By Jan Jackson
The volleyball nets were gone and there was no music to dance to, but when the Class of ’49 reunion committee members dropped by the old Mt. Angel Academy gym to give Sr. Joeine Darrington her invitation to the party, they shared memories and laughed about the good times they had there 60 years before.
The committee included Ramona Hassing Schaecher, Deloris Gamble Zielenski and Gerry Traeger Beyer. Their beloved teacher was Sr. Joeine Darrington, who was not able to attend the reunion because even at 94, she had a schedule conflict.
The committee – which also included Art Dummer – hosted 48 graduates and friends of the long since closed Mt. Angel Academy and Mt. Angel Prep School. They met at the Willamette Valley Events Center in Mt. Angel on Sunday, June 14.
Alumni came from as far east as St. Louis, Mo., and from as far north as Juno, Alaska.
“It was a wonderful day and I’ll never forget the thrill of seeing Doug Penner walk in when we hadn’t seen him in 60 years,” committee member Ramona Hassing Schaecher said. “Everything just fell into place and Dee Zielinski even brought in a bouquet of Cecil Brunner roses which was our class flower.
“Other than read a couple of letters from classmates who could not be there and conduct a small memorial service to honor our friends who had passed away, we didn’t plan any program so we could have time to visit with each other. We mingled, we ate and then sat at the tables and talked some more.”
Mt. Angel Academy, located at the present day site of the Queen of Angels Monastery (840 S Main St.), opened as a Catholic boarding school in 1888. It served as a high school for girls until the late ’60s when the lack of need for Catholic boarding schools made it no longer financially viable.
The Mt. Angel Prep School for boys, located at the Abbey on the hilltop, operated from 1887 through 1960.
The 1949 graduating class included 35 girls from Mt. Angel Academy, and 32 boys from the Mt. Angel Prep School. Though separated for instruction, the students got together for sports, dances and a variety of other activities.
“They called me Red in high school because I had red hair and I tried to live up to that by keeping things going,” Schaecher said. “As a liberal arts school, we had regular classes in Latin, Algebra, English, History, Shorthand and Typing but I was also a cheerleader, sang in the choir, acted in the plays, played volleyball and I loved to dance.
“When I showed up at the reunion after all these years with my hair still red, my class mates wanted to know how that happened. I had to confess that as it got closer to reunion time I decided no one was going to recognize me with my gray hair and wrinkles, so I dyed it red again.
About eight classmates who get together for lunch on a regular basis are now looking forward to the next meeting so they can talk about the fun they had at the reunion.
“We usually talk about all our aches and pains and the latest stents we’ve had put in but this time we will have something new to share,” Schaecher said. “We all thought the reunion party was a wonderful day, and it was. It just ended too soon.”
