Betty Lou at Hathaway High in 1947
9th grade class at Hathaway High School in 1947 included my mother, Betty Lou Bucklin. Hathaway, Louisiana.
Hathaway High School. My mom’s alma mater. The home of the Hornets. I suppose that since this is a photo of my mom’s ninth grade class, this is the year that she was officially in high school. I’ve always heard the school called Hathaway High School, even though it had grades 1 thru 12. At least that’s the way my mom always explained it to me. It might have changed since then. It was a long time ago.
In fact, it was in 1947. At least that’s what the little chalk board says. Actually it says that this was the photo of the 9th grade class at Hathaway for the school year ’47 + ’48. From what I can remember about school activities, I seem to recall that the school photos were taken at closer to the beginning of the school year. So I would think that the photo was taken in the fall of 1947.
Some of you already know that my mom was Betty Lou Bucklin and you’ve already picked her out from the photo. But others are not so fortunate to be familiar with my dear, sweet mother. Fourteen-year-old Betty Lou is the second one from the right in the middle row. She has a nice, big smile on her face. It’s the first school photo that she is smiling like this. In previous years she was either not smiling at all or just smiling with a grin. Part of that could be that she was standing next to her friends. The girl on the left of her was her best friend Lavelle Krumnow. On the right of her is Lela Mae Jester, another good friend. Sitting in front of her was Carol Bryan. She was a friend, and she also was our next-door neighbor when we moved to Lucy Street in Jennings in 1964.
My mom didn’t name everyone in this photo like she did in some of her other photos, so I’m not going to try and figure them all out. Not that I’d be able to do that if I tried. There are probably a few Gary family members and some Cajun names as well. I don’t know who the teacher is either. If someone knows it, I’d appreciate the information. Irregardless, I’m sure you are enjoying this old sepia-tone photo that includes my precious mother in her youth.