Hay native named a Seattle executive of the year

SEATTLE - Her first job was harvest cook and truck driver at the family wheat and barley land near Hay at age 14.

Last week she was honored as Puget Sound Business Journal Middle Market Fast 50 Executive of the Year.

Tana (Roberts) Gall was back in LaCrosse visiting family. Her father Wallace Roberts, 90, still goes to the ranch every day.

Gall is the president of Merrill Gardens, a Seattle-based company that owns and operates retirement communities in 20 states. She joined the company in 2013, after 19 years with Leisure Care, a company that manages properties. She worked her way up to be pre...