Dear Carol,  

I read Al Simms’ ('60 - of VA) and Dave Spriggs’ ('64 - of VA) comments about our NNHS Latin teacher, Miss Free, in the Oct. 6 newsletter. Miss Free was on the staff at NNHS
in 1926. John and I were the grateful recipients of a very fragile copy of the 1926 NNHS yearbook from the family of a member of the Class of 1926, Lewis Carper. In 1926 the yearbook was called The Beacon. In later years the name was changed to the Anchor and the Beacon was the name of the school newspaper.

In the faculty section of the 1926 yearbook Miss Free is listed as one of two Latin teachers. The other is Mabel Barham. Teachers listed on the faculty in 1926 whom members of the classes of 1955-1959 would remember are Annie Parker, English;  Herman Levy, math;  Louise Hurt, history; Eli Leonard, Elaine Krisch, Beulah Brasher, Commercial (we called that the Business Department); Lalie Webb, Home Economics, Miles Thompson, Printing.

According to the 1926 yearbook the "F" in Miss Free’s name stood for Florence. She was Elma Florence Free.

Miss Free lived on the northeast corner of West Avenue and 32^nd Street in the building that we used to refer to as “The Women’s Club Building.” She had an apartment on the second floor. At Christmas and during the summer she went to Pennsylvania. I used to collect her mail for her while she was away. I lived very close by to her, half a block down 32^nd Street between West Avenue and the James River. I am attaching a picture of the faculty that is from the 1926 yearbook. The yearbook did not list the names of the teachers in the picture. They are simply listed by departments on pages that follow the photograph. I can identify some of the teachers. Some I am sure of. A couple I think I know who they are. Y’ all can see what you think.
 

Row 1, seated: The man on the far left is Mr. Leonard. The big man in the middle with a man to the left and a woman to the right is the principal, Mr. Alexander. The woman seated on the first row second from the end on the right side of the picture I am sure is Miss Brasher.

Row 2, standing: Third from the left, with her hands behind her back and a cloche type hat, is Miss Annie Parker - “Annie” as some of us used to call her behind her back. The woman seventh from the left in row 2 with a white shirt and black scarf or tie in front, I am pretty sure is Miss Lalie Webb. Next to her is the one that I think is Miss Free. She’s wearing a dark dress with a white collar. What do you all think? Eleventh from the left in row 2, I think is Miss Ethel Gildersleeve. She was a math teacher at the time according to the faculty list. Then on the far right of row 2, standing at the end, behind the woman at the end of the first row, is Mr. Thompson, the printing teacher.
 

   The only ones I caught easily were Miss Parker and Mr. Levy!  After careful study, I do believe you're right on the money with the others as well.  But what a treasure this is!  Thank you so much!

Even with my magnifying glass I cannot pick out Miss Krisch and Miss Hurt. I remember that Miss Krisch was a very tall woman. She taught typing in room 214 and was John’s homeroom teacher. I started out in room 308 with Mr. Cryer, the art teacher in 1954-55, but room 308 was split up in 11^th grade and I went with some others to room 105 with Miss Key. But I digress. 

There is an absolutely gorgeous full page picture of Miss Hurt in the yearbook because she was sponsor of the June 1926 class. (As you know, there were two graduating classes
in those years, one in February and one in June.) I’ll later send the picture of Miss Hurt.

Boy, could Miss Free give a student a look that just made you crumple and wither!  One day in her Latin 1 class in ninth grade, about 2 minutes before the bell in E period, I started to put on my sweater, which was draped over the back of my chair, to prepare for dismissal. We sat at tables in room 209. My seat was at the middle table in the front, facing the windows. She stood at the front behind her desk and giving me that look, she asked me in very certain and curt terms where did I think I was going. I didn’t have the nerve to say a word, but I can tell you  I did not do that again!

I tell you what though, I learned Latin and to this day, some 50 years later, I remember a whole lot of what I learned. We learned all the Latin mottoes, like tempus fugit, id est, sine qua non (which I love to use!), quo vide, ad infinitum. At Christmas we sang “Adeste Fidelis.” We had to do projects. I remember doing a layout of the Roman Forum on poster board and India Ink (remember India Ink and Epes Stationery Store?) and writing to every state in the Union to ask for post card pictures of the state Capitol building to show the influence of Roman architecture on our public buildings and mounting a display of my collection on poster board.  And I remember reading “Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est" in Latin 2. I still remember the ablative and dative cases! And remember conjugating all those verbs and declining all those nouns!

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   And that fabulous image from the 1926 Beacon is now spotlighted on the Faculty page:

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