they would turn in their graves

Doris Chase, 1981 Doris Clementine Tellex was born in Rochester, New York in 1931, the daughter of Peter Anthony and Clementine Pauline (Collins) Tellex. Peter was born in Massachusetts, and Clementine was born in New York State, but all of Doris’ grandparents were Lithuanian immigrants. In 1940, Doris and her three siblings were living with their parents in Irondequoit, Monroe County, New York. Doris was an elementary scholar and had completed the third grade. The 1950 census located the Tellex family still residing in Irondequoit; Doris’ grandfather, Peter Tellex Sr., was living with the family, and Doris was working as a telephone operator for the public telephone utility. Doris was married later in 1950 to Kenneth Brown Chase, also a native of Rochester, New York. Kenneth had served with the United States Navy during World War II. He was at the Naval Training Station in Sampson, New York, and at the Fleet Sonar School in Key West, Florida. The Chases moved to Michigan, likely becau...

Helen Kilgore “Helen Stough Kilgore passed away on January 20, 2014. She was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 10, 1927. She was educated in the Detroit school system and graduated from Cooley High School in February of 1944. She was an athlete in high school and lettered in several sports. After high school she enrolled in the University of Michigan where she met her husband, James. They were married while they were both still in school. She was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority. She eventually graduated from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti with a degree in elementary school teaching. Her first job as a second-grade teacher was in the Rawsonville, Michigan school system. Later, she taught in the Pleasant Ridge school system before retiring to raise her family. She returned to teaching in 1964 in the Avondale, Michigan school system until retirement in 1991. She and her husband James were avid sailors and enjoyed many years cruising the great lakes on their live-aboard sloo...

Theresa Bauer, 1979 After a year of preschool and a year of kindergarten at the Meadowbrook Montessori School, I went to first grade at Elmwood Elementary School in the Avondale School District. The school was literally across the street from my house, so I was a "walker" instead of a "bus kid". My mom could watch me walk from our door to the school door - and probably did. My first public school teacher was Theresa Bauer, and she was wonderful.   Mrs. Bauer actually enjoyed teaching children and it showed. She wrote in my report card at the end of the school year: "Wendy reads at a 6th grade level. She has read numerous books this year besides completing level 15 in the MacMillan Reading Series. She has done beautifully in all areas." I remember watching her from the back of the classroom as she taught. One time I hadn't blinked in a while, and Mrs. Bauer started to look smaller and smaller, like she (and everything around her) was shrinking. My six-y...

Bani Mamata Mittra I attended the Meadowbrook Montessori School for two years – preschool and kindergarten - in the mid 1970s. The school used two large multipurpose rooms in a church on Auburn Road between Crooks and Livernois. The building is now being used by the Detroit Chinese Alliance Church North; at the time I believe it was a Lutheran church. The school was run by Bani Mittra.   From Wikipedia: “The Montessori method of education is a type of educational method that involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills, such as problem solving and helping and teaching each other. It emphasizes independence and it views children as naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a sufficiently supportive and well-prepared learning environment. It also discourages some conventional methods of measuring achievement, such as gr...