Pekin High School - Pekinian Yearbook (Pekin, IL)

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SENIOR EDITION Pag© 28 STUDENTS AND COUNCIL COOPERATE TO MARK SUCCESSFUL YEAR Under the leadership of president Bob Herget, the student council this year has had an added purpose for functioning at PCHS. Besides its regular activities, such as the Lost and Found, Book Exchange, Lyceum programs, and sponsoring The Pekinois, the student council has met the change in foreign relations by entering whole-heartedly into helping win this war. The formation of the Junior Red Cross committee and the one hundred per cent enrollment of PCHS students in the Junior Red Cross was probably the biggest effort of the council. So far the Junior Red Cross committee has already sponsored the knitting of afghans, collecting of magazines, awarding gold star pins, and the purchasing of a service flag for the school. The paper committee has diligently planned campaigns and contests to make the collection of paper for national defense more interesting. The money from the paper drive aided PCHS boys and girls and als othe Pekin hospital. Even all the council's regular duties have in a minor way contributed to the war effort, for through work on the council, PCHS is being educated for the democratic way of government. Also, during the past year, Pekin high was represented by an article on the Community Sing in a national magazine. This article was prepared and submitted by a student council committee. However great the job, the student council believes that its social events shall strike a balance between all work and no play. In the fall many students were delegates to the district convention held in Galesburg, while this spring the state convention in Chicago was attended by nine PCHS members. The faculty party, where students and teachers meet for a common purpose, fun, is a council social event every fall. Spring means picnics to all organizations, including the council. Cooperating wtih the president this year were the officers: vice-president, Mary Ellen Thomas; secretary, Vera Green; and treasurer, Toula Ragias, as well as the rest of the council, the whole of the student body and faculty members. Miss Edith Gramlich, Mr. Mason Grigsby and Principal A. G. Haussler are the advisers who make the council a bigger and better democratic organization READY FOR THE FUTURE. Girls' Club members are now looking back on a very successful year in which many new projects were successfully initiated. The main governing body of the club is the cabinet, composed of five girls representing the president and the four classes. Jean Rogers was the senior member; Mary Pauline Barthel, junior member; LeVonne Hainline, sophomore member; and Maxine Arnett, freshman member. The council consisted of the cabinet plus Margaret Lutz, Norma Rockwell, Lorene Maxwell, Harriet Brosmer, Nita Mae Allison, Merla Hundt, Phyllis Bonk, Wanda Six, Margaret Ann Friedrich, Jean King, Ella Mae Williamson, and llene Ozella. For their Christmas project this year the girls continued with the Alaskan project of the year before. They sent two large mirrors and two pairs of ice skates to the young children of St. Mark's Mission, Menana, Alaska. Christmas cards were also collected by the girls, and they will be used in connection with the project for next year. Coming in for their share of glory are the programs, ably prepared by the members of the council. Many original ideas came forth, with the clever skit dealing with manners and presented by Dorothy Rohrs, Ella Mae Williamson, Frances Lam-pitt, Mary Ellen Thomas, and Jean Rogers being one of the best. Again the Unland sings rated high, as did the Boys'-Girls' Club quiz program. The Easter fashion show, announced this year by Nita Mae Allison, had for its background the nation's capital with a bevy of PCHS beauties modeling the latest fashions. G.C. COUNCIL REPRESENTS SCHOOL'S LARGEST CLUB

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Page 27 Singing before a large crowd, the A Cappella Choir, under the direction of Mr. Harry Langley, presented a spring vesper on Sunday, March 8. Light numbers and also difficult ones were included in this program. The choir sang Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled and O' Peaceful Night. Also they sang two negro spirituals, Ezekial Saw De Wheel and Wade In The Water. The choir sang one extremely difficult number which is sung entirely in Latin, Emitte Spiritum Tuum. The services ended by singing the patriotic America, My Own. The operetta, The Firefly, was presented the first semester of the year by the music department. They received great praise and applause for the fine performance. The Firefly is a story of a street urchin, Tony portrayed by Bette Neff, who acts as cabin boy aboard the Van Dare's yacht which is bound for Bermuda. It is here that she falls in love with Jack Travers, played by Clare Leiby. Other characters excellently portrayed in the operetta were: Charles Timm who p'ayed the part of John Thurston and Jean Myer who played the part of Geraldine Van Dare. A Scene from The Christmas Apple

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Page 29 S E N I O R EDITION ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE DIRECTOR ''Captain Applejack, by Walter Hackett, was the mystery-comedy produced with a double cast by the junior class this year. The play, under the direction of Mr. George Sparks, centered around a meek, middle-aged bachelor seeking romance and adventure. Captain Applejack, the bachelor, was portrayed by Eugene Alesandrini. He found adventure and romance, too, when Anne Valeska, Russian dancer, played by Norma Rockwell and Louise Coryell, interrupted the tranquil quiet of the Applejohn home with her story that she was escaping from the Nazi spy, Ivan Borolsky, enacted by Clyde Parrish. Actually, she was the famous crook, Big-eyed Gladys, who was using that story to gain entrance into the Applejohn home to search for hidden treasure, and Borolsky was her accomplice in the case. Denentt, Ronald Champion, appearing as a policeman, was the third party in this crooked business. Ambrose's ward. Poppy Fairefi dramatized by Donna Jean Snyder and Vera Pearl Green, was a young woman of about 25, who secretly loved Ambrose and resented Anna's appearance at the house. She suspected Anna from the beginning and was constantly by her guardian's side, fighting for his affection against the subtle flirting of Anna. Another criminal pair were the Pen-gards, who came to the house under the pretense that their car had broken down and that they had to wait for the chauffeur to get it fixed. They, too, had heard about the hidden treasure and were out to get it. Mrs. Pengard, portrayed by Margaret Flynn and Jean King, was an amusing character who flattered Ambrose into thinking they were interested in buying his home. Mr. Pengard, Don O'Keefe, pretended to be an oriental seer, Zoroaster, whose mysterious attitude baffled Ambrose. Members of the Applejohn household were Lush, Marvin Jenkins, who had been with the family for years, and showed it in his stiff posture and gray hair, and Aunt Agatha, haughty, old-fashioned lady of the house, who couldn't understand the unusual goings-on about the house. This role was enacted by Ella Mae Williamson and Helen Hayes. Johnny Jason, played by J:m R:chards, had persuaded Ambrose to sell his home and start out in the world to look for adventure and romance. The second act was Applejohn's dream when he fell asleep while awaiting developments in the expected robbery of his home. The respectable Applejohn changed character to a bold pirate captain. Mr. Pengard became a slinking Chinese sailor, and Borolsky was leading the crew on to mutiny. The scene also involved Anna, as a captured beauty, and Poppy, as the cabin boy. The play took place in an old home on the coast of Cornwall in England with all the action happening within a few hours on a rainy, winter night.