THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410120141
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
OPHELIA, ALTHOUGH NOT officially a graduate, was the star of the 55th-year reunion of Suffolk High School's class of 1939.
At Friday night's reunion banquet at the Holiday Inn, Ophelia did everything the perfect reunion guest should do: She generated lots of happy memories from alumni getting reacquainted; she starred in the evening's entertainment; and, best of all, she neither ate nor drank too much and was generally well-behaved.
Ophelia is a life-size artist's replica - a cut-out, really - of the notorious Model T Ford that went to Suffolk High every day of the 1938-39 school year. Henry C. Murden and William M. Spence, both '39 alumni, bought the original Ophelia in 1938 with $35 borrowed from a third classmate, C.L. ``Shrimp'' Pierce. The trio restored the car and drove it to school and all over Tidewater during their senior year.
She was the car none of the class members will ever forget.
Ophelia was a rarity, a cantankerous luxury in an era when few high school students owned their own cars. Murden, now clerk of Suffolk Circuit Court, and Spence, an Elizabeth City dentist, chuckled as they swapped Ophelia anecdotes with classmate Dr. David Levy. Levy, now a pediatrician in Detroit, remembered spending most of his senior year behind the car, pushing. ``We were always running out of gas,'' he said.
The class of '39 were teenagers of the Depression years, with the shadow of World War II looming just over their horizons.
``We had nothing, but we had everything,'' Rita Mehalko Costello said. Costello, a retired civil service administrative officer, is now a Portsmouth resident
The class of 1939 was one of the smallest Suffolk High had graduated, but it has remained one of the most tightly knit.
``That's because we love each other,'' said Gladys DuVal Smith, still a Suffolk resident.
Independent yet looked after by not only their own parents but those of their classmates, the 69 students considered themselves part of an extended family, not just a graduating class.
Although many of the class served in the military during World War II, there were no casualties among them. Remarkably, only one passed away before 1973, when the classmates were just entering their 50s.
The recent reunion drew 36 of the surviving 47 members, and some came from as far as New England, Michigan and California.
What keeps a class so close after more than half a century of widely scattered lives, careers and homes? What brings together professors, authors, doctors, farmers, homemakers, engineers and musicians every five years to reconnect with each other and their memories?
``If it wasn't for Mary Louise (Martin), we would not have any reunions,'' said James ``Jimmy'' Darden, a retired Suffolk businessman. ``She is the spark plug, motor and high gear of the class, and she always has been.''
Martin, a retired nurse and Suffolk resident, may be the driving force behind the reunions, making the arrangements and coming up with special effects like Ophelia, but the rest of the class shares her enthusiasm.
Anne McClenny Krauss, a musician from Blacksburg, has attended almost every reunion. One of her fondest memories is her performance as the pianist for the class operetta, ``H.M.S. Pinafore.'' On Friday night, the cast gave an encore performance, with Krauss playing from the original score, which she has kept intact since 1939.
Alex DeArmon, a retired research scientist from Albany, Calif., and his sister, Ruth DeArmon Toglio, a nurse from Moore, N.C., make a point of meeting at the reunions.
``We have just all been good friends all this time,'' DeArmon said.
Levy was the only alumnus who expressed some reluctance about coming back.
``I didn't want to see who was gone,'' he said, explaining that this was his very first school reunion of any kind.
But this reunion changed his mind.
``It was terrific seeing some of the old gang again. No question it was worth the trip.''
The real Ophelia lasted less than a year, falling victim to mechanical failure induced, according to Murden, by an unaccustomed fill-up of high-test gasoline. But her memory will live on with the class of '39. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Henry C. Murden, left, and Dr. David Levy relive their school days
in a cutout of ``Ophelia,'' the Model-T Ford Murden drove (and Levy
often pushed) to and from Suffolk High as members of the class of
1939.
by CNB