Victory High School - Optic Yearbook (Clarksburg, WV)

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It so happens that the St. Louis Cardinals have quite a few of the Victory graduates of 52. TOM MERANDI is player coach and is drawing a salary which makes the one received by Stan Musial, that old Cardinal star, look like pocket money. ANDY GARCIA plays third base on the team. Turtle Garcia doesn't have much speed, but his pep and corny jokes keep up the moral of the team. PEE WEE ANDERSON also plays for the Cards and is one of the most colorful players in the game with his steady flow of chatter from behine home plate. Another sports star who made good is JIMMY GAINES, who has taken George Mikan's place in pro basketball. Coaches consider Jimmy a great player because of his ability to stand under the basket and drop the ball in. Victory's own CARMAN ROMANO has also made a great name for himself in the sports world. He is the coach of the Clarksburg Midgets, the greatest pro basketball team ever to set foot on any court. BILL COMPTON, a speed demon and one of the fastest drivers on any track, now owns the Indianapolis Race Track. Bill has changed the name to Compton Speedway. The featured drivers in the races are CLIFFORD NUTTER and DICK CALDWELL. Their cars are especially designed by ROY LAMB and are kept in tip-top condition by JAMES STEWART and TED BARNES. After becoming a success in the field of architecture, DAVE ROBERTS sold his company to SAM OLIVERIO and went into the music profession. Some of the members of his all-girl band are PEARL GRIFFITH, the gem of the band, for whom Dave has a particularly keen eye, DORIS LEE FERNANDEZ, RACHAEL FAZZINI, and CLISTA PATTERSON. The featured vocalist of the band is a pretty miss by the name of JEAN DRUMPUS. DENNY CUNNINGHAM also has his own jazz band. Critics consider his version of Rye Whiskey- the zaniest thing they've heard since Spike Jones recorded Chinese Mule Train . Many of the girls in our class have taken nursing as a career. Among the women in white are GERALDINE WRIGHT, CLOVIS HELDRITH, ANNA COX, WANDA EDDY, VIRGINIA LYNCH, KATHYRN ESTE, LONA BELLE BRYNER, and THELMA TRAUGH. Their ability to administer miracle drugs assured long life to their ageing teachers at Victory. After winning several beauty contest, MARY ANN JULIAN decided to become a nurse and is now kept busy at the Clarksburg Veterans Hospital. JEAN DINGO is a famous psychiatrist in New York City. Two of her most frequent patients are PHILLIP ROSSANO and Groucho Marx. Jean reports that neither Phil or Groucho want any personal check-ups, but they make secret visits to her to find out how the other one can be so crazy. ARTLENE HOUSER, ELINOR BEE, MARILYN HOUSE, MARTHA DRUMMOND, VIRGINIA McFARLIN VIOLET GRANDSTAFF, PHYLLIS TENDA, and WANDA LYNCH are in Washington, D C. , working as private secretaries to the Congressmen from West Virginia. PATTY EAVENSON is a famous skater in the Skaters Revue, and HESTER MARTIN is known to millions as the noted torch singer of the Stork Club. In our class we had some tall girls; most of them have put their height to good use. At present PHYLLIS KNIGHT, JOYCE FLOYD, NINA HARDMAN, and PATTY MORRIS are being seen on the front cover of Life Magazine. They are representing the four seasons. ALICE LASKO is now one of the most famous models in France. Alice was only in Paris a few weeks when she met a tall, dark, and handsome Frenchman. Alice hasn’t stopped singing her praises of France yet!!!

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CLASS PROPHECY Many years have gone by since we were all together at dear old Victory High School. The building has grown old and out of style. We still don't have a swimming pool, but anyone who wants to keep cool can go down to the American history room. The nice draft along with the daily shower down there will surely cool one off. The city of Clarksburg has extended its limits so far that the business district now surrounds our school. There are only four of the old teachers left at Victory, those being MISS VAN HORN, MRS. PYLE, MISS GRAY, and MRS. MORGAN, who are determined to outlive Father Time himself. These four pillars of strength vow that they will be there until the very end. ROY MESSARIS, one of our old classmates, is teaching history at Victory although he spends much of his time trying to convince a cute little gal from Texas that the Lone Star state isn’t bounded on the north by Canada and on the south by Mexico. EDNA KNIGHT now teaches plane geometry and physics, and she has carried out the resolution made in her highschool days, There’ll be some changes made . We now leave the old school and look out over the city. An eighty-nine story hotel is being erected by the MARVIN BAKER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY. This hotel was designed by CORNELIUS MIHALIAK and is owned by that multi-millionaire, JAMES HURST. A mild sensation was caused last week when a water pipe burst and flooded the basement of the hotel. However, no damage was done as two of Clarksburg's foremost plumbers, OKEY RICHARDS and his partner, ROBERT GASTON, rushed to the scene and capably remedied the situation. The -Telegram’S ace reporter, FRISKIE MIRROTTO, wearing a pair of swimming trunks as was suitable for such an occasion, was seen wading in and out of the water trying to get all the angles of the story. MARY EILEEN SAYRE also spent a busy afternoon taking pictures of Friskie-s attire and the flooded basement. Both received a well-deserved bonus from their boss, GLENN HAMRIC, who now publishes the paper. Society editor JOANN GAMBAZZA recently attended the wedding of celebrities, JON MOORE and THELMA LOUGH. They’ve just won the national doubles championship in tennis. ROSALIE CUMMINGS, a foreign correspondent, is now writing articles to keep MISS EURA GRAY informed on the male situation in New Zealand, where she hopes to retire. CAROLYN HUPP is secretary to the President of the United States, JIM DAUGHERTY. President Daugherty claims he is not partisan to any group, but he recommended as his running mate, BILL ALLEN, who in his position as Vice President, helped him in the selection of some of the Cabinet members. Among them are LESLIE FARRELL and BILL SMITH. Leslie is the Secretary of Labor and has developed a temper to match his hair and arguments to match those of John L. Lewis. Although an outstanding Secretary of Defense, Bill Smith has done little to further Anglo-American relations. He refuses any appropiations of money to England, claiming that they haven't paid us what they owed from the World War in addition to the Revolution in 1775. A few members of our class are taking the country by laughs. LUCY VIZZARI, the Joan Davis of present day Hollywood, is now starring in that sensational comedy, The Loves of Lucy . BETTY MESSINGER, DAVID WATKINS, and RONALD VARGO have a radio program of their own. It closely resembles that of Judy Canova’s many years ago. It seems that every Saturday night, a knock is heard, followed by a slow Texan drawl, -It’s me, your boyfriend, Lu-kie .

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PATTY WYCKOFF is now Mrs. Bill Nichols and is usually seen taking care of the four little Nichols. Some of the other girls who stop to chat with her on their way home from the grocery store are MRS. PATTY GERARD FRUM and MRS. NORMA JEAN WARD KIRK. It seems that vaudeville is in full swing. There is a show at the local theater starring CARL RIGGS and having a chorus line composed of IRENE REYNOLDS, PATTY NEWBROUGH, EVA JACOBS, ROSALIE HARDING, JUANITA PRATT, and DELPHIA DAVIS. CAROLYN HANNA and LOIS HANNAH are at present producing a Negro minstrel. DOTTY THOMAS, MARY POE, PEGGY REYNOLDS, and MYRLE ASHCRAFT are members of the -Rise and Shine- routine. We haven't seen much of PATTY FLINT, JOANN FITTRO, and MARY GEORGE. It seems that they haven't been heard of since the last semester exam in English. There is grave fear that they did not survive. JAMES WILKES and LAVONSISLER have a company to make rocket planes. The first test-night is made by that famous dare-devil, TONY BELLOTTE. He always wanted to make a trip to the moonl 11 Two of the classmates, ANDREW GOLDSMITH and JOHN PANTHER, are ambassadors to foreign countries. Ambassador Goldsmith is now in France. He -parleys- French quite fluently and is having a wonderful time there, especially with the pretty French girls. Ambassador Panther is in Russia. As he cannot speak Russian and few of the Russians speak English, they have very interesting meetings. PAUL STARKEY, NORMAN STEELE, FRED CHILDERS, and HOWARD ASHCRAFT are the four owners of a commercial air line. Two of the ace pilots are HOWARD GOODWIN and BILL DESIST. The hostesses on the planes are all members of our class, ALICE ASHCRAFT, JOAN FOX, MARGARET RICHARDS, SUE ROGERS, MAXINE NORMAN, and MARLENE PHILLIPS. Some of those gals really keep their pilots on little pink clouds. JAMES BURKHAMMER is now a famous stunt flyer. James was always a quiet boy in school, but now he has developed into a rather daring fellow. It must be the fresh airlM Coming back to Clarksburg, I see that a new college has been built. The President is NATE BAULD. Nate has been in the news quite frequently because he co-edited a new dictionary. That famous self-made genius, Clifton Webb, helped Nate to edit the new Webb-Bauld Dictionary. TOM AN ANIA coaches the football team which is so good that Tommy has decided to play Notre Dame next year. It seems that the women have taken over the city since we graduated. The new city manager is GERALDINE FRESHOUR, and PATTY NUTTER is the Chief of Police. Chief Nutter makes everyone of the patrolmen walk the chalk-line. WANDA WHALEY is the Sheriff of Harrison County. Sheriff Whaley, with her famous six-shooter, -Lazy Susan-, puts tt.ror in the hearts of crooks for miles around. At a recent meeting of the Clarksburg Moose Lodge, the great orator, EDWARD TERNAK, delivered the speech of gratitude on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of forrr - P-csdent Harry S. Truman.