As anticipation mounts for “Alumni/Memorial Day Weekend” in Grand Junction, where graduates and natives of Grand Junction and the greater East Greene community (GJ, Dana, Beaver and Rippey) return for the annual East Greene/Grand Junction Alumni Banquet on Saturday evening of the long weekend, Eye on GJ is embracing the spirit and school colors of Grand Junction High School by shifting to a blue and gold color scheme.
And continuing with the theme of the scheme (colors), we present a look at the GJHS Class of 1951, which is celebrating its 60th year anniversary.
The Class of 1951 was 29-members strong and was comprised of students from the elementary schools in Grand Junction and Beaver and St. Mary’s Academy in Grand Junction. Here, as they appeared in order in the Blue Jay, the yearbook of 1951, is the graduating class:
Wayne Ellwanger, president
Roger Van Pelt, vice president
John Friel
Rita Gross
Norman Tolsdorf
Janice Miller
Mary Reiniman
Vera Mae Ritter
Charles Clark
Daniel Cleland
Richard Greene
Verdell Ritter
Dorothy Doran
Phyllis Creamer
Tommy Fisher
Mary Hunter
Darrell Kersey
Carol Lewis
Claude Winchell
Katherine Ferguson
Ruth Frantz
Marlene Raner
Virginia Hoskinson
Velma Renslow
Graham Phinney
Myrna Henderson
Evelyn Smalley
Wayne Lingner
Belva Rose
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Grand Junction High School as it appeared in 1950-51. |
At that time, the school facilities consisted of “Old Main,” the school building built between 12th and 13th Streets in 1915 and the gymnasium-auditorium addition built in 1939. Grand Junction was long known as the town with the “big gym” as the other area schools all had the older-style gyms built in the lower, or basement level, of the school buildings, which was the case in Rippey (cement floor), Dana (wood floor), Beaver, Jefferson, Scranton, Churdan and most other high schools in the area.
The 1915 building in Grand Junction, too, featured a lower-level gym with big cement block-type seating along the sides. As such, the building’s third-floor study hall served as an auditorium with a small stage, which was a visible structural feature for many years despite this part of the school room being remodeled various times. The GJ teams in the 1920s and 1930s played on the hardwood floor of the spacious top floor of the Legion Hall on Main Street in Grand Junction.
The Bluejay hoopsters were coming off several very successful seasons and the ’51 squad was relatively inexperienced. But that year’s Bluejay squad rolled up a 13-9 winning record, finishing in a tie for third in the Greene County Conference with Cooper with a 5-4 record. In the county tournament, GJ rolled over Dana 72-33 and Cooper 48-38 to advance to the championship game, where they were downed by Churdan, 52-31. In Class A sectional action, Perry got the best of the Bluejays, 44-36, in the first round. (In those years, GJ played in Class A in the post-season sectionals along with Jefferson, Carroll, Perry, Ogden and Boone while all the other teams from the smaller towns played in the Class B sectionals. In some years, the As and Bs competed separately until reaching the state tournament, while in other years they were mixed together at either the district or substate levels. The state tournament was broken into Class A and B divisions in 1956 and continued that way through 1960 before reverting to a one-class tournament in 1961 then again splitting into two classes in 1967.)
Wayne Ellwanger and Tommy Fisher, the only two seniors on the ’51 team, were co-captains. Other team members were Bob Johnson, Jim Powers, Dick Frantz, Don “Zeke” Rees, Lee Deal, Jim Jewett, Dale Mount, Dick Phinney, Dick Mitchell, Dave Wetrich and Dick Greene, manager. The coach was Ed Chuck, who taught science, coached baseball and was athletic director.
Myrna Henderson and Ruth Frantz were the only seniors on the Bluejayettes basketball team, which finished the season 6-14 after a second-round loss in sectional action to Jamaica, having beaten Bagley in the first round. Four of the losses were by 3 points or less, so with a few breaks the team could have gone 10-10. Competition was very tough within the Greene County Conference as two teams advanced on to the districts and one, Churdan, advanced to the state tournament. Myrna, a guard, was named captain of the team while Marilyn Wood, a junior guard, was named co-captain. The offense was lead by junior Shirley Cronin, who averaged 22.1 points a game and moved her three-year career scoring total to 1,102 points. Other team members were Ardis Underwood, Clara Busch, JoAnn Luther, Janice Cummings, Beverlee Ferguson, Norma Hillman, Margaret Mount and Beverly Edgar. Patsy Bradwell was team manager and Miss Schneider, who taught sixth grade, was chaperone. The coach was Mr. Holle, who taught social science.
The Bluejays were 8-2 in fall baseball, advancing to the county tournament championship where they fell to Churdan, 4-3, in an extra-inning thriller.
GJ cheerleading squads in the late 40s and early 50s were co-ed. The squad of five in 1950-51 was comprised of four seniors—Marlene Raner, Rita Gross, Velma Renslow, Charles Clark—and one sophomore, Art Deal. The girls and guys each wore white satin bomber jackets with blue piping with the girls pairing theirs with blue-and-gold satin skirts while the guys wore white cotton chinos and blue sneakers. The pep band members wore white shirts with blue ties and dark slacks or trousers.
The GJHS band was 49-members strong and participation was high in mixed chorus and boys’ and girls’ glee clubs. The drama students presented six, one-act plays to the community in the gym-auditorium that year. GJHS students also had active FHA and FFA groups in 1950-51.
Four class members earned scholarship honors for all of the three years (senior, junior and sophomore) that students were recognized—Tommy Fisher, Ruth Frantz, Virginia Hoskinson and Roger Van Pelt. Katherine Ferguson was honored for scholarship her senior and junior years and Rita Gross was honored senior year. Verdi Anderson, who earned scholarship honors as a sophomore and was one of four members of the cheerleading squad that year (1948-49), transferred to Paton his last two years, graduating with the Paton High School Class of 1951.
Ruth Frantz was editor of the “Scoop,” the school newspaper that appeared each week in the Globe-Free Press, with John Friel as co-editor. Roger Van Pelt and Rita Gross were editors of the Blue Jay.
The superintendent that year was W.J. Edgar and the principal was R.F. Leland. School board members Jack Mears, Leon Frantz, Harold Radebaugh, Mryon Jewett and John Young, with Mears serving as president. J.E. Brady was the board secretary and Claus Loof was the treasurer.
The 1951 Blue Jay also makes note of class members who were “the original six,” having entered kindergarten together in the February 1939—Tommy Fisher, Katherine Ferguson, Ruth Frantz, Myrna Henderson, Virginia Hoskinson and Roger Van Pelt.
EYE ON GJ SAYS: The Class of 1951 is full of names synonymous with Grand Junction: Frantz, Van Pelt, Tolsdorf, Gross, Hoskinson, Fisher and Kersey. Many went on to success beyond central Iowa while others settled down into productive lives in Grand Junction. Dorothy Doran, a Beaver girl, married Cecil Rueter GJ ’47 and raised a family in Grand Junction and helped her husband build a very successful business, known today as Rueter’s Red Power. She and her oldest son, Kim, are both celebrating milestone reunions this year as Kim is a member of the EG Class of ’71, the 40th anniversary class. Katherine (Kate or Kathy) Ferguson advanced on to Drake University where she was a member of Chi Omega sorority. She then married Roger Fisher GJ ‘50, the brother of classmate Tommy Fisher, and they raised three children, first in rural Grand Junction, and then in a beautiful home that continues to grace the wooded area of East Main Street. Roger and Kathy divorced in the mid-1970s and Kathy returned to Drake and finished work on her bachelor’s degree. She eventually relocated to Colorado while Roger presently lives in Des Moines.
Myrna Henderson had a long and successful career working in Des Moines and often returned to Grand Junction to visit family and friends, among them her dad, Claude Henderson; Florence (Henderson) Dobson; Janet Henderson; sister-in-law Dorothy Henderson; and nephew Gary Henderson and his family. Tommy Fisher remained in the area and his children attended Ogden Community Schools. Several of them live in the area. Rita Gross Reedy died last March in Elkhorn, Neb. Rita was one of 12 children in the Gross family—all educated at St. Mary’s Academy and GJHS. The two surviving Gross children are Eileen GJ ’44 and Emmett GJ ’53.
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