BHS Reunion  

2003 Alumni Banquet Speech

During the 2003 banquet Mrs. Leone Kurkowski Bostwick, a 98-year-old woman who was the sole attendee of her 80th class reunion (Class of 1923), gave this speech:

Dear Alumni, Parents, Faculty and Friends,

There is an old saying, “Only the good die young.” If that is true, I must be a real baddie to have outlived 63 classmates. Some of them were quite successful. Ray Drover became the principal of the Westside School.

Robert Scott and his wife had a musical act for many years on WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee.

Fred Engelbracht and Jesse Martin were voted the most popular.

Leone Pecharski received a degree from Ripon College and a nursing degree from St. Agnes Nursing School in Fond du Lac. After years of nursing in the Chicago area, at the outbreak of World War II, she enlisted in the Army Nursing Corp and served with distinction in Great Britain.

Eleanor Schalk worked for years for M.J. PauL, the District Attorney. She then enrolled in the Law School at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She married a fellow classmate and established a successful law practice. They had one son.

Margaret Frailey and Jesse Martin were star women athletes. Superintendent Anderson was very popular with the upper classmen; but the school had lost its accreditation. He was replaced by Mr. Lamberton, a strict disciplinarian who restored our accreditation.

Our entertainment in 1923 was to dance and sing “The Charleston.” The dance marathon was the rage. The best songs were: “Rhapsody in Blue,” “The Charleston,” and “Who’s Sorry Now.”

The best movies were: “The Sheik” and “Black Oxen.”

The first issue of Time Magazine was published. Notable people who were born in 1923 were: Tiny Tim, Harry Reasoner, Henry Kissinger. President Warren G. Harding died.

Thank you and God Bless You.