One thing we would like to include in the school history book is a "family history" of sorts about former and present school employees. We will be seeking help in locating addresses of former school employees. A committee will be formed this winter to work on the addresses and contact as many employees as possible. A sample form will be placed in future Monitor issues and on the future school history book web page to give school employees an idea of what we are looking for in their write-up.

Willetta grew up on a farm between Denison and Vail, Iowa. The family went to church at St. Anne's parish in Vail so she identifies with that town. She attended a rural school near her home and then graduated from St. Anne's High School. At the time she graduated from high school, Willetta said, there were only about two careers for girls - teaching or nursing. Her mother wanted her to be a teacher so she enrolled in the College of St. Mary's in Omaha. There she received her two years of teacher's training and was certified to teach elementary school.

Her first teaching position was at Milford Township No. 7 near Vail. She was twenty years old. She was hired to teach the first three months of the school year because the teacher they had hired was only seventeen, and it would be three months until his eighteenth birthday when he could legally start to teach. After that Willetta taught at Milford No. 8 and Milford No. 1.

At a rural school it was the teacher's responsibility to clean the school building at the beginning of the year to get it ready for classes. When it became chilly, there was a big, black, wood stove in the corner of the room to heat the building. Before school each morning, Willetta had to build the fire, carry out the ashes, sweep the floor, and do all the jobs of our present day custodians. Pupils would be sent to the nearest farm place in the morning to get water for the day.

Of course, as with all country schools, Willetta was expected to teach all eight grades if the school had students in each grade. One year she had only five girls in her classes. That was an easy year she said. She taught the girls to embroidery, and every Friday afternoon they would spend time with their sewing projects. One of Willetta's students at this time was Norma Pieper who is now Norma Bjorkgren of Manning.

When teaching country school her enrollment was never constant. She wasn't sure on Fridays who would be back on Monday morning. One of the farmers near one of her schools hired and fired his hired men frequently. If the hired man had children in school, they might be gone after the weekend. During those years, also, it was customary for farmers to move to and from a farm on the first of March; therefore, new students would come and previous ones would move away.

Willetta married Ed Dobler in 1941. Her teaching days were over for awhile because married teachers were not hired at that time. The couple lived near Vail and then made their home in Corning, Iowa, and Valley, Nebraska. The Manning Trust and Savings Bank offered Ed a position with them in 1955 so they moved to Manning with their four children, JoAnn, Ralph, and twins, John and Jim. Ed worked at the bank and later bought into the Coast-to-Coast store with Ray Pratt.

The next year, with the children all in school, Willetta decided to go back to teaching. She had two good friends whose husbands had died at an early age, and they hadn't been prepared to find jobs. This made her decide that she wanted a career that she could fall back on if necessary.

Ewoldt Township School No. 7 north of Manning hired Willetta to teach in 1956. She said that a student asked her if she would take a nap during the day. When she replied, "No" he informed her that one of his teachers had taken a nap each day. Evidently one of the previous teachers had taken a nap when the children were outside for recess. One of her vivid memories of that time is when she rolled her car on the way to school one morning. She met a car on top of a hill on the gravel road and pulled over to the side. When she turned back, she overcompensated and the car rolled over. Two children saw it happen but did nothing to help. She walked to the nearest farm house and called her husband. At that time she carried water for the school day in a three-gallon milk can. To her surprise, the car had rolled so quickly that no water was spilled from the can.

There were many families at Ewoldt No. 7 that are living around Manning today. Willetta taught children of the Carl Schrum, Mel Potthoff, Joe Muhlbauer, Albert Irlmeier, Walt Martens, and Ray Vetter families as well as a Wittrock family. At that time her only supervisor was the county superintendent who came to the school once a year. When asked about textbooks, she said it was common for country school children to pass books down to their younger brothers and sisters. Her largest class was twenty-one students.

The most exciting thing that happened at Ewoldt No. 7 was a day when a helicopter landed in a field on one of the farms in the area. Mrs. Martens called to tell her about it and ask if she'd like the children to see it. "I just have one car that I could bring them in, " Willetta replied. "Don't worry," Mrs. Martens said, "I'll come and help."

So the two ladies got the twenty-one students in the two cars and drove over to the site. The crew was sitting in the field eating their lunch so the students had time to inspect the helicopter. It had been chasing a weather balloon that had gotten away, and they ended up coming down in the field. After that it was a joke at the Dobler household that whenever a weather balloon flew over, Ed would say to the kids, "Hold onto Mom! There's a balloon going over."

Ewoldt No. 7 and one other school taught by Lillian Spear both closed in 1959. They were the last two country schools in this area.

In the fall of 1959 Willetta started teaching school at Gray, Iowa. She taught kindergarten in the mornings and remedial reading in the afternoon. The remedial reading was taught in a house about a block from the school. She said in the winter, by the time the children got their coats, scarves, and other winter clothes off, the fifteen minutes was very short because they had to get it all back on again and get back to the main building. Willetta had to adjust to teaching in a town school because she was use to so much independence. The thing most different was that there was always someone coming into the room such as the principal, nurse, school psychologist, reading consultant etc. She taught her class plus her own music, art, and P.E. so, except for not having to do the custodian chores, the class time was much the same as in the country schools.

Willetta kept up a busy schedule during her teaching days. Along with teaching and caring for her family, she attended college classes in Denison, Harlan, Audubon, and at Drake University, graduating from Drake about 1968. Willetta taught at the Gray school for nineteen years before retiring in 1978. Since retirement she did a couple years of substituting in Gray, and has enjoyed traveling to Canada, Mexico, and the East and West coasts. She also likes to read.

Ed passed away in 1977, but Willetta remained in the family home on Tenth Street in Manning. The four Dobler children graduated from Manning High School. Joann married Mike Bell and lives in Clinton, Iowa, where she does substitute teaching and also works for an agency that helps the handicapped. Ralph retired from the Navy and lives in Manning. He likes to travel. John married Kristyn Kuhn of Manning and is a physical therapist in Oklahoma. Jim lives in Cascade, Iowa, with his wife, the former Linda Besenius. He is with the FDIC. Willetta has eight grandchildren living in various states, the farthest being New York and Texas. Her granddaughter in New York has studied in Ireland.

Willetta left Manning at the end of September 2006. She moved to a new assisted living home called River Bend in Cascade, Iowa, near Jim, and a town that is much closer to her daughter in Clinton. She wasn't looking forward to leaving her home in Manning, where she lived for over fifty years, but her family wanted her to try it. I'm sure she will be a welcome resident of River Bend, and will have many interesting "teacher stories" as well as family stories to share with her new friends. We thank her for sharing her life with the young people of our area.