This photo of three 1948 Monongah High majorettes, as it usually does, brought back memories of my childhood. 

I was two years younger, in the Class of 1950, so the Lions’ majorettes really stirred my teenage testosterone.

This trio of thrilling twirlers:

Suzanne Barr Loss, Class of 1948

Jackie Godby Livingston, Class of 1948

Marylee Hertzog Gwinn, Class of 1948

Jackie’s brother, the late Lawrence “Sonny” Godby, was in my 1950 class. Their parents had a house next to our “baseball field,” which was between U.S. 19 and the garages and alley behind the Thomas Street homes.

Because left field was so close to U.S. 19, any “ball” (a rock inside a sock covered with miner’s electrician tape) hit onto it was an automatic out, to prevent any of us from running onto the road and getting squashed by passing traffic.

 

We learned to hit to right field.

The Evans family, with children George “Sonny” Evans, Jr. and Marylee Evans Livingstone; and the Elutrio family, including Joseph Junior “Beansie” Elutrio, lived across U.S. 19 from the Godby family.

 

All except Beansie, who lives in Baltimore and regularly danced with Sue Greynolds Davidson at Monongah High Reunions, are deceased.

Later, the Catania brothers, Angelo and Alex, who lived two doors down from the Oleskys on Thomas Street, had the “baseball field” covered with dirtfill to build their Sinclair service station.

 

And eventually four siblings and their father moved to Covina, California.

Suzi also passed away, in January, after a long marriage to Arnold “JB” Loss. Their children are Michael Loss and companion Susie Jett of Harter Hill and David Loss and wife Mary, who live on the Mill Fall property Suzi and J.B. bought from their uncle, Frank Loss, and his wife, Gezala Futten Loss, sister of Lena Futten Olesky, who was the mother of John Olesky, Jr. Another son, Elliott Barr Loss, is deceased.

So are siblings Jim and Harrelson Barr and Hazel Barr Vrabel.  Their sister, Jeanette Barr Baczuk, Class of 1940, lives in Ashland, Ohio.

They are the children of Worthington’s legendary  Dr. James Barr, who delivered most of the babies in town, and Eva Barr.

Suzi was a Fairmont Business College graduate who worked for the DHHR, Cohen Law Firm, and Fairmont State College.

Marylee Hertzog Gwinn, who lives in Rockville, Maryland with husband E.J. Gwinn; Betty Hensley Lowther, who lives in Pompano Beach, Florida, and Suzi were so inseparable that they were known as Monongah High’s “Three Musketeers.”

 

They all grew up in Worthington, of course.

Marylee is a graduate of Fairmont State and George Washington University and worked at Walter Reed National Military Center Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

Her father, Virgil R. Hertzog, began Hertzog Drug Store in Worthington in about 1922.  He ran the store with family, including son Dick Hertzog, and several employees until 1972 when he sold everything in the building and moved to Fairmont.

Louise Crim, the mother of Martha and Reid, worked for Virgil. Nellie Demus and Nick Demus, who ran Demus Meat Market with its famous sausage, were the final owners of the building before it was razed.

The late Benn Morgan, Class of 1948, worked there and made the homemade ice cream before he began his career as organist, music teacher and choirmaster in Maryland.
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After reading  this story, Jim McDaniel, Class of 1960, who lives on Behoboth Beach,  Delaware with wife Mary Bolin McDaniel, wrote:

“Enjoyed your story of the 3 Worthington Girls.  The Crims lived in an apt over Thompson's store next to the drug store.  That is where Dr. Barr had his office. 

“There was another boy in the Crim family, Tommy.  He was 2 years older than me.  A good guy. The family must have moved because he played football for Farmington against Monongah. he died at a very young age. 

n Jim McDaniel. “