ANDERSON HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI NEWS

May 2011 Were a little later than usual in putting out a newsletter, so please forgive. Well try to make it up to you as time goes by. In the meantime, we have been updating records in the computer, adding more death dates to the all-graduate list and adding whether people were graduates or not to the death list. The death list is now in an Excel program which will make it accessible to more people, but the Excel program is unable to sort it by class year. As a reminder, these lists, as well as the all-graduate list by class, can be e-mailed via the Internet. So can the current active list of paid members, including by class. A number of people have already requested them. Various people have been helpful in providing our historian Arnold Taylor with information concerning which alumni have passed away, and we thank them very much for their efforts. We hope that some of you who have AHS parents or other relatives, especially from the early part of the 20th century, will be able to provide us with some additional reliable information. Again, we thank Arnold for volunteering to return as historian and for his work and that of his wife Beth and others for continuing to search for information about other Anderson people to see if they too were students or faculty at the Anderson High School. Remember, a person may be classified as an AHS alum if he or she attended at least one year there from the ninth through the twelfth grade up through May of 1966. Graduation was not always possible for some students, as some had to leave early to serve in one of the wars; some married young and left, some moved away, and some decided to drop out early. Many of these have continued to keep close ties with their classmates, and are welcome to join the AHS Alumni Association if they have not already. ANNIVERSARY CONGRATULATIONS PLUS THANK-YOUS Past president Mark Cooper and his wife Fern, our faithful alumni reunion table decorator, will celebrate their th wedding anniversary on June 15. Fern has been generously complimented for the years she has done such 60 a wonderful job with decorations, and those helping her should also be complimented. Margarette Mitchell has spent so many years serving refreshments at the reunions that she has almost lost count. June Grissom is about to complete her 15th year as secretary, having started the same year Jack Allman claimed he was roped in as AHS president. In 2004, after eight years of service, June was presented with a framed certificate at the alumni banquet which read, For dedication beyond the call of duty to the Associations most work-intensive and responsible office. Her knowledge of individual members, generosity toward people, alertness to operational procedures, organizational ability, fine work ethic and sense of humor have given the AHS Alumni Association a special incentive to gain membership and to move further into the 21st Century. Her dedication continues to be unsurpassed. Thanks to all those who have served as officers, executive committee members and in all the other capacities that have made the running of the organization possible. W.W. (DUB) TRACY HONORED POST-HUMOUSLY W.W. (Dub) Tracy, who passed away September 9, 2010, was honored in the Winter 2011 The Museum Muse, the newsletter of the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City, MO. It featured a Boy Scout jacket he had donated, along with an article for which we were given permission by Linda Endersby to publish here. The article was under Collections Corner, a Missouri State Museum Treasure, and read: This Boy Scout leaders uniform jacket was donated by someone you may have seen around the Capitol. Wiley W. Tracy, a native Missourian, served as an executive with four different Boy Scout councils or districts prior to his retirement in 1992. Mr. Tracy then brought that same passion for teaching children to the State Museum where he worked as a part time tour guide for 15 years until his second retirement in late 2009. Wiley, a die-hard Mizzou fan, had a contagious smile and unmatched enthusiasm for Missouri and its history. Many appreciative teachers complimented Wiley on his tours and looked for him each spring. Besides the Boy Scout jacket, Wiley also donated his fathers (Winton G. Tracy) military uniforms and several other pieces to the museums permanent collection.

This Curators Corner is in fond memory of our dear friend, employee, and a generous donor Wiley W. Tracy (1926-2010). The museum staff greatly appreciates Wileys years of dedicated service and his family for sharing him with us. Note that Wileys father Winton was a 1922 graduate of AHS. LOOKING FOR YOUR STORIES We have gotten many compliments concerning the biographical information that alums and other have been providing concerning Anderson High School students. Some have been hesitant to provide theirs, claiming they havent gotten professional degrees nor do they feel theyve done anything spectacular. However, this goes way beyond professional degrees or fame, and delves more into peoples life stories. Many of you have stories to tell, just as you would find interesting stories in fiction or in biography or memoir or in the local newspaper. Some of you have confessed to mischief youve gotten into during your school days, or your most embarrassing moments. Others have blessed people by quietly working behind the scenes, giving of time and help to others. One alum confessed that his high school teachers would faint dead away if they found out he had made something of himself. Another claimed his parents figured he would be in the penitentiary before he was twenty. Whatever your story is, we would love to hear it, using about 750 words or fewer. Send to June Grissom, 13083 Oregon Lane, Neosho, MO 64850. NORMAN GRISSOM, CLASS OF 1942 I graduated from AHS in 1942. Shortly thereafter, I joined the Marine Corps. There were four of us guys from Anderson that joined at the same time Warren Wright, Bill Owens, Claude Stewart, Jr., and myself. However, we were all sent in different directions. After boot camp, I went to Clearwater, Florida to Amphibian Tractor Mechanic School. I served in the 3rd Amphibian Tractor Battalion in New Caledonia, Guam, Maui, Hawaii and Malichia, and was in Iwo Jima when the flag was raised. When I came home in 1946, I met June White (48) at Glen Coopers barber shop, and after dating a year, we were married in 1947. Jobs werent very plentiful at the time. I drove a milk truck for Carl Morris for awhile, and worked at Love and Woods Feed Store. Then several of us fellows from Anderson heard of jobs in Lakin, KS where they were building a booster station for Colorado Interstate Gas Company. June and I and Arnold Taylor (46) shared an apartment there and were very grateful for the job. We came back in November and I went to work as a groundman for New Mac Electric in 1948 when our first baby was three months old. I became a first class lineman with New Mac, and after twelve years, went in as Line Superintendent, retiring from New Mac after 38 years. Prior to all that, I was called back into the Marine Corps in 1951, but only for three months and five days because they didnt want me any longer because I had five dependents. So thats when I went back as a lineman. June was a stay-at-home mom until the children were in high school, doing a lot of seamstress work and making many of the childrens clothes. She worked for doctors for seven and a half years. We raised three children two girls and a boy, who are all still living. One daughter is in Owasso, OK; one in Neosho; and our son is in Florida. We have five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. For the most part, we never left home! DEATHS SINCE LAST NEWSLETTER 44 44 48 48 50 51 True Davidson W.W. (Dub) Tracy Pat Sellers Virginia Minars Straw Jimmy Lewellen Marie Pratt Kennedy 5/18/11 Sept. 9, 2010 Oct. 10, 2010 Sept. 21, 2010 April 9, 2011 Mar. 3, 2011 53 54 55 56 ?? Geraldine Mills Billy Lee Davis Glena Minars Bridges Virgie Devine Spears Earlene Blackburn Nicoletti (wife of Paul) Dec. 10, 2010 Aug. 6, 2010 Nov. 23, 2010 Oct. 14, 2009 May 12, 2011

There will be a CLASS OF 51 breakfast reunion at 9 a.m. May 28 at Coopers Restaurant in Anderson. 2.

From Ann Allman:A PERSPECTIVE ON ANDERSON HS/ McDONALD COUNTY HS HISTORY AND A FUTURE LOOK

The days of too many schools in Missouri having to operate at a disadvantage, both financially and in terms of programs, finally had to end in the sixties, and Missouri began consolidating its school districts. A problem which faced many students and parents emotionally was that of having to give up the concept of the neighborhood school. For decades, the home, church and school had been the focus of the community, providing a haven for groups, activities, worship and basic values in general. Many took offense at having their neighborhood high school taken away, especially since there had also been some great rivalries between towns, notably in terms of ball games and other contests. At this point, McDonald County was to have a new high school, located in its largest town of Anderson. Several student concerns arose in relation to this. One was class size. Anderson High School students had become used to small graduating classes where everyone knew everyone else and many had grown up together. Now they found themselves among more strangers even among sports rivals. They faced the dilemma of larger classes, meaning less social control within the various high school cliques. Some felt lost and alienated. Twenty years later, some still felt that way. Something else was experienced by some Anderson High School students in the sixties. Now they were to begin in a new school, having experienced one to three years in the old school, which would now to be taken over by junior high school students. The new building and better facilities were definitely a plus. What needed a little work was school spirit, for educators have shown that the larger the school, the harder it is to maintain school spirit. However, the school was not too large, and school spirit was definitely possible. But, with seventy-five per cent of the general population ordinarily not being comfortable with change, this was also going to be a challenge. On another side of the coin for AHS students in general, there are several things that seem to have impacted them over the years in their relationship to staying connected as classmates. The time in history that a student was experiencing was also a force. Many people in the thirties were still dealing with the effects of the Great Depression, and consequently stuck closer together. Those in the forties had the war to deal with, and also banded together. Its been noticed that alumni from 1914 through the forties have been the most loyal to each other in terms of numbers and in maintaining their class ties. The fifties heralded a change in history. By the time the Korean War was over, people were ready for a rest and they got one during the fifties. There were fewer hard times and wars to give them a special purpose for banding together, yet better times did provide an avenue for living and working together in appropriate and productive ways. Then came the sixties, which one minister described during a Sunday morning sermon when he announced, We have just entered the Age of Studied Tackiness. Even though class size during the fifties and sixties increased, future interest in the Alumni Association showed a decrease. This leaves people wondering just how much the events of history have impacted peoples relationships, including the tendency for more people to leave home and find their own way. The bright spot is that as alumni reach those big zero years especially their fortieth and fiftieth reunions, there is a new awakening that some lost time needs to be made up for and that a piece of the past needs to be re-lived. This is especially true for those from classes in the fifties and sixties who were impacted very differently by the events of history, and for those who had to experience the transition between two high schools. Hopefully, may those of you out there now find new meaning in your school relationships and come together to celebrate all the good things that you did as classmates. Lets make next years reunion something special!

AHS Membership Registration

Name(s) ____________________________________ Class(es) of __________ Phone_________________ Address ____________________________________ E-mail address_______________________________ (Number) __________Dues for 2010-12 @ $6.00 Make $ _________ check to: Anderson High School Alumni Association & send to June Grissom, 13083 Oregon Lane, Neosho, MO 64850 417-451-3894 3.

McDonald County High School in 1988