Page 2 AHS 1991 Spring Summer

1991 page 2 AHS spring-summer Newsletter volume 2 issue 2

Page 2 Volume 2, Issue 2, Spring - Summer 1991 AHS Alumni Association Newsletter

Alumni Spotlight

Margaret Davidson '25

After graduating from Ames High in 1925 and Iowa State College in 1929 Margaret Davidson spent 59 years writing and editing.

For 32 years Davidson was with the Ladies' Home Journal first as Home Management Editor and later as Senior Editor. Prior to that she directed the Hotpoint Institute in Chicago and was Home Service Director for an Ohio electric utility company in Cleveland. During her years away from Ames she authored two books Neighbor to Neighbor and Successful Studies and Work Centers.

Davidson returned to Ames in 1988 to reside at Green Hills, an exclusive retirement community for active senior citizens.

Over the years Davidson earned many honors including induction into the Hall of Fame of the National Home Economic in Business Association, Outstanding Communication Award and Lifetime Membership from the Home Appliance Manufacturers Association, Who's Who of American Women, honorary Citizen of San Diego, a certificate of recognition from her alma mater Iowa State University, and a citation for Outstanding Contribution from Rockland County, New York. After all these years, Davidson stills considers herself "a learner."

Honorary Alum

Grace Bauske

caption of photo - see photo above

Mrs. Bauske taught at Ames High from August 1962 to June 1986. A graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., she taught English, honors English, American literature, composition and journalism as well as sponsoring the SPIRIT and WEB. Selected as an Honorary Alum by the special events committee, Bauske was thrilled to "become one" of the students. This is an honor she' ll long remember! She received a plaque and a sweatshirt from Mike Vaclav ' 76.

Favorite Alumni

Adams Family

Graduates 1888- 1987

This year, the 1991 special events committee decided to honor a family of Ames High graduates as Ames High's Favorite Alums at the March 1, 1991 Jamboree Event.

When Benjamin and Rebecca Adams came to Ames from Ohio in 1869 and settled east and north of Ames on the Dayton Park Road they set in motion one of the longest lines of Ames High alumni to date. Their son M. Jay Adams wed Lynne (Chevalier) Adams, 1887 grad. M. Jay and Lynne had four graduates! children including Caroline Adams Zentmire 'I6, Chevalier '19, Clint '21, and Frank '24. Chevalier Adams ' 19 wed Lydia Armstrong Crisp and had a son, Chevalier G. Adams '51. Frank '24 wed Virginia Terrill and had three children, Terry '55, Linda Adams Van Voorhis '58 (who wed Chuck Van Voorhis '55) and Pamela Adams Taw '64. Clint '21 wed Margaret Macy Adams '21 and had three offspring John F. '49, Bruce '51 and Mama Adams Stevens *54. John F. Adams '49 (Clint's son) wed Barbara Teig '54 and had two daughters Lori Adams Gear '79 and Cathy Adams Moore *80. Bruce '51 (Clint's son) wed Nancy Getz *51 and had three children Jay '78, Stan *80, and Mama '82. Terry '55 (Frank's son) wed Helene Frette Adams and they have one graduate son David '87.

At the Jamboree each Adams present received a certificate. The family as a whole received a plaque and their family name was added to our favorite alumni plaque.

Aviator

Southern 1915 taught Earhart to fly

Neta Snook Southern died March 23, 1991, at her home in Los Gatos, Calif. The first licensed female pilot in Iowa, Snook was 95 at her death.

Snook's sister, Vivian Smedal of Ames, took her Erst flight with Neta when Vivian was just 12 years old in 1920.

Born in Carroll, Neta Snook moved with her family to Ames in 1913. After graduating from AHS in 1915 she attended Iowa State for a couple of years. She then enrolled in the Glenn Curtis School of Aviation in Newport News, Va. in 1917. When the U.S. joined in the war effort that year she was unable to fly for her country as military rules barred women aviators from combat.

Snook got a job with the British Air Ministry inspecting plane parts in Elmira, N.Y. After the war ended in 1919, she built a plane and barn- stormed Iowa and Illinois.

While she was teaching, flying, testing planes and performing stunts in Los Angeles (you couldn't fly in Iowa winters), Amelia Earhart came to her for flying lessons in January 1921. Snook and Earhart became friends as well as teacher and student. (Earhart disappeared on a flight before World War II.)

A test pilot for Donald Douglas Sr. (today's McDonnell-Douglas), Snook flew one of the first Goodyear blimps. After marrying William Irwin Southem in 1921, Neta gave up flying. After giving birth to a son, Curtiss, she wrote a book "I Taught Amelia to Fly."

It's a Small World Department

My good friend since fifth grade at Fellows School, Susie Tryon Lechnir, was born five days before me on November 15, 1961.

We graduated together from AHS in 1980, went off to college and both ended up in Colorado as roommates.

We were bridesmaids in each others' weddings on Aug. 2 and Aug. 16, 1986 - two weeks apart.

We then had baby girls on October 16, 1989, 12 hours apart at Rose Hospital in Denver with the same OB-GYN and pediatrician and were hospital roommates!

It made quite a story at our tenth reunion last summer.

Ann Trunnell Herrell '80

1991 Page 2 volume 2, issue 2, spring - summer AHS Alumni Association Newsletter