Cortland High School - Echo Yearbook (Seymour, IN)

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Class Prophecy One day in the late summer of 1962 Bill Prewitt and I decided to visit our former classmates. We had received letters from some of them. Bill and Iwere in a business of our own and doing very well. We owned the C. H. S., a movie pro- ject in Hollywood. We figured it would take us about a month to see everyone so we turned the business over to a friend. The next day we got in our new shiny Model A, told our wives, the former Miss Butler and Miss Bottorff, good-bye and started on our way. After traveling through several states, we reached Texas and the re we met Gene QPunkj Fleetwood, who owned a large ranch not far from Houston. He asked us to stay with them for several days, but since there were fourteen others to see, we stayed only one night. The next morning after breakfast we tried out a few broncs. After dinner we started on our way again. Bill wanted to see the Chicago Fair which was being celebratedg we arrived there about a week later without any mishaps. We spent the morning walking and looking over the fairgrounds. In the afternoon we decided that we would like to see the Lucky Lot Hell Drivers. After we had seated ourselves and looked at our in- formation sheet, we saw a name that looked familiarg it happened to be Chester Rust. After a thrilling hour we inquired about their man whom we thought we should know, We found out that it was the same fellow whom weyhad gone to school with eleven years ago. We spent the remainder of the afternoon talking about the past and present happenings. Chester had been in the hell driving business for a hot five years, and was doing well, even though his wife, Charlene, wished that he would quit. We spent that night in the trailer house with Chester and his wife. The next morning about eleven o'clock we said good-bye to Chester and the Chicago Fair and started on our way to Indiana. We had gotten a letter from Louis Fleetwood several weeks before inviting us to come to Indianapolis for a visit. Another day found us at his home which was very beautiful. Louis is the president of the First National Bank in Indianapolis His wife, Louise, who was very nice, invited us to stay for a while. We sat out- side and talked about old times. Louis has two children, the oldest was a girl four years old and his son was three. That night Louis gave a party in our honor, we met several friends of the Fleetwoods. We stayed there the remainder of the night talking and finally got to bed about three o'clock in the morning. The next afternoon we told the Fleetwoods good-bye. As we were goingzthrough Columbus we decided to look up Coleen QColiej Fleetwood. We had recently received word from her that she lived in Columbusi We hunted the rest of the evening and slept at a hotel that night. The next morning we found out where she lived. She was home with her husband, Gene, who was a minister. We stayed at their house that night and started for Seymour in the morning. Bill Bell was the General Motors car dealer and also junk dealer. We found him at his -home with the former Nedra Larson, his wife, and two sons. We talked about happenings of the years gone by. We stayed overnight and had fun playing with little Bells. The next morning we traded our beloved suped up Model A for an Oldsmobile hard top convertible, We said good-bye and went to the television station where we found Eugene QSonnyl Hendershot playing records. He was a disc jockey on Seyxnour television station. His wife, the former Marilyn Highbaugh, was there with him. We had dinner with them and talked for 13

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Class istory On September 12, 1947, twenty-one freshmen enrolled in Cortland High School, Mr. Sewell was our sponsor. We gained the following three girls that year: Velma Burns from Freetown, Delores Klosterman from- Lutheran School, and Claris McKinney from Seymour. The members of our class then were: Glendon Adams, Betty Allman, Bill Bell, Velma Burns, Wilbert Carr, Jewell Corn, Walter Darlage, Coleen Fleetwood, Gene Fleetwood, Louis Fleetwood, Faye Frederick, Imogene Grant, Sonny Hendershot, Delores Klosterman, Shirley Krienhagen, Lester Kuehn, Francis Mellencamp, Claris McKinney, Bill Prewitt, Chester Rust, Joe Wineinger, and Mary White. On April the twelfth, Patricia Smith entered our class from Seymour. ln our sophomore year we enrolled with a record of twenty-one with Mr. Bridges as our sponsor. Patricia Smith decided to get married, and Betty Allman decided that she would quit school to work. Wilbert Carr moved during our Christmas vacation and is now going to school at Brownstown, Clarice McKinney decided that she would ratlyer be the wife of Jim Rose than to go to school. They now have a daughter. lrnogene Grant enrolled in our class in January. After losing two and gaining one, we then had twenty in our class, and the remaining part of the year passed very well, At the beginning of our junior year we saw another change. We enrolled with nineteen in our class and Mr. McKain as sponsor. Glendon Adams decided that he would rather go to Clifford High School than Cortland. That left us with an enroll- ment of eighteen, During the months of October and November we worked very hard on the junior play, The Funny Brats , which was a success. The entire play was filled with laughs. During the months of March and April we started making plans for our Junior and Senior Reception, the theme of which was Moonlight and Roses . The gymnasium was gaily decorated with crepe paper, a moon and roses A on each table, After dinner, speeches were given by the officers and faculty. We had plenty of parties all through our junior year -- parties in homes and at school, skating parties, and hayrides. We always enjoyed ourselves. At the beginning of our senior year there were only seventeen members present. Faye Frederick had become the wife of Richard McKinney during the summer. We seniors are glad that Mr. McKain is our sponsor again in our senior year, we enjoy working with him. We had plenty.of parties the first semester. At the beginning of the second semester we decided uponthe motto, the kind of flowers and the colors that we are going to have for commencement. We chose royal blue caps and gowns. We are planning to take a trip to one of the four different places: Florida, Washington, D.C.. Niagara Falls or the Smoky Mountains. The exact place hasn't been chosen yet. We haven't selected our play yet, but we are planning to have a good one, 12

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some time and finally said good-bye. We asked Sonny to play on a certain date our senior song in an arrangement done by the Seniors of '51, We drove to Cortland and found Francis Mellencamp out in the field. He stop ped and told us to go the the house and that he would be in later. After supper Bill and I, Francis, his wife, Betty, and his son talked about the past. Francis had in- herited the farm two years before and was coming along just fine. We asked him about some of the other classmates but he didn't give us much inforrnation. He told us Delores lKostyl Klosterman lived in Tampa, Florida with her husband, Roland Rebber, and two children, The next day we started on our way toward Florida. When we got there sev- eral days later, we were greeted by Kosty's two children who were trying to see how many oranges they could throw. After the orange throwing, the little boy got a good spanking from his mother as a prize for throwing the most oranges. Kosty and her husband lived near the beach where he owns a large fruit farm. While we were there, we enjoyed a lot of good eating and fun with the orange throwing Rebbers. In two more days we were on the road again traveling toward Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Jewell Corn was holding her own i.n the Navy Department. She took the afternoon off and took us to her home whe re we found her husband, Max, busy getting dinner. Jewell had been in Philadelphia six years and during that time she had gotten married and settled down in a good town. We told her we had visited many of the other classmates. Bill and I stayed that night and the next morning, but in the afternoon we shoved off again. We drove all night, the next day we drove into New York City. After driving a while, we came to a building which read, Club 51 , It was a swanky place, but we went in anyway. On the stage we saw a girl dancing and singing and much to our surprise we recognized her as one of our classmates, who was none other than Shirley Krienhagen, now Mrs. Joe Wineinger. She came over as soon as she saw us and invited us to go to the back part of the building and have supper with Imogene and Howardie Von Dissen and Joe Wineinger. We all got together and sang songs and talked over our schooldays. That night we were given a special show by Shirley and Imogene, Howardie runs the Club 5 ' and Joe was really a hell driver but spent most of his time on the road. Joe and Shirley had one child while lrnogene and Howardie had two. Shirley's girl and ln'1ogene's boys gave Bill and me a show they called the Thing , Shirley and lrnogene both hope the children will make a career of dancing and singing. We stayed there several days and looked over New York City, but had to take off agai.n, because our month was far spent. After saying good-bye, we lit out for Columbus, Ohio where Velma Burns was a secretary in her husband's business. Velma and her husband, Jim, showed us a good time. However, we soon had to say good-bye. From Columbus we took off for Wisconsin. We noticed a big sign on a barn that read Walter Darlage and Son's Dairy Farm . We stopped in and found that he has twin boys and one daughter. Walter had a large farm and milked many cows. His wife, Dorothy, was a very charming womang she was from Madison, Wisconsin, where Walter had met her. We stayed there for two days and then started on our way for Nebraska. We found Mary Lee White, now Mrs. Donald Thomas, teaching in a large high school. Don had employment with an insurance company. We spent several days with them and then started on our journey homeward. After several days we arrived home safe and sound and received a very warm welcome from the ladies. By Lester Kuehn 14 h