You know you’re from a small town when almost everything you do is printed in the local newspaper. Many lives can be traced from cradle to grave in the on-line collection of the Alto Herald. That is not true of our MYSTERY PERSON because she was born before the collection begins.
Those who attended Alto Elementary School between 1953 and 1966 should be able to identify her from these stories that appeared in the Alto Herald. Here are the clues:
She grew up in Alto, where her father had a saddle shop (January 22, 1914 edition) and was Worthy Master of the Terrell Masonic Lodge (October 29, 1914) When she was a child she sometimes visited relatives in Cushing (July 23, 1914) She was elected vice-president of the Alto High School Glee Club (March 17, 1927) She attended the summer term at SFA in 1927. (September 1, 1927) She started teaching in Alto but was hired away by Port Arthur Schools (May 17, 1928) While teaching in Port Arthur, she came home almost every week-end (April 4, 1929)
Her first marriage, birth of her daughter and teaching jobs in Jacksonville (May 9, 1935) and University Park (July 23, 1940) kept her away from Alto for a number of years, but like so many Alto dwellers she felt the urge to come back home.
She married another Alto native, and took her place in the life of the community. She acted as chaplain for the VFW Auxiliary (March 31, 1949), gave many programs for the Wesleyan Service Guild (January 21, 1954) and served as vice-president of the Thursday Study Club (November 19, 1959) Hardly a week went by without some mention of her in the Alto Herald.
She went back to teaching in the Alto Elementary School (September 19, 1953) She liked doing special things with her class. She sponsored an arithmetic contest (May 8, 1954) and the names of the winners are familiar to many of us. Her class won $25 in a competition to get the most members for the PTA. They used the money to buy a world map for their classroom (March 14, 1957)
She enjoyed taking her class on field trips around the town. They went to the Haydite Tile factory (May 5, 1960) and the Bauman saw mill (May 12, 1960). One class took flowers and trinkets to decorate the grave of the little Indian girl who is buried in the Lynches Chapel Cemetery (April 15, 1965). Another marked the burial place of Robert Mitchell, founder of the city of Alto, but somehow the Herald missed that project.
Her favorite part of teaching was reading aloud to her class, and one of her favorite books to read was an old one that was serialized in the Alto Herald long before political correctness became an issue (August 14, 1913) What was the book? And who was she?
To find out, wait for the next column, or do your own research by following the link below and searching one of the Alto Herald editions referenced in the paragraphs above.
Originally published in the May 2, 2012 edition of the Cherokeean-Herald