Williamsburg High School - Tattler Yearbook (Williamsburg, MA)

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History of the Class of 1957 ln the year of 1953, thirty-one freshmen started their four years of high school in Burgy High. We were ably led by our class officers: President, George Heath: Vice-President, June Allen Braman: Secretary, Malcolm Heath: Treasurer, David Smith: and Historian, Betty Beals. Being a studious group, we were too preoccupied with getting A's in our courses to bother with frivolous activities. However, we condescended to attend the Freshman Reception held in our honor by the seniors. ln September of 1954, thirty-one not so shv students returned to school for another year of study. We had lost one classmate when Irene Dufresne Heath left, but we gained another in petite Juanita Tirrell Healy. Our class officers this year were President. John Merritt: Vice-President, Sam Bowker: Secretary, Juanita Tirrell Healy: Treasurer, Patricia Moynahan: Historian, Betty Beals. We decided we should earn some money to prepare for the many activities of our senior year, so we held a food sale which netted us one hundred and thirty dollars. A tragic event marred this year. On April 22, 1955, each member in the class felt a great sadness when .Malcolm l-leath was killed in an automobile accident. Through the rest of our higz school years we missed his happy, kindly spirit and his seemingly endless energy. We started our junior year fewer by five members: Bob Cerreta,Doris Cram, Barbara Stanton, Malcolm Heath and Ralmon Black. However, we gained two, Jan Samson and Gloria Baker. This gave us the to- tal of twenty-eight spirited juniors. Our class officers were: President, John Merritt: Vice-President, Sam Bowker: Secretary, June Braman: Treasurer, Patricia Moynahan: Historian, Betty Beals. This was to be our big year, for as juniors, we were going to have a prom. We chose a main committee and sub-committees to work under it. with everyone doing his share of work, this big event was a suc- cess. Our prom queen was Valerie Beaupre and her court included Henrietta Ronka, Frances Vayda, Patricia Moynahan, and Patricia Gorham. ln September, 1956, we came to Burgy High to complete our last year. we lose five more members: Christine Ice, Juanita Tirrell Healy, Mary Brewer, Lida Sherk and Valerie Beaupre, leavlng us the total of twenty-three senims. At our first class meeting we elected the following class officers: President, Patricia Moynahan: Vice- President, John Merritt: Secretary, Henrietta Ronka: Treasurer, David Smith: and Historian, Jan Sam- son. We then got started on the Freshman Reception. We planned to have it on the theme of 'Beat the C1ock, but of course none of the freshmen would be allowed to 'beat it l We also decided to take the freshmen into our senior home room for questioning whenever we wished and when they least ex- pected lt. Our next project as seniors was a Christmas Dance. In order to make this successful, we knew we would need the co-operation of the other three classes. with the seniors leading it and the other classes helping with expenses and entertainment, this also was a gay event. We felt particularly proud of this, for it was the first all-school affair held in several years. Now we are anticipating the excitement of seniors reaching the end of their high school days. In the offlng are a play, a banquet, class night, and finally graduation! Henrietta Ronka Jeanette Samson 22

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1 I June Braman has hardly touched her food--well, she stays slim that way. June was the first of our group to be married. In 1965 she and her husband Ernie moved to Wyoming where they had charge of running a large cattle 1 ranch. When the owner of the ranch died, they bought and expanded it, and June reports that when she left, the ranch was doing very well and the cattle appeared quite content. Fran Vayda, one of the cutest members of our class, started life with a bang after graduation from W.H.S. After J- she and Steve were married, they devoted all their energy to setting up a chain of restaurants and nightclubs. Fif- Y teen years of hard work paid off, for by 1972 they owned establishments throughout the country and were able to spend every summer traveling in Europe, North America, and Australia, and every winter in South America, Asia, and Africa. Every leap year they used to return to Williamsburg where their permanent home was. Fran thinks that after traveling around the world so often, being ordered to establish residence, at the Crossroads was indeed a re- lief, she was getting tired of living out of a suitcase, even if it was a big one. Her fighting days over, Beverly Brooks now sits with us at the class banquet, she hasn't lost a bit of her military posture. One of the three Haydenville girls in our class, Bev started her career with a real bang--she joined the WACS and was a member of the first all--woman field artillery. We are all familiar with the fact that Bev didn't exactly look the other way when there was a rnan around, and out there on a training field there were plenty of men. As you would expect, Bev married one of them--a general, no less. We are hoping that Gloria Baker has been able to provide our banquet with some tasty dessert. Gloria also joined the service, becoming a woman cook in the WAFS. Her specialty was baking, as might be expected from a Baker. Once out of the service, Gloria opened her own bake shop, and was very successful. I heard she joined us after suffering a severe case of ptomaine poisoning. Alison Lupien is giving Gloria a hard time in one of their daily arguments of Navy versus Air Force. It was inevitable that Alison would go Navy. Rising from the rank of third assistant deck swab to commander, he forsook his position as mop jocky for the controls of a sleek guided missile cruiser. In 1991 his cruiser Cranberry launched seven missiles to specially designated target areas in the Soviet Union. Harmless smoke bombs went off on the nose and warned the world that aggression will not pay! There's Sam Bowker reaching for a plate of mashed potatoes. Sam's dream of becoming an engineer was realized. In the year 1982 he became the head of the biggest building firm in the country. After twelve years of designing and forty years of labor, the greatest engineering feat of all time was completed. A six lane bridge across the At- lantic Ocean was opened in 2034--a huge memorial to the imagination and foresight of Samual It will not fall into the sea! Bowker. Over in the far corner, Neal Tennyson is fiercely debating between mouthfuls with the small group gathered around him. Neal's gift of gab and philosophic outlook elevated him to the position of a latter-day Walter Winchell fan early commentatorj. He was heard on radio, television, and had his own syndicated column in the newspapers. His world-wide audience numbered millions who must be wondering how they will get along without his controversial pree-dik-shuns and inside noozel Henrietta Ronka is used to seeing a lot of people seated at the dinner table, for after due consideration and con- templation, having spent three years working in the office of the University of Massachusetts, she decided to get married. It seems that the boy who became her husband was her high school sweetheart, however, being very ret- icent, she never mentioned him to any of us. Happily married, Henrietta has only one regret: that she wasn't able to see her sixteen great-grandchildren started out on as enjoyable and full a life as she experienced. Oops! The waitress just tripped over George Heath's baseball bat-- George never goes anywhere without it, he hopes to run into Mickey Mantle sometime and get it autographed. Baseball fans will never know if George Heath could have broken Mickey's home run record, before the baseball commission deadened the ball, George presented the most serious threat. He had to content himself with the highest lifetime average f.502j and the highest seasonal average f.648j. Still shy and modest, George always gives the same answer when asked how he managed to hit the ball so many times: ah dunno . . . Ah just shut mah eyes an' let 'er rip . . . Ah'm pretty lucky Ah guess. Gentleman Dave Breguet rushed over to help the poor fallen waitress untangle herself from the string beans, mash- ed potatoes, broken dishes and baseball bat. They exchanged smiles and Dave came back to finish his stogie. Dave developed strong arm muscles by pushing gasoline from the time he left school until he joined us here. It would seem that a person would get tired of pumping gas. Dave, however, had simple tastes, and he was content to man a pump for years. How can anydne do this for his entire life? Easy--when you're pumping five hundred thousand barrels a day as the president of the Mobilgas Corporation. Easy--when you're pulling in seven hundred thousand dollars a year after taxes! Local Girl Makes Good story could be written about Cornelia DeNood. The only one of us who had anything else to do with school after leaving college, Cornelia received her master's degree and then taught English at Harvard. Her marriage to a wealthy lawyer, however, changed her role to that of housewife. Cornelia still found time to write quite a few novels, THE TRUTH OF Tl-IE MATTER and SUITABLE FOR FRAMING being so successful that they were made into movies. A portion of our after-dinner entertainment is going to be supplied by Sylvia Ferron, Sue has had perhaps as ad- venturous a life as anyone, for she became an actress, her success on the stage the result of careful planning, six months to a year living with the kind of people whom the play was to portray, before she played in the Broadway hit DARK ALLEY, she lived from July to November with gangsters, molls, and drug addicts. Likewise, before the re-staging of TEA-HOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON, she spent two summers in the Orient. The one play for which she didn't have a chance to pre-live her role was that in which she, along with the rest of us, is now making her very last appearance--Crossroads. lt is only since forsaking earth for all eternity that she has been able to expe- rience this life. Here, we are all, in a sense, preparing ourselves for our final roles. In a short time, our names will be called and we will come to the parting of our ways. Before the assignment of our eternal destinies, however, we are all going to have one last fling. Pass the gravy, please. by Cornelia DeNood, Prophetess Rudolph Wittshirk, Prophet

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Class Wlll or a Reasonable Facsimile of Same. Today is the day of reckoning. Today is the day that the seniors in Room 1 clean out the debris which has mysteriously accumulated in our desks. As we lift open our engraved desk tops and peer into desks jammed full of numerous gadgets, we find a variety of trivial things which constitute the saving of a four-year period. During that time, which for most was a time for more fun than study, we prospective graduates collected everything. But no longer will our water pistols disrupt any study halls no longer will the teachers enjoy reading the Mad Comics they confiscated and read during detention, because Neal will not be there to buy them: no longer will the spit balls harass the poor unsuspecting teacher who is trying to get some knowledge into these smart aleck seniors' heads. Cold-hearted creatures might just fling their lasting memories embodied in this trivia into the wastebasket, but we, being thoughtful and generous, would like to leave some treasured belongings to those who we seniors feel have the necessary qualifications and are responsible enough to care tenderly for them Oh, I hear a noise from George l-leath's corner. He has just found the ticket which enables him to ride to all the basketball games alone ln the back seat of the bus. Let 's see what George plans to do with this valuable item-- George, will you say a few words to the underclassmen? Yup. I guess l ought to leave this little ticket here to some one deserving. Well, Glenn Richardson Isn't really deserving, but the poor boy needs some advice. So Glenn--l'll say to you, you 'll be safer there than anywhere! Henrietta Ronka looks as if she heeds some help. 'May I help you, Henry? Thank you, yes. You see, I have the pamphlet which I wrote for the Federal Information Board en- titled ' I-low to Hold on to Your Man , but I don't know which girl at school is most ln need of lt. Andrea Culver has her problems but I guem she always will. Now poor Irene Timmerman has had her heart broken by Haydenvi1le's answer to a malden's prayer, and is really in dire need of some advices whom do you suggest? I think, Henry, that is up to you. I know your decision will be the best. 'Neal, what is troubling you? You look like the cat that swallowed the mouse. My desk is empty--I am alone, I have nothing to leave. 'My heartis broken--advise me what to do please. 'Why, Neal, you have the greatest thing of all to leave. Why don't you leave your sense of humor to Mrs. Grinnell who certainly needs lt after working with the freshmen this year? Gee, thanks, you're a dream. Don, what's that brick doing in your desk? '0h, I've had Mr. Blsbee worried so many times about the way I drive my car into the school yard that I thought I would leave him this brick. which accidentally fell out of the building this mornlng.' Golly, Dave Breguet looks sad. Can it be that he feels sorrowful because his school days are over? What's the matter, Dave?' 'It seems mat all I have to give away are my love life problerm. I get so blue thinking about them that I'm going to leave them to Billy Monroe with this suggestion: Watch out, Billy-boy, you don't know what you're getting into! ' Do you know anyone who keeps a tube of toothpaste in her desk? Ido. I-ladn't you noticed Jeanette Samson's ever-bright smile? Jan, what are you so happy about? We1l. I was just practicing so that when I leave my tube of Pepsodent to Mr. Fleming, he'll see what 23