Fascinating memories of 1937 graduates!

Bonita Lavencheck Waybright, Class of 1968, who lives in Blacksburg, Virginia; Jeanette Baczuk, Class of 1940, who lives in Ashland, Ohio; Barbara Fleming Marsh, Class of  1947, who lives in Thousand Oaks, California, and Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana, have some fascinating memories of the Class of 1937, who photos are in the Monongah High Alumni blog article below this one.

Write’s Bonita:

John, I have memories of some of the members of this class.  Kathleen  Thomas Snoderly was a teacher of mine at MHS.  I had her for Phys.  Ed, Speech and Economics & Sociology. She was also advisor for the National Honor Society. Bernard Kearns and Jean McKain were married. My mother knew Jean during her younger  days, and it seemed like every time we saw Jean she was always joking and made us laugh.  Her  youngest daughter, Susie, was a year ahead of me in school.  Susie  taught school in Barrackville. Dorothy Lee Schultz was a sister to  Margaret Mascaro, wife of John Mascaro.  I met Dorothy in the 1970's through Margaret.  They were both nice ladies.  I met Goldie Defazio Lipinski when I was in high school.  I know all her daughters, and  she was a school friend of my mother.  I knew Frances Olesky Fazio and your Uncle Renzy through their having the store.  I went to MHS during the same time as their children.  I remember as a child my  mother telling me that Frances, her sister Helen, and your dad, John,  were siblings.  Bernard "Bernie" Loss was such a nice, easy-going man.  I was friends with his daughter, Roseanne.  He worked for many years at Fairmont Supply Co.  On one of his walks up Camden Ave. he remarked to my mother and one of my aunts how clean they kept the  sidewalk in front of our house on Camden.  He was a brother to Jean Carlot and Lucille Loss Blocker who recently passed away.  I remember Marguerite Blocker Nichols from her working in Dr. Bressler's  office.  Her and her husband, Bob (the barber) lived across the  street from Carlot's on the previous site of the Monongah Bank, but  now a Family Dollar Store?  (Eventually, although it sure is a long, drawn-out process.) Their daughter was Jeannie who was married to Dinkle Martin.  Dinkle, Class of 1957, made the point after touchdown kick that won the 1955 state title for Monongah High School, its second under the late Coach Jim Feltz. Monongah has five state football titles (1952, 1955, 1968, 1969 and 1973) and one state baseball title (1955). Irene Lavencheck is my aunt.  She is in her 90's and still living in Fairmont.  She worked for many, many years for Westinghouse and retired from there.  You put this same picture of the Class of 1937 on your E-mail list more than a year ago.     During my last visit to Fairmont, I mentioned it to her.  She told me she had that picture and proceeded to go to a closet and handed it to me.  I said "That's the picture". Thanks for putting these pictures up and bringing back the memories  of the people and town of Monongah for all of us. Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for a  great New year!!!!!!! Bonita Lavencheck Waybright, Class of 1968

Jeanette, the spitfire of Monongah High’s alumni, wrote:

I remember most of the people in this class, because that was the senior class when I started to high school.  I especially remember James Barr, who was my brother.  I don’t think he spoke to me the entire year, because he was afraid someone might find out I was his sister.  And, of course, I remember Frances Olesky, because she and Jim were the stars of their class plays.  And Ed McIntire and Albert Scudiere, who were from Worthington.  Jim, Ed and Albert were all wearing the same coat in their pictures, because Albert was the only one who remembered that was picture day and wore a coat.  So, Ed and Jim wore his.  Ah, Jeanette, that is an interesting piece of trivia. Jim served in the Air Force Command during WWII, and was stationed in India.  After the war, he lived in El Paso, where he owned a restaurant.  He was a gourmet cook.  After that he moved to Phoenix and became an adjuster for Allstate Insurance Company, moving up to Vice President in charge of training adjusters in the eastern U.S. and Canada.  He later transferred to their home office in Skokie, Illinois. He retired, moved back to Phoenix and brought a lemon grove.  He died in 1989.

Barbara's reaction to the Class of 1937 wall photo:

Hi John,

How exciting and memorable for me to see a picture of each of my first cousins in the Class of 1937 Wall Photo.  They are Bill McLaughlin and Bill Fleming.  Both are gone now, but even tho’ they were 10 years older than me, I remember them so well.  Cousins were close in my youth. 

Bill McLaughlin was raised in Worthington, but lived on Fleming Hill when he died.  Bill Fleming spent most of his youth on Fleming Hill, until he married.

Thank you,

Barbara Fleming Marsh, Class of 1947

Frank Franze, Class of 1950, who lives in Slidell, Louisiana, saw a familiar 1937 face:

Rose Raschella, student teaching at Everson. She taught me in the first grade.

Frank

Wow!

That’s some great background information on the Class of 1937! What about you? Do you have memories of any 1937 graduates, or stories handed down through the family about them.

My Aunt Frances found a gold mine in Renzy Fazio. He was great to her and the children. 

He did run poker games in the back that some of the miners’ wives weren’t happy about, because they didn’t want too much of the paycheck winding up on the card table. 

My mother used to send me over to get my dad, John W. Olesky, Sr., to come home because she knew that, if I went there and cried, he’d come home. 

On the other hand, because my Dad forked over $50 at a time to my Mom when he came home and she quarreled with him about being out so long playing cards, she stashed the poker winnings away and it paid $2,200 to have the inside of our home renovated! There’s always some good in even bad things.

Uncle Renzy also was a tremendous golfer. I played with him – well, I mostly watched him play – at White Day golf course one day, between Fairmont and Morgantown. He shot a 30! 

Long, straight drives. Second shots to the green, unless the drive already got there. Accurate putting. No one ever played better golf with me as their playing companion than Uncle Renzy that day.

When I told Aunt Frances about it, in glowing terms, Uncle Renzy said of me: “He’s not so bad either.” Yeah, about 12 strokes worse than Uncle Renzy on that day!

If you have memories or stories about the 1937 graduates, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll put them on this Monongah High Alumni blog.