Lorene Thompson married Clarence Reginald Law at the young age of 16 in 1921. He was 29 years old. She had a sister, Edith in Long Beach, CA. Lorene and Clarence had 3 children together. Robert Donald Law (Bob) in 1923, Doris (Doty) in 1925, and James Clarence Law in May of 1931. They operated dress shops in San Rafael, Santa Rosa, and Healdsburg, CA. for a few years until they went their separate ways. She later met and married Ken Ames, and together they ran the KENLOR MOTEL at 708 J Street in Crescent City Ca. It is now 90% burned down right now. The local fire department conducted training exercises and the place is torched to the ground all except for the office and manager's quarters. Crescent City used to be a small fishing and logging town on the California coast. Located just 20 miles south of the Oregon border. It's only main industry by now, happens to be the Calif. Dept. of Corrections Pelican Bay Maximum Security State Prison. One night, she happened to be at her motel with her visiting 11 year old grandson, Steve, on Good Friday in 1964. Suddenly a big Alaskan earthquake suddenly shook, sending a monstrous tidal wave down all along the coast that hit the town with a hellish fury. The whole downtown area was under water and pretty much wiped out. 11 people perished. Telephone service was completely knocked out, leaving virtually no communication with the outside world except for for a few Ham radio operators in the area. Traffic poured out onto highway 101, which was the only way in or out of town. The highway was like one long big parking lot. People were going absolutely nowhere in a hurry! While this was all going on, I left my motel room and quickly ran across the courtyard and pounded on her door to warn her about evacuating to higher ground. I had just saw an emergency news flash that interrupted a movie I was watching on TV. I was the visiting grandson. She eventually answered her door and I told her that we needed to get the car ready and get out of there real quick! She very calmly replied to me that the only thing that we needed to do was to just step onto the toilet and start flushing! She had a real sense of humor even under those adverse conditions. The motel survived the wave because it was located only a few blocks away from where the water finally receded back into the bay. Her husband Ken Ames died in the early sixties and Lorene eventually sold the motel in 1969. She moved down to Novato in Marin County to be closer to her family. Less than a year later, she died of cancer at the Novato Community Hospital in 1970 at the age of 65. She was laid to rest in a mausoleum just inside and to the left of the entrance gate to the cemetery at the end of Fifth Ave.
Lorene Thompson married Clarence Reginald Law at the young age of 16 in 1921. He was 29 years old. She had a sister, Edith in Long Beach, CA. Lorene and Clarence had 3 children together. Robert Donald Law (Bob) in 1923, Doris (Doty) in 1925, and James Clarence Law in May of 1931. They operated dress shops in San Rafael, Santa Rosa, and Healdsburg, CA. for a few years until they went their separate ways. She later met and married Ken Ames, and together they ran the KENLOR MOTEL at 708 J Street in Crescent City Ca. It is now 90% burned down right now. The local fire department conducted training exercises and the place is torched to the ground all except for the office and manager's quarters. Crescent City used to be a small fishing and logging town on the California coast. Located just 20 miles south of the Oregon border. It's only main industry by now, happens to be the Calif. Dept. of Corrections Pelican Bay Maximum Security State Prison. One night, she happened to be at her motel with her visiting 11 year old grandson, Steve, on Good Friday in 1964. Suddenly a big Alaskan earthquake suddenly shook, sending a monstrous tidal wave down all along the coast that hit the town with a hellish fury. The whole downtown area was under water and pretty much wiped out. 11 people perished. Telephone service was completely knocked out, leaving virtually no communication with the outside world except for for a few Ham radio operators in the area. Traffic poured out onto highway 101, which was the only way in or out of town. The highway was like one long big parking lot. People were going absolutely nowhere in a hurry! While this was all going on, I left my motel room and quickly ran across the courtyard and pounded on her door to warn her about evacuating to higher ground. I had just saw an emergency news flash that interrupted a movie I was watching on TV. I was the visiting grandson. She eventually answered her door and I told her that we needed to get the car ready and get out of there real quick! She very calmly replied to me that the only thing that we needed to do was to just step onto the toilet and start flushing! She had a real sense of humor even under those adverse conditions. The motel survived the wave because it was located only a few blocks away from where the water finally receded back into the bay. Her husband Ken Ames died in the early sixties and Lorene eventually sold the motel in 1969. She moved down to Novato in Marin County to be closer to her family. Less than a year later, she died of cancer at the Novato Community Hospital in 1970 at the age of 65. She was laid to rest in a mausoleum just inside and to the left of the entrance gate to the cemetery at the end of Fifth Ave.
