SUNNY CAL JOURNAL - Deceased Pollock's Cat Rested On His Chest During Wake

(07/21/2026)

By Bob Weaver "He looks great with that wry smile on his face," said a mourner a the home funeral wake, the friend passing the coffin of Merrill Pollock, a former editor of the Saturday Evening Post who moved to Calhoun with his wife Jeannie Smith Pollock and being the editor of the Calhoun Chronicle for a few years. The wake was recalled by superlative citizen, the late Barbara Anderson, on a tape recording before her death at age 63 in 1988. I just found the recording. Anderson said, "The property was jam-packed, many of them getting stuck in the mud after parking." The cabin was located on Hardman Bend where George Washington Hardman settled about 1835 on about 1000 acres. Jeannie Smith Pollock was his great-great-granddaughter. The Hardman's were shakers and movers, farmers and politicians in Calhoun for about 175 years. Perhaps Barbara Anderson's best memory was Merrill's cat taking a nap on the dead mans chest during the wake, and his dog not wanting anyone to sit on his couch. "He was a wonderful man," Anderson concluded, recalling a favorite saying, "So empty is the glory the world gives." According to the NY Times, Pollock was a sculptor, writer and former editor of The Saturday Evening Post, also an executive editor for Viking Press and an editor for Simon & Schuster.

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