It was the fall of 1930 and several bright-eyed little six year-olds enrolled in the first grade in Cortez. Those first graders who spent all 12 of their school years in the Cortez School System were Grace Carpenter, Lee Eaton, Katherine Harless, Bob Wilmarth, Edgar Garland, John Kuenzler, Evelyn Hogue, Mary Coleman, Alvina Stuckman and Tom Walker. Alvina married at the end of her junior year and graduated with the class of 1943 and Tom entered the first grade in 1931, skipped the sixth grade and graduated with the class of 1942.
Elementary teachers were: First Grade Miss Lackner and Miss Foree; Second Grade Miss Linda James; Third Grade Mrs. Morelock and Mrs. Talcott; Fourth Grade Mrs. Talcott; Fifth Grade Mrs. Tatum; Sixth Grade Mrs. Stephens; Seventh Grade Home Room Miss Stoeckly and Eighth Grade Home Room Leon Carroll and Jean Wilkerson.
In the fall of 1938 the bright-eyed, now 14 year olds enrolled in Cortez High School. This time there was an influx of all the freshmen from the rural areas, making a total of 70 with Evelyn Bauer and Catherine Carpenter as sponsors.
Fine arts programs available in 1938 included band, glee clubs, orchestra, masquers (a thespians group that put on plays) and a number of other clubs. The sports programs included football, basketball and track, with the Panther football team winning all but two games in the four-year period. Coach Woodward was the coach for the first three years, with Coach Trachel coaching the final year.
There were 49 sophomores in the year of 1940 and the same number of juniors in 1941. In 1941, Cortez High School became The Cortez Union High School. This junior class voted to have a private junior-senior prom, eliminating the banquet and limiting the prom to members of the junior and senior classes, their escorts and dates, members of the faculty and members of the Board of Education. The same held true the following year when they were seniors. In 1941, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for a new high school to be built where the current middle school is. As a result of World War II, this was not be and the Class of 1948 was the first class to graduate there.
Lloyd Brixey joined the Marines at the end of his sophomore year and served in the Second Marine Division with honor. He was killed in action in 1944 and was the only casualty from this class.
There were 43 students in the 1942 graduating class. They were: Sadie McNeill, Ross Stanley, Helen Koehn, James Ragsdale, Helen Hinton, Pat Patten, Lucile Johnson, R.L. Crow, Marianne Herron, Bob Wilmarth, Grace Carpenter, Karl Pettigrew, Ada DeGraff, Kelly Hammond, Helen Gardner, Harry Baker, Nina McClellan, John Kuenzler, Betty Taylor, Kemper West, Evelyn Hogue, Laroy Crow, Katherine Harless, Lee Eaton, Elizabeth Johnson, Clayton Floyd, Judy Lancaster, Tom Walker, Ruth Stanley, Lester Schafer, Winifred Lansberry, Ed Harrington, Dollie Davis, Leston Hucke, Priscilla Parks, George Knoblock, Theresa DeLowery, Edgar Garland, Eva Tate, Verl Green, Frances Myers, Eddie Hamilton and Leona Calhoun.
Most of the young men entered some branch of the service and some went to college at the end of their service. Some of the young women went to business school, a few to college, a few married and some worked in national defense plants.
The Class of 1942 held their first reunion in 1962 and have gotten together periodically since then. On Saturday, June 30, the Class of 1942 held their 70th reunion at Seasnings in Cortez. Not everyone from the graduating class of 42 were able to make it, as address information was not available in time for all of the former students from that year to make arrangements to attend. The organizers of the reunions for the Class of 1942 hope to gather missing information on all of the classmates. Please get in touch with Helen Koehn Kuenzler in Cortez about future events.