Class of ’43 plans 70th reunion
Published 4:34 pm Sunday, August 12, 2012
Leader photo/JOHN EBY Pictured from left at Round Oak Restaurant Aug. 11 are members of Dowagiac’s Class of 1943: Virginia Reep Maxey, Betty Murphy, Natalie Klapchuk Springsteen, Bill Myrkle, Edward Fischer, Burton Bakeman, Lenora Gross Gulbranson, Edith Leitke Willis, Louise Hiemstra Hunt, Verna Mae Stahl Brothers, Barbara Moon Weiler, Carson Minshall, Harriet Stough Thomas, Eleanor Struble Martin and Ruth Gard McDonald.
Fifteen members of Dowagiac Central High School’s 126-member Class of 1943 after lunch at Round Oak Restaurant Saturday afternoon decided to commemorate their 70th anniversary from noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 10, 2013.
Classmates attending included Virginia Reep Maxey of Dowagiac, Betty Murphy of Berrien Springs, Natalie Klapchuk Springsteen of Dowagiac, Bill Myrkle of Bangor, Edward Fischer of Smyrna, Tenn., who entertained telling jokes and playing a tiny harmonica, Burton Bakeman of South Bend, Lenora Gross Gulbranson of Niles, Edith Leitke Willis of Dowagiac, Louise Hiemstra Hunt of Kalamazoo, Verna Mae Stahl Brothers of Leesburg, Fla., Barbara Moon Weiler of South Bend, Carson Minshall of Mason, Harriet Stough Thomas of Dowagiac, Eleanor Struble Martin of Dowagiac and Ruth Gard McDonald of Dowagiac.
Agnes McArthur McKechnie, who divides her time between Alaska in the summer and Arkansas in the winter, sent a photo of her extended family.
Seven classmates who died since the last get-together in 2010 include Bruce Beidler, Bob and Dorothy Keyser Mullen, Ward LaPorte, Irving Phillipson, Vivian Urbanski Stilwell and Patricia Firestone Reitz.
“I came to Dowagiac one day and drove past my old school, and it was gone,” Weiler said. “They didn’t ask me” about tearing down her alma mater in 2007.
“I always vote for the kids,” said McDonald of the bond proposal defeated Aug. 7 to replace Central’s successor, 50-year-old Union High School.
“My father worked on the paper when Harry Whiteley was publisher,” Weiler said. “He also worked for the Chicago Tribune when Col. Robert McCormick was there.” Grandfather Abner Moon published several early newspapers.
“My great-grandfather put out a journal to beekeepers because beekeeping was very important if you wanted to crop. Cornell University has the originals.”
For information about the 2013 reunion, contact Carson and Nancy Minshall, 209 Valley Ct., Mason, MI 48854; or (517) 978-0019. Nancy graduated with Dowagiac’s Class of 1949. Carson’s cousin was Berenice Vanderburg of the Daily News.
