From Greta Martin Mike, Class of 1922, who
founded the Monongah Alumni Association in 1922 and came up with the first
Monongah High Alumni Reunion that became the longest continuous high school
reunion in West Virginia history to Linda Lopez Gandy, Class of 1965, current
president of the Monongah High Alumni Association who will oversee the 99th
annual MHS Banquet Saturday, May 28 in Fairmont, the hallways of Monongah High
have been a petri dish for romances that flourished and blossomed into decades
of marriages.
There were a few stops before we wound up with
the Monongah High School building that we knew from 1933 to 1979.
It began in 1769 when Elizabeth Ford Cochran
and her husband erected a tent 700 yards from where West Monongah High would be
built. Settlers continued teaching children in their homes till 1799 when a log
house near Helen’s Run became a school building with a paid teacher who was
rotated among the pupils’ families for her “residents.”
In 1812 a new schoolhouse was built near
Worthington. A log house was built a mile west of Monongah and another school
near Number 63 mine. In 1855 the farmers build a small frame high school, The
Willow (for the tree on the Cocran property) which lasted till 1908 and later
became the Monongah Middle building. In 1891 a two-room schoolhouse went up on
the site of old Thoburn School In 1908 an 8-room brick building went up and was
occupied till 1979. Thoburn’s first high school was in one room of Thoburn
Grade School building with N.G. Matthews as principal and only teacher with 19
pupils. In 1915 the school was in 2 rooms over H.D. Martin’s store with 27
students. In 1918 the school was in a large house overlooking the West Fork
River with 60 students. In 1921 the new high school building went up and the
named changed from Thoburn High to West Monongah High with 100 students.
Harland Hartman became Monongah High’s first band director in 1942 and wrote
the music for the “Alma Mater” and the “Fight Song.”
Besides romance and marriage, the 3,143
Monongah High alumni are state legislators, engineers, doctors, nurses,
lawyers, school superintendents, judges, educators, business leaders, served in
the military and, like me became newspaper editors and reporters. Although
Monongah High ceased to exist after 1979, merging in North Marion High with
Mannington, Farmington, Barrackville and Fairview.
But Lions’ members of MHS will never die and
decades of marriages are a testimony to the bonding that went on during and
after our Monongah High days. I will NEVER be able to repay the debt that I owe
to Monongah High and teacher Mary Turkovich.
Ramona Fullen
Michalski, Class of 1949, de facto Monongah High history, summarizes the
history:
Thoburn High
School 1914-1921
West Monongah
High School 1921-1933
Monongah High
School 1933 -1979
I didn’t find
Jimmy Mike’s name in the Monongah High graduation lists that Roamona Fullen
Michalski, Class of 1949, provided for every year from 1918 through 1979 (which
was started by Greta Martin Mike and inherited by Ramona) so I’m assuming there
was no high school romance. Same with Linda Lopez Gandy who married Jim Gandy,
Class of 1964.
Linda explained it:
“John, Jim and I liked each other when I was
going into eighth grade and him into high school but we were not high school
sweethearts. We hardly spoke to each other. We didn’t get together till I was
out of beauty school and we ran into each other at Billy’s Meadowbrook (in West
Chester just outside Fairmont). Then the romance began.”
And how! Into a wow!
As Linda once explained it to me, “On October
11, 1968 I boarded a plane in Pittsburgh. My first time on a plane and the
first of my many adventures. Flew to Canada, took a plan to Preswick, Scotland
where I met Jim. Took a taxi from the airport to the train station, another
taxi to the boat dock, rode the boat across the Firth of Clyde, took a taxi to
our apartment in Dunoon, Scotland. My first of many adventures with my
husband.”
Today, with Linda a MHS Alumni Association president,
Jim sits alongside her on the MHS Banquet dais as a member of the Alumni
Association Board of Directors. Their romance sort of began BEFORE Monongah
High, then sat on the back burn till after both were graduates. Worked just
like the MHS hallways romances, though.
Greta married Jimmy Mike, one of the three
legendary Mike brothers who were barbers in Monongah, and cut my hair when I
was a child. Dominic Mike and Jimmy had a barber shop under the Monongah Bank
and catty-corner across the street from the Monongah Town Hall. Brother Mutt
Mike’s barber shop was near the A&P on Bridge Street.
It was Greta, who
taught 3rd and 4th grades in Worthington, who began
compiling Monongah High graduation lists that I use today in putting together
information on this Monongah High Alumni blog. It also was Greta who began the
practice of finding out where former Lions lived and putting in their
post-Monongah High addresses and marital information. Ramona Fullen Michalski,
Class of 1949, who lives in Monongah, took over the task after Greta
passed away.
Nancy Shupp Rogers and
James Rogers, both Class of 1960, really took the plunge into a Monongah High
romance that came up for air and a 58-year marriage with their 59th
wedding anniversary coming up July 27. They dived into their first kiss.
Underwater at Mill Dam in Booth Creek. Sounds like a Monongah Mermaid to me.
Nancy and Jimmy had
their first date in February 1957 at a Monongah High Valentine Sweetheart
Dance. They were married July 27, 1963 in the Monongah Baptist Church.
Their favorite marital
memory was their first trip together to Nags Head, North Carolina.
Their children are
James “Zeke” Rogers II and Tammy Jo Rogers Lewis, who tipped me off about this
remarkable Lions romance.
Grandchildren for the
modern day reincarnation of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale, “The
Littlest Mermaid,” and her Prince are Dr. Jessica Ann Rogers of Langhorne,
Pennsylvania, John James Rogers of Bunner’s Ridge and Andrew William Lewis of
Monongah, Tammy Jo’s son.
But Monongah’s
Mermaid, thankfully, didn’t dissolve into foam the way that Andersen’s Mermaid
did. The kiss expanded into a romance that has lasted for 65 years, starting
with the Valentine’s Day first date.
Jimmy’s second cousin, Scott Rogers, Class of 1973, married Doris
Carpenter Rogers, Class of 1971, on July 26, 1975. So Jimmy and Scott celebrate
their wedding anniversaries ONE DAY APART!
Scott and Doris’ daughter, Mandi Jo Rogers Craig, told me that Doris
and Scott began dating in 1971 and married in 1975. Their 47th
wedding anniversary is coming up July 26.
Their first date was a movie in the Fairmont Theater, which got the
films about 2 years before they showed up in Monongah’s theater. Joe Craig and
Beverly Debaslki Craig, both Class of 1971, made it a double date.
Doris and Scott have two granddaughters, Audra Rogers and Amelia
Craig, Mandi’s daughter.
Doris and Scott live in Charleston. Her Facebook photos include a
sweatshirt that says “A beach is my happy place” and there are other photos of
Doris and Mandi on the beach with the ocean in the background.
Doris also gets in
travel fun with the Ahouse sisters, Kitty Morrison, Class of 1968, and Sue
Schrader, Class of 1971. So did Bertha Wilson, Class of 1971, particularly in
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, before Bertha Marie Kennedy Wilson passed
away in 2021.
Ann DeMary Eates and Joe Eates, both
Class of 1945, purred like lovey-dovey Lions in the hallways of Monongah High.
By 1950, they were married.
Joe passed away in 2020 at the age of 94.
No matter how hard God tried he couldn’t make a
better couple than Joe and Ann. Joe was an angel before he left this earth. So
is Ann.
In 2010 Joe and Ann were named Monongahfest Citizens of the Year. They
were on the Monongah Heroine Committee which, with a major financial boost from
the government of Italy for the $75,000 project, put up a Heroines statue
honoring the wives of the 362 miners killed in the 1907 mines explosions in
Monongah. It’s near the Town Hall. It was one of Father Briggs’ projects, along
with St. Barbara’s Nursing Home near Willowdale Drive south of Monongah.
Joe served his country in the Army as a Tech Sergeant and was a Fairmont
Supply Company retiree, in the United Mine Workers Band in Monongah and mowed
fairways and greens at Fairmont Field Club, where I caddied for 10 years to
help pay my way through West Virginia University School of Journalism.
Ann and Joe, whose lived at the bottom of Bridge Street hill, are the
godparents of my son John Larry.
Joe's brother, Tony Eates, Class of 1950, lives in Fairmont with wife Lucy
Cann Eates. Other siblings, all deceased, are Nick Eates, Class of
1935; Dominick Eates, Class of 1946, a former Monongah High football
punter who married the late Mary Larry Eates from Carolina; Mike
Eates; Mary Eates; and Angeline Eates.
Mike, who passed away in 2008, was married to the late Clarksburg
Washington Irving High graduate Jeannie Eates. Nick Eates, who passed away in 1999, repeatedly
complemented my parents on their garden in our Church Street home in Monongah
when he went for a walk on the sidewalk along U.S. 19/Camden Avenue. Mary passed away in 1997. Dominic
passed away in 2000. Dominic and Mary’s son, Larry Dan Eates, Class of
1970, married Frances Victor Eates, a 1971 Farmington High grad. Angeline passed away in 2005.
When Joe once was asked what adjectives he wanted to describe him he
replied: “Trustworthy, sincere, friendly.” Everyone who ever met Joe, including me, can
tell you that is a PERFECT way to describe Joe. St. Peter
never had a better occupant in Heaven.
Here’s another Monongah High romance that included serving our country by
the spouse. Sheila K. Mobley McCutcheon and Dorsey A. McCutcheon, Jr., both
Class of 1974, were in the SAME home room from 7th grade until they
graduated. They married December 6, 1974, two days before Dorsey left for the
Air Force.
I’ll let Sheila tell the rest of the fairy tale: “After boot camp he was
allowed to come get me and we lived in Wichita Falls, Texas for 3 months during
his tech school. He was assigned to England Air Force Base in Alexandria, Louisiana.
We stayed there the rest of his enlistment. Both our boys were born there, John
Dorsey in 1975 and James Allen in 1978.
“We settled in Cheat Lake after his discharged from serving 4 years in the
Air Force and lived there 29 years. Dorsey worked as a mechanic in the PRT. I
worked as a manager at Montgomery Ward, then at Mylan Pharmaceuticals. All 8
grandchildren live in the Suncrest area of Morgantown.”
Sheila has a great memory of Marcia Michalski Westfall, the Motorcyle Mamma
who also is in this article with her Harley ElectroGluide husband Dave
Westfall:
“Marcia and Dave came to Alexandria to visit us. We shot bottle rockets out
the back of our van as we were doing down a highway! Laughing all the way.
Great friends, great times.”
Sheila added: “When Dorsey passed away in 2019 he had full military honors
at Grafton’s National Cemetery.” As well he should have for his service to our
country.
Elaine Hewitt Monell, Class of 1949, and Raymond “Soak” Monell, Class
of 1945, are another heart-warming purring Lions roaming the halls of Monongah
High who married and roared with laughter and love. Soak, a Monongah High
basketball player, passed away. Elaine lives in Riverside, a Dayton, Ohio
suburb. Last time I checked Elaine and Soak had 4 children, 13 grandchildren and, like me, 6 great-grandchildren. They
were married for 64 years. Soak passed away in 2012.
The Elaine and Soak love story began not
inside MHS hallways but at the PNA Tavern operated in Monongah by the Brzuzy
family where Elaine, Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, and Madonna
Haggerty frequented to get a look at John "Duke" Manzo, Frank Ross and Soak. A first date at the Strand Theater led on May 12, 1951, to the altar
at Our Lady of Pompeii Church with Father John Reardon handling the wedding
ceremony and Joe Faber’s band providing the music at the Union Hall reception.
Madonna Haggerty, Class of 1949,
became Mrs. Albert Snider. Ramona, Class of 1949, became Mrs. Frank Michalski.
Frank, who left Monongah High after his final 1948 football season there, is
deceased.
Soak’s
sister, Julie Monell Koloskie, passed away in 2013. Her husband of 66 years,
Junior Koloskie, Class of 1944, passed awazy years later; their children are Jerry
Koloskie, Class of 1975, and Lydia Monell.
Ramona
Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, and Frank Michalski, who started with Class of
1950 with me but left without graduating after playing the 1948 football season
at Monongah High became Lions whose home with a swimming pool was the meeting
place for anyone who visited Monongah, including me. Tom Dean, also Class of
1949, NEVER appeared in Marion County without stopping by to see his beloved
Monie.
Whenever I
don’t know the connections of former Lions I’m writing about, I call Ramona,
whose memory is excellent. When I visited her home with my children and
grandchildren in a tour of my life’s memory landmarks, every room was filled
with Monongah High memorabilia, down to the MHS Lion with water spitting out of
its mouth.
Ramona and Frank had six children. Marcia Michalski
Westfall, Class of 1974, married Dave Westfall, Class of 1972; Mike Michalski
(wife Jan); Jay Michalski (wife Debbie), Carol Michalski Drake (husband Bob), another
Ramona Michalski and the late Mary Frances Michalski Gapen, Class of 1968, who
married Rick Gapen.
Marcia
followed in her parents’ footsteps with her own Monongah High romance that
developed into a long, happy marriage, to David Westfall, Class of 1972. So
amazing that in 2015 they were named the Fairmont Times’ Family of the Year.
Marcia
recalls “We started dating in the spring of 1972” only a few months before Dave
graduated. “We married in July of 1974,” a couple of months after Marcia
graduated. “We were children,” Marcia said. And, now, happy grownups.
Their children are Brandie
Haney, Amy
Westfall Raines
and David Westfall. “The children all live within a half-mile of us in
Kilarm or Koons Run.” Marcia and Dave have 8 grandchildren.
Dave worked for the Department of Highways in DOH in Marion
County and Marcia was a schoolteacher in Marion County. Both retired in 2019.
Their
travels are pretty much contained to motorcycling all over America. “We’ve traveled across the country twice,”
Marcia posted, “and especially like the Gulf Coast of Florida.” Marcia
and Dave whisked their way to Florida and California on their Harley motorcycle.
They
did make it to Canada together and Dave to Mexico without Marcia.
If you haven’t noticed by now most of the male Lions married younger female
lions. Like Linda Lou Nottingham Willis, Class of 1964, who married Dave L.
Willis, Class of 1961.
Linda’s note to me: “I see where someone entered me and my husband’s names
for Monongah High romances. We are proud of that fact. We were married May 15,
1965. We have two sons, Shawn and Kevin. Shawn has two sons, Bryson and Camdon.
Sorry to say his wife, Melissa, passed away. Kevin and wife Chrissy have a son,
Kyler.
“We are fortunate that they all live near us in Idamay. We still live in
Worthington,” which is where Linda and Dave grew up. I know all about the value
of family remaining nearby even after they leave their parents’ home. My 3
children, 5 of my 7 grandchildren and 4 of my 6 great-grandchildren live within
20 miles of my Tallmadge, Ohio home. Family visits are frequent and full of fun
and frivolity.
Danny Fullen, Class of 1961, and Ina Kincaid Fullen, Class of 1962, “were
high school sweethearts who got married right out of school,” Danny tells me.
Being Lions was a family thing, Ina added. “All four of my siblings and I
graduated from Mononongah High. My brother Jack Kincaid is Class of 1965. My
sisters are Pam Kincaid West, Class of 1968, and Mary Kincaid Tennant, Class of
1970.” Their father is George Kincaid.
Lorraine Snider Hulderman and Raymond “Bugs” Hulderman, Class of 1966, were
“high school sweethearts who dated for two years while going to Monongah High
School,” Lorraine recalls. They were married 55 years as of March 11, 2022. Bugs
retired after 43 years as a coal miner. They have 2 sons, 7 grandchildren (6
boys and 1 girl) and 3 great-grandchildren. Lorraine’s brother, Jerry Snider,
and her sisters Prudy Snider Kozik and Linda Snider Bragg and Bugs’ siblings
Don Pitman, Tom Hulderman (a great Monongah High athlete and long-time friend
of Alabama coach Nick Saban, quarterback of the 1968 MHS team that won a state
title, 1 of 5 by the Lions over the years) and Sylvia Hulderman Edwards that
ALL graduated from Monongah High. Lions everywhere in THAT family!
Lorraine and Bugs live on Swisher Hill.
Bugs and Tom Hulderman’s brother, Don Pitman, Class of 1962, has been
married for 57 years, but to Fairmont West graduate Joan Pethel Pitman.
Donna McGinnis Suppa-Fullen, Class of 1963, tells me about her Monongah
High romance with Jackie Suppa that included the senior prom: “Jackie and I
both were in the Class of 1963. We were in English class together and decided
to go to the senior prom together. After that we were inseparable. We married
August 13, 1965 – Friday the 13th.
“Jackie flew in from Germany to get married while he was in the Army. We
were married a few months shy of 46 years when he sadly passed away in June
2011 (while vacationing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We had a happy life
together. We have two daughters, Melisa and Christina, who both live in Taylor
County (Grafton area).”
Ah, but there’s a second romantic chapter here. I’ll let Donna tell it:
“In 2015 after he lost his wife Anne after more than 40 years together
Bernie Fullen and I connected on Facebook. At that time he was living in
Canton, Ohio. He decided to return to West Virginia. We were married in July
2016. Bernie has a daughter living in Indiana along with her husband and two
grandchildren and several great-granchildren. Bernie and I both graduated
together in 1963 and Bernie and Jack were best friends. We are leading a happy
life together and believe the Lord had a big part in it.”
Bernie’s sister, Geraldine Fullen Ross, Class of 1950, also passed away in
2017 in Michigan.
Donna and Jackie had two daughters, Melissa
Dawn Knotts and Christina Renee Tucker, and five grandchildren. Jackie’s
siblings were Tony Suppa, Edith Renick and Shelby Lowther and the late Thomas
Suppa.
Tammy Brooks relays this heart-warming and
heart-breaking story about her parents, Joann Shumate Chipps, Class of 1971,
and Tom Chipps, Class of 1969:
“Their first
date was August 5, 1970 to the Mannington Fair (John Olesky: It was a big deal
when I was a child in Monongah). Joann was in the summer between her junior and
senior year. They knew each other when dad was still in Monongah High but
didn’t date. They were married April 14, 1972.
“They started their marriage living just off Manley Chapel Road,
then spent 30ish years in White Hall where they reared their 2 daughters. They
moved back to Manley Chapel, building a house on dad’s family farm land. Dad
built the house himself with the help of his brother and son-in-law Kevin and
several other friends and family.
“Their daughters Tracy Estel married Kevin Estel and have 1 child
and Tammy Brooks Moore married Richard Moore amd they have 4 children. The
grandchildren are Ben Estel (15), Nathan Brooks (18), Hallie Brooks (17), Jesse
Moore (20) and Samantha Moore (16).
“I remember them taking me and Tracy to Sea World and Storybook
Forest. Summers on the farm with the children helping plant vegetables or
running through cornfields. Working on the 1969 Mustang that he rebuilt that my
sister wrecked when she was in college.
“Just the two of them traveled to Texas to see old classmates and friends.
As they got older they enjoyed going out to eat together.
“Mom had a heart transplant in 2004 due to a congenital defect and
did very well. She had a hemorrhagic stroke in October 2018 and passed away on
November 26, 2018.”
Ina June Kincaid Fullen, Class of 1962, and Daniel L. Fullen, Class
of 1961, were a typical couple that romanced and danced in the hallways of
Monongah High and, as Ina recalls, “got married right out of school” after “we
were high school sweethearts.”
Their son, Daniel L. Fullen, Jr., had to settle for being a 1985
North Marion graduate because Monongah High ceased to exist in 1979.
And there’s my cousin, Mary Chris Fazio Ramsey and husband Tom
Ramsey, both Class of 1969. Mary Chris, as in Merry Christmas because she was
born close to or on that day, had the most fantastic father, golfer and, for
me, uncle ever! Renzy Fazio, who ran the Fazio Grocery at the bottom of Jackson
Street hill with wife Frances Olesky Fazio, sister of my father, John W.
Olesky, Sr., shot a 30 !! on the White Day Golf Course with me as his golf
companion. When he got back to Aunt Frances he bragged about MY golf game! That
was Uncle Renzy. Unassuming, but talented as hell in so many ways.
Renzy and Frances’ other children are Dave Fazio, Class of 1968, who
married 1973 Farmington High grad Cora Fazio who owns and operates Fazio
ElderCare on Stoney Lonesome Road just south of Monongah on U.S. 19; Irene
Fazio Preolitti, Class of 1966, who lives in Traction Park with husband Mike
Preolitti, Class of 1962; and Steve Fazio, Class of 1975, widower of Nancy
Fazio. Both Dave and Cora are Fairmont
State graduates.
Renzy and Frances are both Class of 1937 but it was the 1940s before
they married.
·
Joanne Davis Ash, Class of 1954, married Maxwell Ash, Class of
1953. She recalls: “My husband and I went to Monongah High. We were married
64½ years. He passed away 2 years ago.” Joanne grew up in Four States and lives
in Marshfield, Missouri.
Although I didn’t romance and marry a Monongah High girl (my fault;
I was such a 99-pound dork who was invisible to the girls and I don’t blame
them) but I did have a Cinderella, I’ll add my story to end this epic article.
After my graduation from West Virginia University School of
Journalism, and no luck with females in my first 20 years, I met Monia
Elizabeth Turkette, who was living in the Cinderella, West Virginia coal mining
camp adjacent to Williamson when I was sports editor of the Williamson Daily
News with 43 years of journalism ahead of me. I heard her before I saw her. She
was in the stands at a baseball league that I organized, the first integrated
such sports program in Williamson and Mingo County history (1954, remember,
before the Supreme Court slapped racists into the face with Roe v. Wade), when
I heard her yell: “I suppose you call THAT a hard single.”
The back story: As Sports Editor, when Monia’s brother, Larry, hit a
baseball into the outfield that went through the legs and under the glove of
the outfielder I wrote the next day about Larry hitting “a hard single.” Didn’t
want to call it an error on the fielder and didn’t want to diminish what Larry
had gone. So that led to what I call today My Mona Lisa and a love that lasted
for 50 years (2 years of courtship and 48 of marriage before she passed away in
2004).
I turned to a coach next me and third base and said, “I know how to
shut her up.” So I took her to a date at the Belfry Drive-In with a half-dozen
12-and-under baseball players as our chaperones. Never shut her up. Never
wanted to. Just listened to someone WAY smarter than me. We were married in 1955,
had 3 children in 4 years, then 7 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
See, instead of getting angry you turn it into a half-century of
love, devotion and running home from work every day because you can’t stand to
be away from her for another minute. We named one daughter, Monnie Ann, after
her. Monnie Ann named her daughter, MonnieLynn, after her. And her other
daughter, Beth, after the back part of her middle name of Elizabeth. My
grandchildren include Eliza, the front part of Elizabeth.
As I tell everyone when I pass away I’ll be the happiest man in
Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio because I’ll be with My Mona
Lisa, as our double grave marker says, “J L M 4 E + 1D.” John loves Monnie for
Eternity plus 1 day.
After My Mona Lisa passed away I was so distraught for 7 months,
curled in a ball of pain day after day and week after week. Then along came
Paula, my reporter when I was assistant State Desk editor at the Akron Beacon
Journal, who lifted the veil of agony and replaced it with 17 years of joy and
pleasure.
So I am a coal miner’s son who married a coal miner’s daughter and
then lucked into a clinical psychologist, which a woman needs to understand why
I do what I do. I will NEVER understand how I got so lucky in life. I’m 89,
play golf 50 to 100 rounds a year with Paula’s brother, Tom, in two seniors
leagues (we won the 2020 title in one), traveled to 56 countries, 44 states and
took more than 30 winters in Florida of up to 4 months at a time to escape the
Arctic weather than torments Northeast Ohio every winter.
But, then, everyone in this article has done as well or better than
me with their romances, which began in Monongah High. Fate doesn’t choose your
mate. Your mate chooses you. You can never repay them the debt you owe them. I
never will be able to pay my debt to My Mona Lisa, my 3 children, my 7
grandchildren and my 6 great-grandchildren.
Ain’t life grand when you have grands in your family?
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