On Sept. 9, the mother of Lynne Kamstra passed away: http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=22110&page=80 or http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1401937.
A few days later (Sept 13), the mother of Beatty (Ed) Dimit passed away: http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=22092&page=80 or http://eidsnessfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1402617
Only eleven days passed before another parent passed. Lloyd Beckman, the father of Ken, died on Sept. 24: http://rudesfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1420288 or http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=22232&page=80
Less than a week later, on Sept. 30, Emmett Earley, Sr., father of Emmett Earley, Jr., passed away: http://rudesfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=1425980 orhttp://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=22290&page=80
Two weeks later, on Oct. 14, Milt Salonen, the father of Tom, passed away: http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=1435793Salonen orhttp://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=22444&page=80
Again, just about two weeks later, Marilyn Adamson, the mother of Glenda, went to her eternal reward: http://rapidcityjournal.com/obits/adamson-marilyn/article_a62c081c-4d98-566e-8dcd-19362885311f.html
On a related note, the wife of Bob Stewart ("Biology Bob" and later a guidance counselor) passed away on Oct. 2 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=1428097Stewart or http://www.brookingsregister.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=22355&page=80).
Lynne was a top-notch student. They lived just a few blocks away from us, but we were never in any of the same grade-school classrooms. When we started junior-high, Lynn's father, a professor at State (animal science?), was in Hawaii, perhaps on sabbatical, for a year. When she returned, she was in our homeroom. At that time, we had essentially the same class schedule, and were together for math, science, history. and English.
During college, it was a privilege for me to assist Mr. Hauschild for a couple of years with sophomore basketball, thus whetting my appetite for a future in teaching/coaching. One of those players was Lance Kamstra, a younger brother of Lynne. My first teaching assignment was 7-8th science at the middle school, the old high school building. Lynne's youngest sister Leigh was one of my students.
Beatty, or as most of us knew him, Ed, moved back to town in 1965. They had previously lived here in the early to mid 50's, so most of probably did not get to know the family then. There was an older sister Mary Anne, an older brother Rob, and a younger brother Jim. Rob was just a year ahead of us, so some of us may have gotten to know him. Mary Anne, I believe, was in college. For some reason, I remember her as a rather attractive lifeguard. When we talked at the visitation, she reminded us that she had, in fact, been a lifeguard. Rob is presently in New York (New York University?), and is an administrator in the graduate programs, I believe. His wife is a librarian at a university (can't remember if it's the same one). They have a daughter who seems to have inherited the intelligence of both of her parents. As a senior at BHS, Rob was the editor-in-chief for the school paper "Broboca." The yearbook states he "put in a lot of hard work editing the Broboca and the result was interest and perhaps a little controversy over some of the stands he took." Would those positions be as controversial today? Beatty was junior that year, and also assisted in producing the paper. Beatty also was a talented singer, as he was in Select Chorus and Boys Glee.
My contacts with Beatty in school were limited. He was in my freshmen English class with Mrs. Wheeler, and also in sophomore English with Mrs. Donaldson, the older sister of Nancy Webbenhurst. About all that is memorable from the freshman year is that he was a new student, and he had an accent that was unfamiliar to most of us. It was obvious, though, that Beatty was quite intelligent. One incident stands out during our sophomore year is that he was scolded somewhat by Mrs. Donaldson for talking to me when we should have been listening. She said something like "I'm sure John is not all that interested in what you have to say." There may have been some truth to that.
Beatty and I had a pleasant conversation at the visitation for his mother. He had posted a few comments earlier when the "Ride" was inducted into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association (http://www.southdakotarockandrollmusicassociation.com/inductees.htm). I did not know that he was part of the original group. Beatty seemed to be a good sport about it, and did express any bitterness.
Since the Beckman family lived near Hillcrest, I never got to know him until the 7th grade, when we were in the same classes. He, too, was a brilliant mind. His father's John Deere implement dealership, though, was in our neighborhood. The business was located at 416 3rd St., two blocks from our residence at the corner of 6th Avenue and Front Street, by the viaduct a couple of blocks south of Central and the old high school. (The address was 205 6th Ave. Tom Bozied lived a couple of houses away at 215 6th Ave. for a few years, so we had some fun times as little boys) However, right across the street to the south, between Front St. and the railroad tracks, was Beckman's lot for some of their farm machinery. At the other end of that block was Sokota Seeds, where Mark Kratochvil's dad played an important role. In between those business was the city coal pile. The city power plant was only a couple of blocks away, and it burned a great deal of coal. I believe that powered the steam heat that warmed the school and many of the downtown buildings. In the winter, the coal pile made a convenient sledding hill.
In between the coal pile and Beckman's lot was an an open gravel area. We would sometimes play baseball in that space. Around the 4th of July, it was also a good spot to light firecrackers. It was fun to twist some fuses of the firecrackers together and place a tin can over them to try to blow the tin can as high as possible. However, right near the tracks were some gasoline storage tanks for the Sinclair station on 8th St. and Medary, by the campus, so we had to be somewhat careful that we did nothing to endanger the neighborhood.
In the spring of our 8th grade year, we had track practice at Hillcrest. Since Ken lived near there, we would often stop at his house after track practice and shoot a few baskets. We were on the same basketball teams up through our junior year. We had some good times, especially our JV season at the new high school.
Ken's academic prowess was evident as he and Helen Sheimo were national Merit Scholarship winners. BHS was the only high school in the state to have two students achieve this award. The yearbook stated the Ken would attend the University of Michigan, while Helen would attend Luther College.
Emmet Earley, Sr. has been somewhat close to our family for a long time. Emmett married a widow, Elsie (Clark) Iverson on April 24, 1950. They had two sons together, Emmett, Jr., who graduated with us, and Rich, a couple of years younger. In 1936, Elsie had married Lyle Iverson, a cousin of my father. They had four children before Lyle died from leukemia (?) on Feb. 13, 1949. Emmett, Jr.'s older siblings (would they be half-brothers and half-sisters to Emmett?), then, are distantly related to me.
Emmett, Jr. has always had an affection for cars, and has restored many older cars from the 50's and 60's. He has helped me keep my old classic looking and running well.
Tom Salonen attended Central Elementary, so we have known each other since our grade-school days. His dad was a skilled craftsman, and helped put in new cabinets when my parents remodeled our kitchen many years ago. Tom also has quite an affection for older cars. At the visitation, Tom mentioned how his father restored some classic cars and boats during his lifetime.
My connections with Glenda Adamson during our school days were minimal. Her mother's obituary indicates that both she and her husband grew up in Brookings, or at least graduated from Brookings High School. Was her father a carpet installer? It seems that the family moved to Colorado after Glenda graduated. Glenda had three older siblings. Paul graduated in 1965, Kathryn graduated in 1966, and Dave graduated in 1968. Dave had a magnificent voice, if memory serves correctly.
For a number of years, Mrs. Stewart's husband Bob, was a teacher and coach in the Brookings school system. His obituary states that he graduated from BHS in 1939 (http://rudesfuneralhome.com/memsol.cgi?user_id=341374). That was a revelation to me. Does anyone remember where the biology room was in the old high school? It was at the top of the west stairway near the front entrance, next door to the library on the east. To the west was the chemistry and physics lab in the southwest corner of the building, and to the north was the chemistry and physics classroom. If memory serves right, the seating in that room was rather like bleacher seating. Our 8:00 A.M. sophomore algebra-trig class with Mr. Klavetter was right across the hall, so we had to walk past that chem-physics room on our way to class every morning. The only reason these trivial details are still in my mind is that my first teaching assignment in 1973 was 7th and 8th grade science in Mr. Stewart's old biology classroom. That room became very familiar to me for the next two years. Then the whole school was remodeled, and the science rooms were moved to the first floor, right underneath where the old ones were.
When we moved to the new high school, Mr. Stewart became the guidance counselor. Was about the only time most of us conferred with him was when we were discussing our future plans after high school?
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