Sunday, November 4, 2012
In Memory - Louise Manning - QC Saint
GJ - We stayed at Louise Manning's home during the 40th reunion. She was active, energetic, and full of life, at about 91 years. She cooked us supper, and it was delicious.
She talked about being cold at night, so we sent her a nifty blanket that was light and warm. She gave it to someone who loved it as much as she did. That was Louise.
She lived down the street from my mother's home in Davenport. We first met Louise and her husband Ephraim on the Blackhawk Hiking Club walks. Conrad Bergendoff was a member too. He lived past 100. My mother lived past 90. Hiking must be good for health, or else hikers are people with boundless energy.
We also knew their son Earl from Augustana and later met everyone else. Louise came to Arizona to watch her grandchildren sing in the Tucson Boys Choir, so we saw her on those trips and enjoyed being with her family.
Dr. and Mrs. Manning were generous souls. That came through in everything they did and said. My wife Chris visited Louise once, on her own. Louise took her around to see Conrad at the nursing home, and introduced Chris to others as "our visiting dignitary." Chris repeated that story many times.
We were hoping to see Louise on our way to the 45th MHS66 reunion, and that happened. We got there at the right time and Louise was full of joy at seeing us again. She did not like dogs in the house but invited us to stay with our dog Sassy (the official mascot of MHS 66). That was not practical, but it was great to see her smiling and talking with such energy, even though she was bed-ridden. We thought it was probably the last time we would see her in this life.
"May the angels lead you to Paradise," Louise.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Eleanor Diehl Birthday - Quad Cities Online - Ray Diehl's Mom's 90th
Eleanor Diehl Birthday - Quad Cities Online:
'via Blog this'
Eleanor Diehl Birthday
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Carol Forsyth Schermerhorn - Quad Cities Online
Carol Forsyth Schermerhorn - Quad Cities Online:
Carol Forsyth Schermerhorn
Services are 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, Rock Island, with the Rev. J. D. Georlett officiating. Burial is at Viola Cemetery. Visitation is one hour before the services at the church. Memorials may be made to the church. Trimble Funeral and Cremation Center, Moline, is serving the family. The former Carol Grace Kennedy was born Dec. 22, 1922, in Viola, the daughter of Richard Royce and Jessie May Williams Kennedy. She graduated from Viola High School and Marycrest College, and received her master's degree from Western Illinois University. She married Wayne R. Forsyth on Dec. 28, 1945, in Aledo. He died June 13, 1979. She married George P. Schermerhorn on April 17, 1984, in Cancun, Mexico. Carol was employed by Moline School District No. 40 as a third grade teacher at Garfield School for 30 years, retiring in 1985. She previously taught in a one-room school near New Windsor. She was a longtime member of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church, Rock Island, where she had been active on the Session, as a deacon, a circle leader and a member of Presbyterian Women, and taught Sunday school for many years. She loved being with her family and grandchildren and her many friends. She and her husband, George, traveled extensively and wintered in their home in Tucson, Ariz. Carol is survived by her husband, George; two daughters and sons-in-law, Kathleen and Jack Reimers, Moline, and Jeannine and Jim Licandro, Bettendorf, Iowa; four grandchildren and their spouses, John Reimers, Lakewood, Colo., and his fiancee, Michelle Johnson, Mount Vernon, Iowa, William and Dee Anne Reimers, Germantown Hills, Ill., Luke and Jennifer Lawson, Bettendorf, and Jessica and Sam Garchik, Fairfield, Iowa; five great-grandchildren; and her sister, Evelyn Spitznas Norman and her husband, Doug, East Moline. Carol's family invites friends to share stories and condolences and light a candle in her memory at www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com. From Facebook:
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012
MHS 66 - Ideas Sought for 65th Birthday Gathering
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| 20th Reunion. |
Judy Marsh Ramsay has asked, on behalf of the Reunion Committee, for ideas about the 65th birthday gathering planned for 2013.
Judy is on Facebook.
This is her FB link.
This is her email contact:
Judy.ramsay@yahoo.com
You are welcome to contact anyone you know on the committee. I have a photo here somewhere.
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| Reunion committee. |
Classmates are passing on to eternal life, so each gathering means a lot. It amazes me that classmates living in the Quad-Cities do not rouse themselves and come over for a visit. Some travel across the country to see everybody.
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| Martha Getz, RIP. |
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| Jane Rosborough, Ann Paschall, and Martha Getz, 1963. |
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| Hokey pokey or St. Vitus Dance at the 45th reunion. |
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| The ladies are arranging more gatherings. This one was in 2012. |
My ideas:
I am making stops at Whitey's and Lago's. If we have some rough outline, so we are at the same place at the same time, that would be fun. Lago's was a blast at the 45th.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Today Is Tim Ballard's Birthday
If you are on Facebook, stop by Tim Ballard's page and wish him a Happy Birthday!
https://www.facebook.com/tim.ballard.75
Why is this day unlike other days? Tim contributed most of the Coolidge material which I use on this blog. The photos are so much appreciated that the seventh grade photos of the 1966 class continue to be among the most popular of all the posts.
I was still at John Deere that year, so I cannot say I contributed to the cuteness of the seventh grade class.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Happy anniversary, Browning Field - Quad Cities Online
Happy anniversary, Browning Field - Quad Cities Online:
Happy anniversary, Browning Field
| Tonight marks the 100th anniversary of the first high school football game at Moline's Browning Field. However, Oct. 5, 1912 did not double as the debut of the oldest facility in the tradition-rich Western Big 6 Conference. Instead, the rainy Saturday afternoon the prior weekend owns that distinction, when J.T. Browning's donated cow pasture was the site of a season-opening scrimmage between the Maroons and an amalgamation of their alums. And, especially compared to tonight's speech-and-balloon-filled celebration, Moline's new park and athletic field opened with no fanfare. "Browning field, at 15th St. and 23rd Ave., after much uncertainty, is being put in shape, and everything now depends upon the weatherman,'' wrote The Dispatch, in the final sentence of its preview of Moline's season, a day before kickoff on Friday, Sept. 27, 1912. Though listed as part of Moline's 6-2 season, the annual affair with the alumni was used as a "tryout'' for varsity "candidates'' after two weeks of preseason practice, the newspaper noted. Except for a "rooters' meeting'' at the high school that Friday afternoon "with a large attendance,'' the Dispatch wrote, there was no build up to the opening of the future local landmark. But then, that was a different day, when horse-drawn carriages still shared the roads with the new-fangled technology of automobiles. In 1912, The Dispatch normally ran 16 pages. Usually, that left only one page for sports, unless something big like the World Series was going on. Plus, commanding the headlines in the week between the first two games at Browning? There was much hand-wringing over the rising Mexican Revolution, the European powers pleading for peace in the Balkans, and then-Colonel Teddy Roosevelt running for president while fighting off charges over nefarious campaign contributions. There also was no Sunday paper back then, with The Dispatch in newsstands six afternoons a week, selling for two cents per day. So the write up on the first game at Browning didn't appear until Monday, Sept. 30, 1912. The below-the-fold item played underneath a picture-and-story display titled, "How one can swim without any previous knowledge,'' right alongside a headline about preparations for the Chicago Cubs to open play in a new field in 1913 -- yep, with construction delayed a year, and later renamed Wrigley Field. "Alumni take game,'' the headline read. "Ex-stars defeat high school in opening contest by 6 to 0 score; Alumni advantage in weight partly overcome by great defense of regulars.'' "In spite of the rain of the early afternoon, the field was in good condition, and later on, when the weather cleared, playing conditions were ideal,'' The Dispatch wrote. The "has been'' alumni also had only 10 players, so borrowed "Ellis and Sehnert from the high school reserves,'' The Dispatch said, with first names omitted for some reason in its early high-school coverage. "Though greatly outweighed,'' according to the story, the high schoolers, "put up a game that made the outcome uncertain at all times.'' The only score in the game came in the final 10-minute frame, when "the alumni found the high school line impregnable and it was only a wide end run that Livingston managed to cross the line,'' the unbylined writer said. "The spectacular player of the game was Stow, who measured up to expectations by reeling off several long runs. After covering half the length of the field, and dodging through the entire team (in the first quarter), he was overhauled by the fleet Livingston, and robbed of a touchdown at the 10 yard line.'' The Moline varsity never got closer to scoring that weekend. But a week later, on the same day Augustana College announced a bequest by the Ericson family, for donated land and money, which later turned into Ericson Field, the Maroons made Page 2 news in Sports. After a full page breakdown of the impending World Series, between the New York Giants and Boston Red Sox, and after a cartoon laughing about the impossibility of finding Series tickets, there was a story about a 34-0 Moline victory flanked by a picture of a boy and his bulldog. "Maquoketa defeated,'' the headline noted. "High School swamps visitors in first game 34 to 0; Reel off end runs and forward passes with bewildering rapidity -- Stowe (sic) is star.'' "Stow made several sensational runs,'' the story went on to note, crediting the "fleet halfback'' with a pair of second-half scores. Isaacson, Hannah and Neuhaus scored in the first half, and Kiel "kicked goal'' to give the Maroons a 21-0 lead at halftime. "The team as a whole did excellent work, and may prove to be one of the best the school has had for several years,'' The Dispatch opined. Ironically, the weight of the contest was ignored with the longest-lasting part of that day never mentioned. Browning Field history 1910: Moline city attorney John T. Browning alters his will in his final days, giving an old cow pasture to the city of Moline for a park and athletic facility. 1912: Moline defeats Maquoketa (Iowa) 34-0 on Oct. 5 in the first high school football game on the field. 1914: The Moline Plowboys begin playing pro baseball at Browning. 1916: A cinder track is laid and a wooden grandstand added. 1920: A baseball grandstand is added in the southeast corner. 1923: Browning hosts boxing for the first time on July 4. 1926: The Rock Island Independents, charter members of the NFL, move to Browning and play in the American Football League for their final season. They host Red Grange and the New York Yankees in an Oct. 3 game, losing 26-0 in front of a crowd of 5,000. 1928: Wharton Field House opens just north of the stadium. 1930: Lights are installed. Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman Trophy winner, plays for Dubuque High School in the second night game on the field. 1940: Five years after his retirement, a 45-year-old Babe Ruth plays in an exhibition game at Browning on June 26. 1947: Browning hosts motorcycle races. 1948: A June festival celebrates the 100th anniversary of Moline as a city. 1957: The baseball grandstand burns to the ground. 1960: Moline wins the state track title. 1969: The wooden stands on the north side are damaged when a light pole falls on them during a storm. 1972: The first all-weather track is installed. New lights follow a year later. 1976: Browning hosts a celebration of America’s bicentennial. 1995: New bleachers and a new press box are installed. 2004: A new entrance from the east parking lot is built. 2005: The track is named for former state title-winning track coach Gene Shipley. |
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Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Listen Up, Moliners. Bill Mellish's Mother Is Turning 90!
Send a Card.
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| Bill Mellish is on the far right. |
My mom Tevis is turning 90 Sat Oct 6th. so this is a shameless shout out to anyone who would like to send her a card.
Tevis Mellish 3300 Lake Bend Drive Apt 120 Valley Park MO 63088.
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