TLC - The Lexington Connection

Just wanted you to know Hattie Sweeney ('53) Ussery wants someone to mail her TLC news. The address is as follows:

Mrs. Kenneth Ussery

15638 Varner Road

Mayview, Missouri 64071-9601

Thanks for the pics and update on Lexington. Everything appears to be taking shape very nicely.

Who will adopt Hattie?

Duane Schlueter writes:

While visiting with Tony Grosso last week, I mentioned that you send out
a newsletter about Lexington folks and that I may send info about his
promotion. I told him that his being named the head coach of the Jefferson
City Jays would be of interest to people in Lexington.

Tony grew up in Lexington where he played fullback and linebacker. He
graduated from Lexington High in 1973. He was selected from 13 applicants
which was narrowed down to five finalists: Kurt Thompson from Springfield;
David White, Socarro, NM; Steve Huff, College Station, TX; Don Simmons,
Blue Valley North, KS; and Tony from Jeff City. These were narrowed down to
Thompson and Grosso.

Tony was hired as an assistant 22 years ago by Coach Pete Adkins who
amassed record of 354 - 48 - 2; a 71-game winning streak and 9 state
championships. Coach Cole, an assistant, followed the legendary Adkins who
retired in 1995. While he was working on his masters and teaching in Lexington High School, Grosso got the call from Adkins. Tony came to Jeff for an interview the next day. Adkins and his team that had just won three state
championships made an immediate impact on Grosso. "You could see it and feel it" Grosso said. "The way the players reacted to the coaches, the way the coaches reacted to the players, the community and all the loyal Jay fans .... you could just tell there was something very, very special about this program." Tony's only regret is that his parents were not there to see him named head coach. He knew they would have been so proud.

Tony's a hard-working guy and we wish him much success.

In response to Jim O'Malley's query about which bank Jesse James robbed, Marilou Edwards (John R. Edwards '51) writes:

It was the Wentworth Bank, now Fredricksons' wine shop, that Jesse James robbed. Jesse James' great-grandson came from California a few years ago and presented a brass plaque to Sharman Trost, the owner at that time, stating such. The plaque should be somewhere in the wine shop.

You can check with Joann (Ritter) but she told me they named their shop "Limrick's" because it was the Limrick Bank owned, of course, by Mr. Limrick of Linwood Lawn. That part is true; it was the Limrick bank.

Marcia Cope Fleischman comments:

Someone mentioned in the newsletter about being taught the "rolling Missouri stop" by her dad in learning to drive. I learned the same maneuver from my dad. A few years ago I was taking our two girls to the swimming pool and, passing trough a quiet residential area, I pulled the famous "rolling Missouri stop" (braking at a stop sign to slow down to check for oncoming traffic, then rolling on through the intersection). A policeman pulled me over. When he came up to my window he asked, "What do you call what you did back there at the stop sign?" (Wrong question) "A rolling Missouri stop" I said. "My dad taught it to me when he taught me how to drive." He just laughed and let me go. "Stop twice at the next stop sign," he said. Now our girls call it a "rolling Lexington."

Mary K. (Wilcoxon) '58 Gooseman

My, what trivia memories these last two TLC letters have brought back to me. I of course remember most of them (anything after 1940). It only seems like yesterday that these things happened.

Yes, all the memories of Miss Mautino as well as Miss Lena. I must share one about Miss Lena. She had been, I think, Principal of the old Taylor School (where the American Legion building is today) and my father was a student. They were not allowed to even 'step' on the grass, and one day she caught him going across the school yard. She nabbed him and called him her "bad boy," which from then on, is what she called him. Later, when I came to Jr. High, and encountered her the "first" day in the hall, she pulled me aside and called "me" her 'bad girl', all because of what my Father did in grade school, which again stuck all the rest of the way through school. My Mother also had her in Teacher Training Class, and Miss Lena always told them that "the only place to chew gum, was behind the door in your room!" My what memories of by-gone days. Keep it coming Susan.

Margueritte (Marty) Shehan Malone:

Thanks Susan, you can go home again, thanks to Super Cyber Sue. The pictures and letters were great. I send you Virginia sunshine.

You are most welcome...all of you TLCers. You can do me a favor by sending your own profiles. Everyone wants that!

Jimmie Lorantos '59 writes:

So glad to receive your news of Lexington and so many names of upper-class members and classmates. How sweet it is to remember the smiles that go with the e-mail names listed. In the future I would like to add a few historic photos and hope they will jog fond memories. At our 40th reunion June '99 in Lexington I led the Class in singing our alma mater and you would have thought we were attending a pep rally circa 1955 LHS auditorium. I had been thinking of suggesting singing this at the reunion but feared our memories of this particular piece of music might not be vivid. No so. I stood and began. Others immediately stood and joined in and you would have thought from the volume and the spirit that it was the beginning of the Olympics. There is no place in the world that I could be prouder of calling my home town. We shared a special time in a special place in America. All Praise be to God. My love and best wishes to each of you. This is a perfect way to maintain touch. Remember when we thought a mimeograph was a pretty big deal or a yearly salary of $10,000 was being well paid. Now I have a communicator just like Mr. Spock. I still can't use my slide rule for anything but the b-c scale and the numbers have gotten so small I can hardly read them. May the peace of our Lord be always with you. Live long and Prosper. Laus Deo!

Relating back to #38, Diane Gibson '58 Conger adds:

I remember when Diane O'Malley lived in the apartment over the shoe shop. The Gibson Quality Hatchery building was connected to the stairway to their apartment. The thing I remember best is that they had a skylight. It was the first I had ever seen. Dad tore down the Hatchery in the 60s and put in the Coast To Coast Store. It is now the Police Station.

Bill Seiter lived right across the street from me, when I lived on Oneida. He played with all the Oneida Street gang. I, especially, remember his firecrackers on the Fourth of July!! He liked them to be powerful and loud!!! Bill came to visit me when we lived in Garnett, Ks. That would have been in the years between '66 and '70. That was the last time I saw him.

Ernestein Seiter lived next to Bill and his family for a short while, before they moved to South Street.

Also, does anyone remember Billy Galloday? He lived right across the street from Sonny (Oetting) in what was to become the Lefman house. His Father operated the Mainstreet Theater. Billy's mother and my mother traded babysitting. When it was his Mother's turn, she would send us to the show. I thought it was great! I think my Mother thought she was cheated. Billy was quite a handful. Another family lived there between the Gallodays and the Lefmans. The name escapes me.

Any news on Bill? Or Billy? Or the other family?

Shirley Briggle Miller remembers:

Delightful memories you relay to us from our TLC "members!" For one . . . Howard Johnson's recollection of our absolutely ingenious murder-mystery
play in Miss Margaret's 6th grade at Arnold School. Our rehearsal was almost as much fun as the real thing. We thought we were so clever, brilliant! Whatever. I (the victim and therefore dead) laughed so hard with the rest of the class that my stomach quivered up and down, as did the sheet (over the "dead"), to the continued delight of our classmates. Even Miss Margaret, believe it or not, laughed along with us all.

And now...the information you've all been waiting for...water meter covers!!!

Bob Ball continues his quest, and even has a website on the subject!!!! You MUST visit it. As Bob says "What's the point of having an obsession if one can't bore others with it???

http://www.iland.net/~jrball/

For those of you who are burning for information on Tonettes, I promise it will be dealt with the next issue!!!

And for those who are eager for my vacation photos...maybe I'll have to get a website!

Your devoted scribe,

Susan

P.S. While in Lexington, Gov. Holden visited the Senior Citizens Center and studied the plans for our 4 for Life complex. More on that next time too. The photo comes separately.