Wallet found at Everett hospital spurs stories of its owner

Years and years ago, Larry Corbaley must have had a bad day. He lost his wallet.

That’s known only because Steve Jesmer recently found it. Unfortunately, Jesmer can’t give it back — not to Corbaley.

A longtime pharmacist who owned Larry’s Pharmacy in Mukilteo, Corbaley died in 2000.

Jesmer is a senior engineer at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett’s Colby Campus. He found the black leather wallet, which likely disappeared about 40 years ago, while doing remodeling work in a fifth-floor room of the hospital’s older building, called the A Wing.

It was Jan. 8, and he was working on a heater in room 522.

“The billfold was between a control valve and an opening in the wallboard,” Jesmer said.

He showed it to a supervisor, and they looked at the contents. There was a driver’s license, a Social Security card, a pharmacist’s credentials and military identification — Corbaley was a Navy veteran. An Arco gas credit card had a 1973 expiration date. Corbaley’s driver’s license was due to expire in 1974. And there was cash — three $1 bills, each dated 1969.

“It’s amazing what you can learn about someone in a wallet,” said Jeanette Hoffman, an executive assistant at the hospital.

Close inspection raises a little mystery. On his driver’s license, Corbaley’s birthdate is printed as Feb. 15, 1926, but the military card shows him to be a year older, with a Feb. 15, 1925, birth date. Did he add a year to his age to join the Navy early?

A larger mystery is whether Corbaley was a patient or a visitor, at what was then Everett General Hospital, when his wallet went missing. “We don’t know,” said Cheri Russum, a hospital spokeswoman.

The man’s nephew was the first relative contacted by the hospital.

“They had my name. I was in the phone book,” said Craig Corbaley, 60, who lives in Mukilteo. His late father, Art Corbaley, was Larry’s brother.

Craig Corbaley helped the hospital contact Kathy Corbaley, the late pharmacist’s daughter. She lives in Eastern Washington near Lake Roosevelt.

“We are going to send the wallet back to Kathy,” Russum said Tuesday.

It wouldn’t surprise Kathy Corbaley if her father did indeed fudge his birthdate to join the Navy. “Dad definitely would do that,” she said. Her father, who studied pharmacy at Washington State University, “was a workaholic,” she said.

He grew up in Puyallup, and according to family lore weighed just 2 pounds at birth.

Kathy Corbaley, 61, said he started Larry’s Pharmacy in the 1950s in the location that’s now Arnies Restaurant in Mukilteo. She grew up in Mukilteo and attended the old Rosehill School near her father’s store. He later moved to Stanwood, and opened a pharmacy in Mount Vernon.

Among cards in the wallet was a 1973 calendar from Larry’s Pharmacy in Mount Vernon. Corbaley later moved back to Mukilteo and had another pharmacy there. He was also on the Mukilteo City Council in the late 1970s.

Craig Corbaley said his uncle had suffered a stroke and cancer before he died. He joked about the “three whole dollars” in the wallet. But Jesmer said that in the early 1970s, when gas was about 30 cents a gallon, $3 could gas up a car and buy lunch.

Kathy Corbaley can’t remember her dad losing a wallet. “I wasn’t living at home then. By 1972, I had already gone to college,” she said.

Knowing her father’s character, she doubts he was too upset.

“I imagine Dad just took it in stride,” she said. “He would have just replaced everything — and not in a hurry.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

The Washington State University Snohomish County Extension building at McCollum Park is located in an area Snohomish County is considering for the location of the Farm and Food Center on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Year-round indoor farmers market inches closer to reality near Mill Creek

The Snohomish County Farm and Food Center received $5 million in federal funding. The county hopes to begin building in 2026.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.