Museum News 

CLASSEN HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI MUSEUM 

Open Thursdays from 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. except Holidays

You may call us at 405-525-3936

Alumni Museum News

 MUSEUM NEWS By Jean Thurston Harris ’48 

Greetings from the Classen Museum! 

The holidays are over, along with the Blizzard of 2009, which snowed in everyone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; 13.5 inches of snow in Oklahoma City broke all records. So as of this writing, we are digging out with more snow in the forecast. Can't wait 'til Spring!

The museum received a large number of Orbits and NCL’s which belonged to the late Betty Jo Jordan Johnston ’48.

Paul Lindsey ’49 brought a copy of a picture taken at Nichols Hills School in 1938-1939. No grade was indicated but we are assuming it is the third grade class as they graduated from Classen in 1948.

A copy of an NCL dated June 1994 was given to the museum “for the archives.” The NCL was addressed to the late Robert E. Kinnebrew ’41.

Wendell Chantry ’35 donated a 1932 Meteor, the name of the annual yearbook that year. Please see the related article and picture in the November NCL Comet Comments regarding the acquisition of this yearbook. Thanks for your donation and the interesting story you submitted to the Comet Comments in the November NCL. We are happy that your two sisters, Caroline Chantry Bell ’37 and Harriet Chantry Krueger ’42, along with your wife, daughter, and son-in-law, visited the Classen Museum, although we regret that it was on a day when hosts were not present. We appreciate the nice compliments regarding our museum and publication, the New Classen Life. We are very proud of our many volunteers, both past and present, who have made this possible and we thank you for your kind words!

Margaret Cooper Reynolds ’40, widow of the late Norman Reynolds ’37, donated two programs from the class of 1935, approximately 36 NCL’s, and an interesting booklet entitled Stardust Memories from the class of 1937. It included articles about the senior members of that class.

Robert McKown ’51 sent copies of articles entitled “This and That from Here and There” written by Robert’s father.

An anonymous donor bought two interesting books at an estate sale, which had belonged to Edna Lee Glines ’28. These books were donated to the Classen Museum and are very interesting. One book was My Graduation, which included 1928 class photographs, autographs, newspaper clippings of sporting and social events, and a list of the 1928 Classen graduates. The other book was written by Edna and was entitled Heads in the Sand. It is truly amazing how many Classen mementos appear on Ebay and at estate sales.

Another donation to the museum was a 1956 Orbit, given by Lenora Townsend Wright ’58. We thank her for it.

We keep several copies of each year’s Orbit, when possible, as insurance against loss or damage to the copies available for reading in the museum. We often get requests to sell Orbits, but no item that has been donated to the museum is ever sold.

As of this writing, a date for vacating the museum during renovation of the school has not been confirmed. Hopefully, we will be informed in time to let you know in advance through the NCL. However, until that occurs we need additional museum volunteers as our list of helpers is decreasing. We would love to hear from any of you in the OKC area who could devote a small portion of their day once a month to help us until the museum will be vacated for renovation. As stated above, at this time we have no date as to when this will occur.

In the November issue we accidentally swapped the photos of museum visitors Marilyn Duffner Morrison ’47 and Janice Guild Trigg ’47. We’re showing them again, this time with the right names under their pictures.

As always, many thanks to our loyal museum volunteers who spent a portion of their day during the past three months to open the museum and greet and assist visitors. They are Harriette Westervelt Boatright ’47, Norma Williams Colston ’54, Janie Anderson Cotton ’50, Marie Russell Harkey ’38, Alyse Myers Ramsey ’47, Suzanne Yowell Schneider ’50, Pam Caughron Stottman ’63, Margene Arnett Walker ’40, and Mary Ellen Wells ’50. 

Until next time … be safe and healthy and we will see you in the spring!

We really need new volunteers to help on the Thursday of your choosing to assist our museum visitors.  If you prefer to not commit on a specific Thursday, you may substitute a day when one of the regulars is not available.  You will meet Comets from many different classes, and many from faraway places who come to visit the museum while visiting in OKC.  It is really a lot of fun, not work, and you meet many great people!  If you are interested, please contact Ginny Hensley, the Museum Director, at 787-2461, or e-mail her at ginhen@aol.com.  You may also call or visit the museum on a Thursday and leave your name and telephone number with one of the volunteers.  Our telephone number is 405/525-3936.  We will be open until the museum is closed while the school and museum are being completely renovated.  This project will take many months, and at this writing we do not know the date when this will occur.  Until then, your help would really be appreciated, and we would love to hear from you!