Sunday, January 08, 2012

1927-28 Girls Basketball Team

Front: Eileen Twamley, Mamie Cleem (Captain), Mae Gamble
Back: Isabelle Fitzpatrick, Verlie Cameron, Fidessa Wilkie, 

Dick Lapp (coach), Leila Davis, Violet Cleem, Fern Fitzpatrick.
ARE THE NAMES in the RIGHT ORDER?

[Photo Courtesy:  Kittson County Historical Society via Perm Diamond]
When growing up in St. Vincent, I regularly heard stories told by my mother, father, and grandmother (not to mention other village and county residents) about our hometown.  They ranged from tales of what the town looked like in the past, its businesses, the railroad, the churches, the roads and sidewalks (or lack thereof), to the lives of the residents themselves - their dreams, their families, and yes - their trials and woes.  More often than not, it was the tragedies and disappointments that were remembered.

However, there were also many happy memories shared.

Among them, was a passing reference to my Uncle John being an athlete in high school.  Not a lot to go on, and nothing about the fact that around the same time as John was participating in sports, the entire school had blossomed.  Except for the first years following incorporation and the initial surge of immigration, the time period we're talking about had the highest population.  There was a wide variety of extra curricular activities being offered for a small school, including sports.  I found all of this out many years later.  Even still later, I began finding out details to put on the skeleton of the bare-bone facts.

Recently, I was sent an image of the 1928 Girls Basketball Team from the St. Vincent School.  You can make a fairly safe conclusion, with the inconsistency of design, that the girls are wearing homemade uniforms. But bless them, they did their best.  My guess is that the girls made their own uniforms, at least the appliques - they show an immaturity that their mothers would have overcome had they created them.  It's sweet to see their efforts, though - the students and their community may have been humble, but they had school spirit!

NOTE:  Thanks to Kent Myrick (whose mother is in the above photograph, and who owns a complete, original copy of the 1928 Borderlines school annual), Lori Kohut Bianco (Gamble family descendant and whose great aunt is in the photo), and myself (who has two cousins in the photo), we know exactly WHO is in the photo, but we're still not entirely sure of the ORDER.  The ones we know for sure are the two Fitzpatricks girls (my cousins, one on each end of the back row), Leila Davis (Kent's mother, to the right of the coach), and the coach himself, Richard Lapp.  The other names are not conclusively matched to faces.  Personally, I think the girl second from the left in the back looks like a Twamley, but I could be wrong.  Also, Lori had heard oral family history about her great aunt having round glasses like the one girl does in the photo, at this time, but Kent says other photos showing a Mae Gamble with others doesn't show a girl with glasses.  VERY confusing.  Anyone reading this that can help clarify, I would love to hear from you!

A year later:  College Girl ID photo

St. Vincent Trivia:  My Aunt Pat (Alberta Fitzpatrick)  - who played on the St. Vincent Girls Basketball Team in high school - was in the final graduating class of the St. Vincent school, the Class of 1930.  Although the official consolidation bringing about District 352 didn't happen until the 1950's, evidently in the school year of 1929-30, the majority of the higher grade students began going to Humboldt.  My cousin (Aunt Pat's daughter) said her mother told her that she and three other boys were the only 4 to graduate from the St. Vincent High school in the 'last class' - Alberta, Fred Stranger, a Smith boy, and one other.  All others transferred to Humboldt.  The ones that transferred had to pay a tuition to do so.  The parents of the four students didn't have the money for it. So Alberta wasn't going to finish school. 
One morning she came downstairs and found my grandma (her mother) crying and when Alberta asked Grandma why she was crying Grandma said because I only had a 3rd grade education and you have a chance to graduate and aren't going to be able to do it. So my mother called the boys and asked them if they would be willing to go back to school and they agreed so they showed up in Prof. Good's class. Mom said he was so happy to see them he got tears in his eyes. From what I understand, the Professor made sure these four students graduated that final year...

3 comments:

  1. Kent Myrick4:06 PM

    Trish -

    These are the names of the girls in the basketball team in
    St. Vincent 1927-1928. Mom (Lelia Davis) was one of them.
    I have her Annual.

    I KNOW WHO THEY ARE. Front Row: Mae Gamble, Mamie Cleem (Team Captain), Eileen Twamley. Back Row: Fern Fitzpatrick, Violet Cleem, Fidessa Wilkie, Dick Lapp (coach), Leila Davis (MY MOTHER!), Verlie Cameron, and Isabelle Fitzpatrick. (Please note that the names of Fidessa Wilkie and Lelia Davis are reversed in the picture caption in the book. I show them correctly here. Kent Myrick)

    I posted this on Facebook, but I don't trust it very much,
    as I can never make it to anything I want it to!

    Kent Myrick

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Gamble family descendant told me this, however: The girl in back, third from the left, MIGHT be my Grandpa Bo's sister, Mae Gamble Yeager... I think she played basketball, & I seem to remember seeing an old yearbook of Grandpa's in which she had glasses like that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kent Myrick1:15 PM

    You know what? I think whoever captioned the basketball
    picture had it backwards, and that's why Mom and Fidessa
    were reversed. They're ALL reversed!

    Taking a closer look at the other girls, I realized that the girl
    to the left of Fidessa, captioned as Violet Cleem, is actually
    Verlie Cameron (who later married Ed Wilwant).

    Verlie was also Mom's BFF - literally. I also knew Verlie and Ed
    all my life, till they died. They were best friends of my parents.

    If this is correct, then here is the correct caption:

    Front: Eileen Twamley, Mamie Cleem (Team Captain), Mae Gamble

    Back: Isabelle Fitzpatrick, Verlie Camron, Fidessa Wilkie, Dick Lapp (coach),
    Leila Davis (MY MOTHER!), Violet Cleem, Fern Fitzpatrick.

    I checked out some of the other girls in other pictures. It bears
    out my "backwards" theory, though most aren't clear enough to
    make out features.

    I remember Mom showing me her Annual, but it was so many
    decades ago that I don't remember if she told me about the
    caption. She would have known.

    Kent

    ReplyDelete