Treasures from the To-Do Pile: Daddy's high school annual

 

"Memories of I.F.H.S. 1935"

Idaho Falls High School, Idaho

16 pages, black and white, 6.25" x 9.5" (cover slightly larger)

This scan is a clip from p. 6. There are ten such groups over p. 6 and p. 8.  

While this booklet appears to represent only the senior class, it does not specifically say so. Three of the pages are blank and labeled for autographs. Dad's copy also has many autographs on the inside covers and a few throughout the booklet. As you can see in this image, one of the students, Ben Blalock, signed across my dad's name.  Blalock is not listed in the senior lists on pp. 5, 7, and 9.  Many of the autographed names are not listed either; some appear to the teachers, given the inscription they left.

Although the photos are only identified with first initials, I used the list of "Senior Prophecies" on p. 7 to give this list of the full names of the students in this photo:

Robert Keith                                                Naia Hansen

Herbert Hegwer                                           Ila Hanson

Steve Hatch                                                  Billie Hilliard

Arthur Hook                                                 Margaret Harris

Morris Jordan                                               Ethyl Ingram

Dan Kelly                                                     Bernice Gesas

Bob Jahn                                                       Fern Flagler

Jack Holt

The photo is valuable to me, but probably more so is the handwritten note, in my dad's writing, on the inside front cover, specifying his school history. Parentheses, punctuation, notes are his:

Graduated 8th Grade 1929 May 25 at Paris, Idaho, (Wilson School St. Charles)

High School

Freshman 1929-1930 Fielding High, Paris Idaho

Soph 1930-1931 Fielding High, Paris Idaho

Junior Yr    Start 1931 Fielding High --  move to Idaho Falls in fall of 1931 & finish JR grd 1932

(Drop out for 2 years (1932-1933) (1933-1934))

Senior Year 1934-1935 IFHS Idaho Falls Idaho

My daddy, Herb, was the oldest of  eight children. I believe he boarded out from St. Charles to attend high school in Paris. In fall 1929, the entire family contracted scarlet fever or diptheria (accounts differ). Two siblings died and their father, Ben T. Hegwer, was disabled from it. Utah Power & Light moved Ben to the station in Idaho Falls as his health declined; he died August 1933. My dad had dropped out to support the family until his two surviving brothers were old enough to help. He was almost 22 when he graduated from Idaho Falls High School. Barely a year later, he had moved his mom and surviving siblings to Los Angeles where he said he could make enough money to support the family...and he did.