Woodrow Wilson School
 Hickory Avenue
Newport News, VA 23607
Saturday, May 10, 2008 - Microsoft Virtual Earth
Courtesy of Sydney Dearing ('56) of TN - 05/11/08
Thanks, Sydney!
 
Mrs. Elinor Lyle Taylor's
First Grade Class
1953-1954		 Mrs. Scoll's
Second Grade Class
1954-1955


 

FRONT ROW: Gregory Edsell, Carol Ann Timberlake, Bobby Nettles, Terence Scott Abbott, Mary Earl Scruggs, William Lee Shelton.

SECOND ROW: Linda Faye Hancock, Mitchell Lee Abbott, Henry Hoyle, Betty Joe Elliott, Nelson Harris, Tommy Newman.

THIRD ROW: Suzy Ann Christmas, Lawrence (Eddie) Perry, Bobby Yevak, Anne Sawyer, Kay Burks, Don Hicks, Johnnie Harmon, Edna Whitcomb.

BACK ROW: Jimmy Dick, Johnny Montague, Millie Bost, William Lee Stevenson, Mary Carolin, Joe Poe.

NOT PICTURED: Michael Callahan and Johnnie Jenkins.
 

 "My memory is failing, but here are the names I remember:"  - Henry Hoyle

FRONT ROW:  Nelson Harris, Richard Gordon, ??, Bobby Marston, Dennis ?, ??, ??, Carol Ann Timberlake, Johnny Jenkins.

MIDDLE ROW:  ??, Henry Hoyle, ??, Gregory Peck, ??, Jimmy Dick, ??, ??, William Shelton.

BACK ROW:  Mrs. Scoll, Edna Whitcomb, Eddie Perry, Charlotte Thompson, Bobby Yevak, Kay Burks, Millie Bost, Anne Sawyer, Johnny Montague
Courtesy of Eddie Perry ('65) of TN - 06/05/02
Thanks, Eddie!		 Courtesy of Henry Hoyle ('65) of Northern VA - 11/01/03
Thanks, Henry!


 

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was born in the Presbyterian manse in Staunton, Virginia,
but was taken to Georgia as an infant. In later life he attended the University of Virginia
and his second wife was a Virginian. He referred to himself as a Virginian, but he was
elected president in 1912 while serving as governor of New Jersey. His first term was
marked by domestic reforms, his second by American participation in World War I.
 

Mini-Biography of Woodrow Wilson Courtesy of http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/wilson.htm - 09/23/05
 


 

I went to Woodrow Wilson from first to seventh grade. 
When I go to my reunions there are about four of us who went all the way through WW and NNHS together: 
Dale Mueller, Alice Goldsmith, Carol Groshong, and a few more besides myself. 
Mrs. Wolfe, our sixth grade teacher, had taught my MOTHER. 
She was also taught by Mr. Wheary and Miss Margaret Lane who were at NNHS. 
We were allowed to go to Dairy Queen at lunch time...and to wander all the way down to the tennis courts...
the school property was a whole city block. 
I was good friends with Linda Baker, Kitty Clark, Brenda Dansey (Brenda moved to Hampton before high school),
Elaine Vasilas, Kathy Avant. 
My mother let us go trick or treating for miles...and I was allowed to have Halloween parties, Valentine parties,
and I had a great "sweet 16 party" in our garage...we played "spin the bottle" and "post office". 
My mother sent me to the store (Morrison's or Manning's) almost every day. 
My dad would take us to Bill's BBQ on Kecoughtan Road for BBQ sandwiches, a BIG FAMILY TREAT! 
I would not trade anything for the way I grew up. 
I attended Ivy Memorial Baptist when I was a teenager and have wonderful memories of that church and the people there.

- Jean Poole Burton ('64) of RI - 02/20/03
Thanks, Jean!



 

Dear Carol,

I enjoyed your N.N.H.S. web site.  I never attended your high school, but due to the era of "BUSING",
I was sent to WOODROW WILSON ELEMENTARY  for grades 6 and 7. We left the area in 1974 for Central Virginia.   
What I remember the most the very first time I saw the school was the age of it.
(We lived at Jefferson and Oyster Point Road at Criston Apartments and later Village Green.
I played everyday at Yoder Dairy where my best friend's father was the care taker for the farm.)  
I had attended L. F. Palmer Elementary School which had just opened. Just a jump over the fence and I was there.
The next year it was a 50 minute bus ride up I-64 to school due to busing.

Over the years I have thought back at those times...
without a doubt the old Woodrow Wilson Elementary School had to be my favorite because of the character of the architecture.
I read the section of the web site on "our schools" about Wilson.
The size of the school's property was unique - a whole city block. 
I looked for the school when I was in the area about 20 years ago but it was gone.  
However what was left was unforgettable...
the huge magnolia tree that we climbed every morning (and told every morning to get out of) was still there.  
They had built houses where the school once stood. What a great school.  
(Even though the lunches were awful since they shipped them in from another school around the corner.)

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.         

Gary Wun - 12/19/04
WOW!  Thanks, Gary!



 

I was just looking at the site of our old schools and I had a huge feeling of gratitude for all of my elementary
school teachers.  I was fortunate enough to have Elinor Taylor in first grade, Ruth Scoll in second grade,
Julia Fontaine in third, Eugenia Harris in fourth, Edla Page in fifth, Alice Wolf in sixth, Ruby Norris
in seventh.  Our principal was Lucille Wheeler.  Each of these dear women gave me something special...a love
of school and a love of learning...a sense of security and stability...a sense that life was good...

    
Mrs. Taylor taught reading in a very unique manner...she would have the children "act out" the story like a
little play...one of the best readers in the class would read the story and the others would be "Goldilocks and the
Three Bears" or whoever was in the story.  It was such fun you did not realize you were learning...Miss Scoll
made us practice our Locker writing...over and over again our cursive letters.  Sorry to say my handwriting has
deteriorated terribly but not because I have forgotten the way it is supposed to look!  Mrs. Fontaine taught us
about Indians and we were allowed to build dioramas...everyone thought it was great that we could build these
flour and salt things with mountains and rivers and little plastic people in them!  Miss Harris taught us history
and geography...she made us write out the questions and the answers in longhand...no T/F or fill in the blanks...no
sirreee...never dawned on me that this was her way of getting in our cursive practice as well as learning history
and geography!  Mrs. Page used to read a chapter of a book every morning (Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys...we voted
on the book) to center us and settle us down for learning...what a great idea!  Mrs. Wolf had a great sense of humor...
a tongue in cheek wit...and a son our age...you could not put anything over on her!  Mrs. Norris was very
long-suffering of a bunch of 7th graders who were too big for their britches!  Miss Wheeler HAD CONTROL...of that
school.  I did not realize at the time that she did many lovely and kind things for families in need...quietly and
behind the scenes...all the children in that school were loved and nurtured.  It was like a family. 

    
In today's world, if a teacher breaks the law or gets in trouble it is front page news for days on end...if a teacher is
doing a great job...it is not in the newspaper...If any of you know a teacher who is doing a great job, give them a pat
on the back today.. or send them a card or a note....they are molding and shaping lives...they are building the future...
they are a national treasure.  

 - Jean Poole Burton ('64) of RI - 08/18/05
That is so true!  Thanks, Jean!

 



 

Someone mentioned having Doris Hutton for band...we had Doris Hutton for square dancing when we
could not go outside due to rain. One of the catchy tunes we danced to was engraved on my brain but I
never knew the title until, while working as an activity director I spotted the same tune, along with lyrics,
in a singalong book. It was entitled "Marching Through Georgia". I believe Mrs. Hutton was from "up north"
and am wondering if she just got a big kick out of that...or maybe it was innocent? I will give her the benefit
of the doubt!

 - Jean Poole Burton ('64) of RI - 09/27/05
Thanks, Jean!
 



 
    
I have this pictorial book:
 		  
   

In it appears this photo:

 

 

  
     
 

 

Good thing that the photo is from the early 40s. It is unlikely that any subscriber
is the young man mooning us from the past.

- Dave Spriggs ('64) of VA - 05/02/06
WOWZERONI!  How utterly charming!  Thanks, Dave!
 



 
Hi Carol,
 
As my sister Nancy just joined us here on the Typhoon website, I thought the readers might enjoy this story from our childhood..  In 1953 we had a pet Collie whose name was Laddy; actually Laddy was Nancy's dog.  She had been wanting a dog for quite a while and when Laddy's former owner, who was in the Air Force at Langley AFB found out he was being sent overseas he had to find a new home for the dog.  My mother worked at Langley and when she learned about the situation she arranged for Laddy to come live with us.
 
The Woodrow Wilson Elementary School was just across the street from our house.  I don't know if he did things like this before he came to live with us or not, but whenever Nancy and the other kids were using the sliding board in the schoolyard Laddy would get in line and climb right up the ladder and slide down the board just like one of the kids.  Then he would trot around and get back in line and do it again. 
 
Somehow the Daily Press got wind of this and sent a reporter and photographer to the school  They did an article which ran in the paper with these pictures.  Nancy and Laddy were suddenly famous.  People from all over were driving by our house and by the school to see if they could get a glimpse of the sliding board dog.  All of our relatives, even ones we rarely saw or talked to were calling and telling us that they were bragging to all their friends that they were related to Nancy.  
May 1953
 

Sadly, within the next few months Laddy was hit by a car and killed.  A neighbor lady came and told Mom that a dog had been run over just up the block, and she thought it was Laddy.  Mom told me about it but she didn't want to tell Nancy.  We told Nancy that we thought somebody had probably read about Laddy in the paper and kidnapped him to be a star circus performer.  She cried, but it wasn't as bad as it would have been had she learned that he had been killed, and pretty soon she started bragging that her dog was a circus star.  She didn't find out the truth until years later.

   - Sydney Dearing ('56) of TN - 04/17/08
WOWZERONI - what an enchanting story!!! Thanks so much, Sydney!



 

There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding

Lyrics by Stoddard King, Music by Alonzo "Zo" Elliott, 1915
 

Nights are growing very lonely,
Days are very long;
I'm a-growing weary only
List'ning for your song.
Old remembrances are thronging
Thro' my memory.
Till it seems the world is full of dreams
Just to call you back to me.

Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams:
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

All night long I hear you calling,
Calling sweet and low;
Seem to hear your footsteps falling,
Ev'ry where I go.
Tho' the road between us stretches
Many a weary mile.
I forget that you're not with me yet,
When I think I see you smile.

Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams:
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

"There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding" midi courtesy of http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-music.html - 09/24/05

"There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding" lyrics courtesy of http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/theresalonglongtrailawinding.htm - 09/24/05

Images of Woodrow Wilson courtesy of http://www.historyplace.com/specials/calendar/docs-pix/jan-wilson.htm - 09/23/05
and http://chronicle.augusta.com/images/headlines/052699/ - 09/23/05

Pencil Divider Line clip art courtesy of http://www.bravenet.com - 08/02/04

Back to Our Schools When We Were Younger

Return to NNHS Class of 1965