Nature can also seem to be cruel when it is time for our loved ones to be called from this earth. This past December, two of our beloved parents, Ruth Liebing, mother of Dan, and June Aanderud, mother of Annette, were taken to their eternal reward. For some, then, this "most wonderful time of the year" can be rather bittersweet.
Unknown to me, Mrs. Liebing grew up in Brookings and graduated from BHS in 1943. At the visitation, Dan mentioned that Wanda Hanson also graduated in that class. Miss Hanson would later become the mother of Brad Rufer. Another girl in that class was the mother of another classmate, but her name could not be recalled.
That 1943 yearbook contained much interesting information and many familiar names. Mrs. Liebing's maiden name was Ruth Braley. One of her nephews was a Steve Braley, son of Virg Braley, Ruth's brother. He was a year older than we were. Their family moved to Huron in the early 60's. Mike has since moved back to Brookings. I ran into him a couple of years ago and had a nice conversation with him. Steve's older brother Mike was a fine athlete, and was a classmate of Bob Shelden, for whom the athletic fields at BHS are named, and "Skip" Webster, one of our coaches. I believe some of our classmates also had some siblings in that class. Would these names be brothers or sisters of our classmates: Burton Alexander, Ellen Alexander, Nancy Faust, Mary Iverson, Patricia McMillan, Janice Moulton Marcia Shirley, and Joan Webbenhurst? Some other names that may be familiar included Sammy Artz (Artz Locker Service), Mike Braley, Judy Dempster, Bob Foerster, Mel Henrichsen, Rich Jennings, Verna Kjos (her mother just passed away recently-http://rudesfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/RudesF1/obit.cgi?user=53979160_MKjos), Lynn Riedesel (his sister is Mrs. Reyna Martin, the girls' PE teacher when we were in high school), Marilyn Rossman, Bob Shelden, and Stuart "Skip" Webster.
One member of the school board in 1943 was a Mr. Blauert, a local grocer. When our family moved to Brookings a few years later, my father worked for him. Other members were E. P. Johnson, an implement dealer; Herb Cheever, a banker; D. B. Doner, registrar at SDSC (did Brian Johnson's father become registrar when Mr. Doner retired?); Mrs. C. D. Shea, housewife. The secretary was Agnes Schlender, who lived next door to us when we moved to our home on third street. I later purchased that home when she moved into an apartment in December of 1976.
In the early 1970's, Ruth Alexander, an English professor at SDSU, was elected to the school board. Much publicity was given to the fact that a woman had finally been elected to this organization and had broken through a so-called barrier. Little did the public know that Mrs. Shea had scaled that wall decades earlier. She was subsequently followed by a number of women in the 1950's. Some whose names come to mind are Mrs. Farnham, Mrs. Masson, and Mrs. Flittie, who was a customer on my paper route in the early 60's.
The senior picture for Dan's mother indicated that was active in chorus 2, 3; Senior Play 4; Q club 4; GAA 1, 2, 3, 4 (not surprising, as the Braleys were noted athletes); and Home Ec Club 1, 2. Also in that class were some familiar names: Wanda Hanson (Brad Rufer's mother); Kay Harding (was Harding Hall at SDSC named after her father?); Donna Kennard (a Harry Kennard lived between our house and Tom Bozied's house on 6th Avenue when we were in grade school); Damaras Linn (an aunt of Stew Linn?); Royal Adamson (Glenda's father?); Marion Johnston (Pam's father who worked at Sokota Hybrids, another customer on my paper route); Randall Otteson (Alan's father?); Richard Pittenger (Methodist minister?); Darrell Reeter (he worked at the post office with the fathers of Stew Linn and Teresa Steen). The layout of the pictures was also somewhat unusual. The girls were pictured in the front pages, while the boys were pictured in the back pages.
Some of the junior girls with familiar names were Biggar, Bishman, Broadbent, Crothers, DeWitt, Duff, Ishmael, Jackson, Lawrence, Linn, Maher, Minor, Norris, Otterness, Pickett, Stratton, Trygstad. On the boys end were Bartling, Buckley, Fuller, Moriarty, Rudebusch, Sanderson, Schlobohm, and Sloat (father of Donna).
Freshman and sophomores were taken as a homeroom group. Freshmen with familiar names were Doner, Adams, Dorn, Allison, Allstot, Alexander, Eclov, Fishback, Earley, DeWitt, Borstad, Fuller, Ishmael, Hendricks, Liebsch, Lee, Minor, McMillan, Lanam, LeGeros, Linn, Pike, Schlobohm, Rude, Rymerson, Steen, and Trudell.
Sophomore names that may ring a bell were DeWitt, Alexander, Barnett, Dokken, Birath, Beals, Berkland, Buller, Durland, Bowers, Duff, Hill, Gustafson, Lees, Logue, Revell, Rust, Steen, Ust Swedlund, and Stratton.
The debate squad continued its run of excellence. However, because of war shortages, many debates were cancelled, denying those individuals their chance to show their skills. Also of note was an organization known as the "Pub Club." It was not a group of students what were bar-hopping. It was the journalism group, an abbreviation, one would assume, for "Publishing Club."
The Broboca was distributed to subscribers and those with activity tickets.
The band director at the beginning of the school year was a man by the name of E. H. Case. However, he was called to service because of WW II (he was a lieutenant junior grade in the Navy), and was replaced by a legend, Arne B. Larson. Also leaving for the Navy in December was chemistry teacher Virgil Bell.
Other faculty members that may be familiar to us were Frances Mahlstrom, freshman advisor who taught Algebra and Spanish; Ruth Helland, sophomore advisor who taught various math classes; and Geraldine Crabbs, girls physical education.
Mr. Bell and Mr. Horrigan were assistant football coaches. The pictures appear to show games being played at Pioneer Park, while basketball games were played in the "pit."
Almost two weeks later, June Aanderud, Annette's mother passed away.
If memory serves correctly, the family moved to Brookings when we were in the 7th grade. I think, also, that she was in our homeroom with Miss LaChance. While I did not have much social interaction with Annette during our school years, I do remember trying to dance with her at one of our dances in 7th grade. That dance must have been held in the spring, because some of us boys were suffering somewhat from our first week of track and field practice. It seems that Greg Graff made a comment to Mr. Dolan that all of that conditioning made him so sore that it was difficult to dance.
There were a few other notable happenings at that dance, unless my memory has completely gone haywire. Did Mark Denton and a few other boys produce their own music video by lip-synching to the song "Speedy Gonzalez" by Pat Boone (https://www.bing.com/search?q=speedy+gonzales+pat+boone+youtube&form=PRUSEN&pc=EUPP_&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=41b872b32e254e538f07ec48b195f3d0&sp=3&ghc=1&qs=SC&pq=speedy+gonzalez+pat+&sk=SC2&sc=7-20&cvid=41b872b32e254e538f07ec48b195f3d0?)
Did Tami George sing "500 Miles" (https://www.bing.com/search?q=500+miles+away+from+home&form=PRUSEN&pc=EUPP_&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=318ec9ae09d34cb7baa4035cb682512a&sp=4&qs=LS&pq=500+miles+&sk=LS3&sc=8-10&cvid=318ec9ae09d34cb7baa4035cb682512a)
To conclude the dance, a number of girls (I seem to recall Annette in that group) adapted the lyrics of the song "We Love You Beatles" (https://www.bing.com/search?q=we+love+you+beatles+lyrics&form=PRUSEN&pc=EUPP_&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=318ec9ae09d34cb7baa4035cb682512a&sp=3&qs=SC&pq=we+love+you+beathle&sk=SC2&sc=8-19&cvid=318ec9ae09d34cb7baa4035cb682512a)
to thank the teachers who chaperoned the dance. Instead of "we love you Beatles...Ringo...John... Paul... George...", the girls sang "we love you Kabrud..LaChance...etc." Anyone else have any memory of this dance?
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dan and Annette during this difficult time.
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