Karen R Cottrell
I first met Karen Rose McAfee in the spring of 1964. She was
staying with her sister in California to help with a yet unborn child. I, Larry
Cottrell, was visiting with my sister who lived on the same street. We were
both 19 years old. She had suffered a nose bleed and she and her sister came to
my sisters house for assistance.
Our first date was to try to find a Apricot colored Mouse
that I intended to use to catch a nearby Kestrel. It was obvious to me that she
was a bit different from most girls as she was interested and anxious to
participate in such an adventure.
I was able to eventually get my first Kestrel and Karen was
an active participant in her training. It wasn't long before she also wanted to
work with Raptors, and I was hopelessly in love with her.
We married in January of 1965, and shortly there after moved
to Oregon. She followed me to Alaska, and North Carolina, after I had joined
the Army. After my hitch was completed, we again moved to Oregon.
After our return to Oregon, we both got serious about
falconry, and continued our self education of the practice. At the time there
was no recognized falconry in Oregon. Raptors were held with a "holding
permit" costing $1.00. That didn't last long as there were more and more
people interested in the sport. Eventually ODFW decided that hunting with hawks
was illegal.
A group of interested falconers met in Eugene to see if we
could get the state to allow falconry. We elected a President, Ben Elliot, and
he and his wife managed to get the legislature to agree to allow falconry if we
would pay our own way in the administrative costs. The legislature set a price
of either $125.00 or $150.00. per year. We paid it, and thus began the slow
fight to get better regulations.
I became the next President, and it was my job to make the
regulations, reasonable. While I appeared as the figurehead,
Karen's job was just as important as was mine. She worked tirelessly to help me
with the endless letters, presentations, and meetings in which she played her
part with the officials that were impressed just because she also was a
falconer. At that time there were very few women that were capable falconers. Words cannot possibly convey the things that she did for Oregon Falconry, that would have been so much more difficult without her.
As time went on, and regulations improved, club membership
began to increase. Karen was a bit of a role model for young women that also
wanted to be falconers. She served as President, Secretary, Treasurer as well
as regional director for Oregon Falconers Association. She hosted many meets,
feeding hungry falconers as well as hawking herself. She flew Accipiters,
Harris Hawks, Prairies, Hybrids and Peregrines. I think her most valued moment of recognition, was her "Honorary" membership in Washington's "No Mercy Hawking Club".
In the last few years her heart began to wear out. She could
no longer make the physical effort required for falconry. She compensated by
driving along as I hunted my Harris. It wasn't much, but she was out there
doing the best she could. She agreed to a heart valve replacement, the second,
in the hopes that she would again have the stamina to go hawking.
Unfortunately it did not work out. Her heart failed Jan 31, 2018.
