DEVELOPER BUYS FORMER KAGE SCHOOL

G. Keith Deimund, a developer and retired Cape Girardeau dentist, bought a piece of local history Wednesday as he closed the deal on the old Kage School.

Deimund wants to preserve the 30-by-50-foot one-room school, completed in 1880.

The origins of the school began in 1854.

Deimund, his wife, Marjorie, and son, Greg, plan to form a tax-free corporation to accept contributions for the school's preservation.

Deimund was 5 when he entered first grade in 1946, attending the school through second grade before transferring to the former Campus School.

Records from Kage School indicate his classmates for the two years were Barbara Heisler and Ted Lear. There were 33 students in 1946-47 and 31 the following year with Hazel Klaproth teaching grades one to eight.

"There's some very fond memories of the school," Deimund said. "It's a special place. It's one of the few one-room schools left."

When the school closed in May 1966, it had 16 students in the eight grades. Parents in the Kage District paid tuition for 27 students to attend three area private schools. The district paid for 23 pupils at Central High School and nine at the Campus High School.

The district voted 18-5 in April 1968 to annex into the Cape Girardeau School District, effective July 1, 1968, when Ralph Ford, president of the Kage District, turned the building over to Gene E. Huckstep, a member of the Cape Girardeau school board's building and grounds committee.

On hand for that ceremony were Clem C. Kinder, the Kage school clerk for many years, and Joe J. Russell, president of the Cape Girardeau School Board.

Russell was also on hand Wednesday as the school district's attorney when Deimund signed the papers and turned over the $20,110 purchase price for the old building and about one acre of land.

"Well, Keith, this is a historic moment," Russell said.

Deimund said the old school's floors are in bad shape and the windows have been boarded up. The masonry will need some tuck pointing but is in relatively good shape. The building has a tin roof.

"A lot of people have called to say they are interested in helping out with the preservation," said Deimund, who served on the Cape Girardeau school board from 1982 to 1988.

Wesley Rees, clerk at Kage School when it joined the Cape Girardeau School District, told Deimund at Wednesday's closing he was willing to help with the preservation. Rees' son went through six grades at Kage School and his daughter attended for three years.

Bill Busch, 56, owner of Busch's Kennels in Cape Girardeau, is pleased Deimund bought the old school. He retired in 1993 from the Army Corps of Engineers after 36 years.

Busch attended all eight grades at Kage School and didn't know anything but the one-room school at the time. He was a little awed by all the people when he first went to high school.

Deimund's mother, Maxine Crump Deimund, 82, also attended all eight grades at Kage from 1920 to 1928 and said about 30 students attended the school each year.

She said her teacher, Beatrice Joyce, seemed old to her when she was only 7, but the teacher was probably only 40 to 50. Deimund remembers the students having a big laugh when the teacher's wig was dragged off her head by a student's umbrella.

She said the students could learn a lot by listening to the other classes in a one-room schoolhouse.

She walked two miles to the school as a youngster and her son also walked from the family home on Hopper Road near where Clippard School is.

She recalled having to get her son Keith from the Campus School during the school day because "he was homesick for his mother" and he was shy as a child and found it difficult to mix at the bigger school.

"I was just shocked when I heard he was buying the Kage School," she said about her son. "I thought, `Whatever for?' I guess he just had a good feeling about it."