Former students roam the halls for Franklin's 80th anniversary

When Jane Kurre attended fifth grade at Franklin Elementary in Cape Girardeau, there were no walls dividing classes.

"They knocked down all the walls. It was the beginning of team teaching," she said. "You could see everyone."

Now, about 35 years later, she chuckled while touring Franklin, on display for the school's 80th anniversary. "They're all boarded back up," she said.

The school held a birthday celebration Sunday, inviting alumni to tour the school, view scrapbooks and share memories. People mulled over photographs, studied headlines divided by decade and reunited with classmates.

They told stories of the first principal, Nellie Elizabeth Krueger, slapping their hands with a ruler, of class productions of "Peter Pan" or of a time when students walked home for lunch. They remembered "Play Days," carnivals and basketball championships. They spoke about the school's effect through generations: for several of the people present, they attended the school, their children attended the school and so did their grandchildren.

Franklin, at 215 N. Louisiana Ave., opened during the 1927 to 1928 school year, built at a cost of $179,611. According to a sheet handed to visitors titled "80 Franklin Facts," the first classrooms were designed to seat 45 students. Grades one to nine were housed in the building.

The school continued to grow from 647 students to an all-time high of 773 in 1956. During one year in the early 1950s, space was reportedly so tight that classes were held in the teacher's lounge. Now, about 214 students attend.

Mary Lee Bishop, 85, attended Franklin from second to eighth grade in the early 1930s. "I just saw my son's name in a basketball article. All three of my children went here. I was often in charge of refreshments for events. I'd tell my kids 'Quit raising your hands' and volunteering me," she laughed.

Ann Reynolds, Kurre's sister, remembers when the school "tracked" students, dividing children into classes based on ability. "There was a high, medium, and low class, and everyone knew what class you were in," she said.

"It wasn't very PC," her mother, Mary Rasmussen, chimed in with a smile.

In 1957, the school changed to a kindergarten through fifth-grade configuration. Kindergarten fees were $9.25 a semester, according to the fact sheet. In 1960, a beginning teacher with a bachelor of science degree earned $3,800 a year.

A bond issue was passed in 1972 to complete renovations to Franklin, but because of a strike by a local carpenters union, school had to be held at a local church for a couple of months.

Mark Cook, principal of Jefferson Elementary, began teaching at Franklin in 1980. He chatted with former students Sunday. The things he remembers the best, he said, were plays produced by students, with wacky titles such as the "Hillbillies and the Robots." He also remembers having his sixth-graders construct mousetrap race cars and hot air balloons.

"The balloons would be about five or six feet in circumference. The kids would work in teams, building part of it out of tissue paper. And then I'd take my Coleman gas stove out to the playground to heat the air. Oh, the kids loved it," he said.

As people toured the school, "This wasn't here when I was," was a common phrase as they entered the gym, built in 2000. The old gym has now been split into a library and cafeteria.

Rhonda Dunham, an alumna of Franklin, became principal in 2001. "I never dreamed this would happen. The first thing I said was 'I've come home,'" she said.

lbavolek@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123

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