Kitty Kandalaft -- From rustic beginnings to teacher and pilot

Anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing Kitty Kandalaft of Dexter may have trouble believing that this soft-spoken, gracious southern lady had her beginnings in the rustic, rugged terrain of West Virginia.

"I come from where the hillbillies live," laughs Kandalaft. "We lived up a holler in a two-room house. There was an ice-cold spring where we chilled our milk and butter, and a big garden that provided plenty of vegetables for canning. We raised our own meat, too, and cured it in a smokehouse."

Born Kathleen Short on August 17, 1930, Kandalaft is the oldest of four children. Twins Dorothy and Douglas died in childhood, and sister Patsy lives a few hours away in Fayette, MO.

"My mother thought she named me Kathleen Jean," Kandalaft chuckles, "but on the birth certificate I had no middle name. My aunt always called me Kitty Jean, anyway."

"When I was little, before we moved to town, we lived right across the creek from my daddy's parents," Kandalaft recalls with a smile. "In the evenings we would go over to their house. I remember sitting on Ma's lap as she would sing to us."

Kandalaft says that navigating the creek could be tricky--depending on the depth of the water and the time of day.

"Most days we would cross over on stones; however, if the water was high, we had to walk on a log," Kandalaft recounts. "If it were dark, Daddy put a lantern on a long pole and carried me on his shoulders. That always scared me, and I kept my eyes closed!"

Kandalft explains that her uncle was the postmaster at the post office/general store which lay up the holler. When her uncle retired, her father assumed that position. After a few years, another postmaster position became available at a larger post office near the mouth of the holler.

"The store attached to this post office was larger and had two gas pumps. We moved into a four-room house in a neighborhood and I had friends to play with," remembers Kandalaft.

She says in the evenings the kids would all gather outside and play games, and in the summer they went to the swimming hole in the creek that was deep and clear.

"Our favorite game was Annie Over," recalls Kandalaft, "and we would play that for hours; until it was dark and time to go inside."

In the middle of her third grade year, the family moved to Baileysville, where her father took over another larger post office/store.

"When I arrived at the new school, I did not know my multiplication tables and I thought they were so hard," reminisces Kandalaft. "My mother went to the principal and asked that I be put back in second grade, but the principal suggested I be given a chance to catch up. You better believe I buckled down and learned those tables!"

Kandalaft explains that the school in Baileysville was two rooms. The elementary students were on one side and the high schoolers on the other. By the time she was 15, Kandalaft and the other four high schoolers had completed all the courses of study that were available.

"We were going to school each day, but we spent most of our time playing," says Kandalaft. "We thought it was fun, but the teacher told us we should go to college, so at mid-term four of us girls began attending Concord College in Princeton, West Virginia."

Kandalaft says she really did not have a career in mind, and was simply taking classes she liked. Among those were music and voice because she knew how to play the piano.

Kandalaft's music teacher introduced her to Etude Magazine, which was a popular music magazine at that time. On the back cover of one issue was an advertisement for Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. That college had a music program that included instruction in the harp.

Kandalaft shared the information with her music teacher who suggested that the aspiring musician attend Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan to obtain her introduction to the harp.

"Mother and Daddy wanted to give me everything they could to help me better myself," Kandalaft observes, "so they made arrangements for me to attend Interlochen."

It turned out, though, that miscommunication between the camp and her family, nearly caused Kandalaft to miss the opportunity.

"The ad said Ann Arbor, Michigan," states Kandalaft, "and that was where all the payments were sent, so my parents purchased a train ticket to Ann Arbor. I rode the train all night long and was exhausted by the time I arrived."

Kandalaft recalls that she got in a taxi, but the driver had never heard of Interlochen Music Camp. After consulting a map, they discovered that the camp was actually in Interlochen, Michigan, over 200 miles away.

"Mother had given me a little cash to use for spending money," Kandalaft says, "so I used that to purchase a bus ticket to Interlochen."

Kandalaft enjoyed her time at the camp, and fell in love with the harp. She returned home and transferred to Bob Jones University only to discover that the harpist and her husband were leaving the school.

"So, that was the end of my harp career," she adds matter-of-factly.

As she pursued her studies, Kandalaft discovered that she lacked a foreign language credit because foreign language had not been offered at her high school. She says she chose German for no other reason than it was the class that best fit her schedule.

Seated next to her in German class was a young Palestinian student named Fuad Kandalaft.

"I thought he was so good looking," Kandalaft recalls, "and we struck up a classroom friendship. After a while, though, he stopped coming to class."

Kandalaft says it wasn't until later that she learned the young man could not afford the class textbook, and that the teacher had told him not to return to class without a book.

The two eventually reconnected on campus and began dating. Fuad transferred to the University of Alabama, but the two continued their romance via mail correspondence. After becoming a US citizen, he was drafted into the Army and served in Korea in the medical corps.

They married and traveled to Kirksville, MO, where Fuad had been accepted into the Osteopathic Medical School. Kitty taught school and in 1957 earned her masters degree from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, now known as Truman State University.

Three daughters and a few years later the family arrived in Dexter, MO. Kandalaft says she liked the town, and quickly found friends. She did not work during this time and devoted herself to raising her family. A fourth daughter was born in 1965.

As a member of the Junior Women's Club Kandalaft helped start a kindergarten program in Dexter.

"At that time," recalls Kandalaft, "schools around here did not offer kindergarten, so our group organized one and paid the teacher who taught there."

At 89, Kandalaft still has a zest for living and recalls that one of the highlights of her life--aside from motherhood--was obtaining her private airplane pilot's license in 1971.

"A group of us decided we would take flying lessons," Kandalaft explains, "and then we bought a plane together. We developed a set of rules for use of the plane, and we had a sign-up sheet where we scheduled who would be using the plane and when."

Kandalaft recalls that one time she flew her daughters up over the floodwaters so they could see the widespread flooding. She also enjoyed occasional flights to Fayette to have lunch with her sister, and trips to Tennessee.

"There was a lodge in Tennessee that I really liked," Kandalaft reminisces, "and one time I invited some friends to fly down with me. One friend couldn't go because her husband wouldn't let her fly with me as the pilot!"

Kandalaft eventually returned to teaching and spent 20 years in the Sikeston Public Schools as a third grade teacher.

"I loved teaching," Kandalaft explains, "and third grade was my favorite age. By the time students reach third grade, they are independent enough to work on their own. That allows the teacher a little more time to devote to those who need some individual help."

During her lifetime Kandalaft has traveled extensively. She has toured England, Rome, Venice, Paris, Spain, Portugal, Katmandu, Lebanon, Jordan, Amsterdam, Israel, Switzerland, and Germany. She visited Belgium via the Chunnel from England.

"My favorite spot was Vienna, Austria," discloses Kandalaft, "because of the musical influences, and because it was so clean. There was not so much as a cigarette butt on the ground."

Age and health have forced Kandalaft to curtail her travels; however, she continues to stay as active as possible and maintains friendships with people of all ages and various walks of life.

"I enjoy going out to eat, and occasionally we will take in the theater or a concert," Kandalaft remarks. "I still like to have people in and entertain once-in-a-while."

In reflecting on her 89 years, Kandalaft observes, "I've had a good life. The life I've lived has far exceeded anything I ever dreamed of when I was a young girl growing up in West Virginia. I have been blessed."

Kandalaft is the mother to Vickie, who lives in Memphis, TN; Cathy, who resides in Springfield, MO; Patti, who lives in Seattle, WA; and Leila, who lives in Germany.