bartholomews have been very instrumental in the development of Oakhurst," said Peggy Van Aman of Fresno Flats Historical Society.

Every year the historical society board chooses who they would like to honor during Heritage Days.

"The Bissett family has been here forever. They are a family with a lot of historical significance to our area and we are happy to be honoring the family," said Beverly Backer, a member of the historical society.

Adele Bissett Bartholomew was born in 1941 to cattle ranchers Lester and Elizabeth Bissett and attended first though eighth grade at Oakhurst Elementary School. Her mother was her teacher in fifth and sixth grade. She graduated from Sierra High in 1959 and received her teaching credential from Fresno State College.

She began working at Oakhurst Elementary in 1977 and took an early retirement in 1998.

For the past three years, she has been chairperson of the Little Church Foundation. The foundation raises money for restoration of the historic church in Oakhurst's Oakhill Cemetery and is responsible for the upkeep of the interior. The Little Church, dedicated in 1884, has special attachment to Adele Bartholomew. Her parents were married in the church and she attended there as a child.

Phil Bartholomew was born in Fresno in 1935. He was raised in Huntington Lake and Big Creek and graduated from Sierra High in 1953.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he received his bachelor of science degree in biology from Fresno State College in 1962. After graduation, he began his 45-year career as a fishery biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. Throughout his career he worked with county, state and federal agencies on various aquatic and fishery resource projects throughout Central California and the Sierra high country. He laid the ground work for the Bass Lake boat ramp extension, allowing boats to launch in the winter. Following that improvement, the department began planting catchable-size rainbow trout at Bass Lake in the winter.

"I remember coming across a fisherman on Kaweah River and I asked him how he was doing," said Bartholomew. "The fisherman told me he had fished his whole life and this was the first time he was going home with his limit of trout. He said he threw back anything that was not a trout. When I asked if I could see his catch, he had 10 non-edible suckers, not trout. I'm pretty sure he threw all the trout back. I simply said, 'That sure is a fine bunch of fish you have there.' "

The Bartholomews even had a couple of floats in the Mountaineer Days parade years ago, according to Adele Bartholomew. Their blacksmith float won first place but, according to a judge, it wasn't the float that won but their two daughters, Mary and Lisa, ages four and six, on board the float.

The Bartholomews have been involved in many organizations in the area over the years including the Oakhurst Friends of the Library, Sierra High School Alumni Association and the Sierra Historic Sites Association.

Phil Bartholomew was previously vice president of the SHSA and chairman of the Friends of the Library.

Adele Bartholomew is current president of Madera County Cattle Women and is on the California Cattle Women's Board of Directors.

"We were very surprised and honored," Adele Bissett Bartholomew said about the selection as Heritage Days Grand Marshals.

Heritage Days will be celebrated Sept. 19 with a parade, sluice box derby, county fair, petting zoo and barbecue.

Details: Sierra Historical Sites Association, (559) 683-6570.