In Memoriam ~ Anna “Hellfire Rayne” McKinnon
12/17/79 – 07/9/11
Anna McKinnon was a regular customer at One Eyed Jacks over the past six or seven years. She had a ton of friends from all walks of life, and loved animals. She had three cats, and her boyfriend had two more.
On Saturday, July 9, 2011, Anna took off with some friends, to float the Stillaguamish river, on tubes and rafts. The late thaw this year had local rivers running faster and deeper than normal. As they came around a bend in the river, just before Blue Stilly Park, the swift water sent a few of those on tubes across the river towards a “strainer”, like a whirlpool, but with branches and other river debris caught in it. Anna’s tube hit a snag, causing rapid deflation, and pulled her into the strainer, and under a log. Rescue workers spent over 45 minutes trying to get her out from under the log, then airlifted her to Harborview, where she was pronounced dead.
Her family held a memorial service for her on Saturday, July 23. There must’ve been 350+ people there, and some of her friends gathered later that day for a BBQ, but we all agreed that we should do something more to honor her memory.
On August 13, One Eyed Jacks held a benefit show to raise money for the ASPCA in Anna’s name. We started at 3:00pm with a Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament, where we asked players for a $5 donation in addition to their buy in. At 4:00pm we sold BBQ dinners for $5 a plate. By 8:30pm, five local Metal bands had volunteered to play and help raise money. Many of Anna’s friends were either in Metal bands, or liked the music. The bands were “Sausage Slapper”, “Chemical Castration”, “Blood & Thunder”, “The Point Being”, and “Gravenloch”.
We raised $283 from the BBQ, $100 from private donations, $105 from the poker players, $61 from a raffle, $90 in a silent auction, $40 from staff tips, $450 from door (cover) donations, and $221 from a portion of sales that day for a grand total of $1,350.00!
Everyone had a nice time, sharing stories about Anna, plus, we were able to raise some money for a cause she would have approved of.
Visit Anna’s Facebook memorial page at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-Hellfire-Rayne-Mckinnon-Memorial-Page/243410975686712?ref=ts
