Westerly High School - Westlyan Yearbook (Westerly, RI)

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The Senior Year Book — 1944 President' Parents, Faculty, and Fellow Classmates: We, the Class of 1944, are about to leave our beloved Alma Mater. Now throughout the whole world, in the hearts of many, a great hope rises, ror tulfillment they look to us; and is ii not a blessing that we are the people upon whom rests the hope never again to see the earth blasted by such a cruel war as this? We try to keep our hearts sane and good-natured, as we jostle one another, groping for the best path to follow. The answer comes in an old voice that has spoken to man in all ages. “Onward!” That voice always has called and to the Class The history of the Class of ’44 began on our entrance into Westerly High School in September, 1941. Just like many other “Sophs,” we were frightened by the size of the school and most of all by the haughty upper-classmen. Then, too, we were wondering what our subjects and teachers would be like, everything was so new! This feeling wore off, however, as we finally got our schedules straight and settled down to routine work. Still there were those “seniors” who seemed to have such an abundance of knowledge about everything. They worried us. Of course, this year and the two to follow were destined to be slightly different from other school years. As well as school, we had something else to wonder at. Our country was at war! One of the most memorable and yet unpleasant dates of our sophomore year was December 7, 1941—Pearl Harbor! Class officers in our sophomore year were the following: President, Sam Brown; Vice-President, Robert Connors; Secretary. James Bressette. They carried us through the year, which wasn’t too eventful—after all, we had just started. After a busy summer we returned to school as juniors. Feeling much older by ; Address great world always has meant not only ■Onward” but “Upward.” We thank our teachers for their kindness and help which were given freely at all times. Dear Classmates: Since our country needs us, we shall be glad to help. You girls as well as the boys will wear the uniforms of our country. We shall all be able to enlist in different branches of the service. Let us, therefore, put forth our best effort that our class may bring great honor to the school within whose walls we have spent many happy days, which we shall always remember, no matter where we go. ROBERT CONNORS History this time, we used to say, Were we ever so silly as those ‘Sophs’?” In an early election we chose as our representatives the following members: President, Robert Connors; Vice-President, Sylvester Gin-gerella; Secretary, Pearl Ricci; Treasurer, John Sposato. John’s biggest duty was to encourage the payment of class dues for our coming prom—it was a great success, although we had been dubious about it. The seniors were ready to graduate and many of the boys were going into the service. We would soon have our turn at the wheel. Back on September 8, 1943, for the final year! We were soon planning for the Senior Prom to be held in October. There were a number of committees working out the details of this gala event. Decorations were changed at the last minute, but the members of the decorating committee, being very skillful, gave the gym an exciting appearance. Although the evening was a very enjoyable one, it produced a crop of financial worries. Another event was the Prize Speaking Contest held on November 18. Members of the Junior and Sophomore Classes ran away with all the prizes—the Seniors be- -«ei 7 j8 -

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CLASS OF 1944 R1IODF ISLAND HONOR -SOCIETY—Back Row: Louis DeFanti. Joseph Faitani. William Quinlan. Edward Hindle. Kenneth Avery. Maurice Laing. Robert Chamberlain, Richard Lamb, Lyndon Oatley. Joseph Silver. John Sposato. Front Row: Frances Gilchrist. Jeanne Merithew. Barbara Smith. Alice Bressette. Marjorie Oppv. Frances Sherman. Pearl Ricci. Margaret Gledhill. Helen Lanphere. Dorothy Whiteley. Jeanne Coon. Frances Moshier. Missing from picture: Phyllis Burdick. Nancy Ritacco. Donald Tetlow. Louise Vucno.

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The Senior Year Book.— 1944 ing too busy with social affairs to compete with them. After purchasing enough war bonds and stamps for a jeep we held a gay Jeep Party in the gym. A number of seniors contributed to the entertainment, Joe “Frank Sinatra” Ruisi and Jimmy Greene as our crooners, George Stillman with his trumpet. Alice Giannoni as soloist, and Joe Fai-tani as master of ceremonies. Ruisi, a conspicuous star performer, received several encores, Shoo-Shoo Baby” being his specialty. A group of girls who should certainly be included in our Class History is the Salesmanship Class. They are the ones who worked so hard on war bond drives and took care of the business end of just about all of our social affairs. Class We, the Class of 1944, being mentally sound, trustworthy, and thrifty, do hereby formulate this, our last will and testament, and declare all previous wills null and void. To dispense with sobs and tears as soon as possible, we shall at once delve into its contents. We, the Senior Class, leave to the Sophomores, the great surplus in our treasury, that they may surely have a Junior Prom. We leave to the Juniors our intellectual knowledge, poise, and calmness, which have given the faculty many moments of suspense. We, Room 7, leave our patriotism and our marvelous attendance record to the Junior Class which will follow in our footsteps. We hope they will give Mr. Buck-ley as many happy hours as we have. We, that very special group of Senior girls, leave to Miss Shorey our humble apologies for giving her, during the fourth period, many vexing and discouraging moments. We, Robert Connors, John Sposato, and Sam Brown, leave our natural art and nonchalant manner of delivering extemporaneous speeches in the auditorium to We also put on a Senior Play—“Best Foot Forward,” under the direction of Miss Evans. Everyone enjoyed it, and the players took their parts like regular troupers. Another group to whom credit is due are the senior members of the championship basketball team—Captain Mike Santoro, Bud Clemens, Art Garafolo, and Bob Chamberlain. They did a wonderful job —lots of coordination — which brought them many victories. We looked forward to graduation and yet with sadness, for we would surely miss school. Some of the boys have left to join the armed forces and many more will be leaving after graduation. This, however, is where our history ends. We will leave the future to take care of itself. PHYLLIS AUTRY KENNETH AVERY Historians Will Tom Piccolo, who will need it during the football season. We, Marjorie Oppy and Barbara Smith, bequeath our deep, true, sincere, unaffected, loyal, unswerving, ardent, thoughtful, and beautiful friendship to Susan Murphy and Sally Briggs, who, we feel, will cherish and keep their friendship as we have ours. We, Ray Burdick and Edward Hindle, leave our personal records to any sophomore who deserves the honor. I. Kenneth Avery, bequeath my job as motion picture operator to Court Loomis and Farquhar Smith—don’t burn out the bulbs and forget to order new ones! I, Bunt Garafolo, leave my motto, “Take Life Easy,” to anyone who has a hard time getting up mornings. I, Carmela Pignataro, leave the honor of having been head cheerleader to thai charming lad—Gene Cercena. We, Phyllis Autry, Anna Church, and Beverly Maine, hereby do bequeath our jobs of ticket selling and collecting at the movies to Dot Harmon, Mary Geary, and Doris Rathbun. I, Louise Vuono, leave my seat in J. Spo-sato’s car to Mary Grasso.