More interesting pix from Colene Rowedder's collection.
1948-48 Student Council

Back: Stanley Nissen, Bill Opperman, Leland Kienast
Front: Marian Godiksen, Marilyn Schroeder, Mary Ann Kasperbauer, Rose Ann Muhlbauer

I know somewhere I have a picture scanned of the outside of the old high school and someone wrote what courses were held in each room, but won't take the time now to find it.
Anyway, I'm trying to determine if this was on the first or second floor of the old school...I'm thinking on the second floor.
In 1948 it was the Commercial classroom where shorthand was taught.
Now I know the use of the rooms were changed over the years so what it was then probably had a different class in it years later.
I also noticed an interesting portrait of a young lady in front of a flag. I don't think it was anyone famous nationally but to have a local student with their picture so prominently displayed would be unusual too.
I also cropped out the safety glass window that it may help someone recognize the room.
I think the dark square to the right of the window as a vent built in the wall, but could be wrong.

A Manning helper told me that she thinks the shorthand message on the blackboard reads - "I love you"

Commercial Room - shorthand 1948


Class room window next to the hallway


Unknown person in portrait

I just spent over an hour communicating by e-mail to get information and confirmation and visiting with Russ Spies in person about an unidentified picture I had in the Monitor.
When someone IDs a picture for me, I try to get confirmation by at least one but preferably two other people. I don't want to offend the person who gives me IDs, but having worked on pictures for over 50 years, I've found that no one's memory is perfect and sometimes the IDs they give me are wrong. Then to make matters worse, sometimes the other confirmers will have different IDs between each other...enough to drive a person crazy.

Anyway, I think I now have a couple of pictures with more IDs - 2 on the right side of this page (Operetta photo, and Honey Rix) - just scroll a ways down on the right side.

Here is the unidentified picture I had in the Monitor article.


Keith, Mark, Steve Zerwas - Alfred Spies, grandfather of the Zerwas boys.
Sons of Dick & Donna (Spies) Zerwas
Now that I know they are Zerwas boys I can definitely see the family resemblances having worked on hundreds of Zerwas pictures over decades.

I continue to write that I have difficulties in finding time and older folks who can help me with picture IDs.
I use both the Monitor and my web pages to show these pictures, but pretty much only the older generations subscribe to the Monitor - the younger generations don't read the printed word any more and then some of the older folks aren't big on browsing the Internet and e-mailing so my web page requests go unnoticed.

My other option is driving around town to see if I can find someone old enough to help with IDs.
Basically my old-timer base is all deceased now.
When I do find someone who can help me, we end up visiting for quite a while...they just love to visit in person with people and since I know Manning's history, I can carry on a conversation with them.

I just spent around an hour digitally touching up and repairing the scan of this 1948 picture from Colene (Gray) Rowedder's collection.
I normally don't have the extra time to do this, and especially when I'm scanning scrapbooks. I just make high resolution scans, adjust things as best I can during the pre-scan mode, and then may touch up some really bad areas but have to keep scanning. I save the files in TIF format so they are uncompressed and someday either I or if someone as crazy as I am will digitally repair my scans.
Anyway, the faces of some of these grade school students from 1948 are driving me crazy.
All Colene wrote in the book is this was a grade school operetta. I'm wondering if one of her younger cousins might be in the picture and why she took it.
Colene took some amazing pix and I can't wait to get to them to scan.
So guessing these students are maybe 6th grade in 1948 this would put us in the time-frame of Alice Ahrendsen & Duane Monson who graduated in 1954.
I know that 9th grade was not considered high school for quite a while.

Roger Vollstedt was the year before and Ron Frahm the year after the 1954 class for examples.
I'll take a copy of this to Ron to see if he can ID anyone, but this always takes extra time to do this.
I'm also going to e-mail Lyle Frahm who graduated in 1954 and hopefully he can ID someone.

I know there are children/grandchildren of these students out there who should be able to ID their parent/grandparent but sadly - since 1996 when I first started my web page to try to get help with pix and Manning information - it has basically been Crickets.
Maybe someone will finally come forward.

Well I never expected to get at least some names so quickly...Lyle Frahm e-mailed back and gave me the names of 3 students and that he played the character Tom Sawyer.
Ron Frahm confirmed Lyle's IDs but we still aren't sure of the girl with the glasses and the other boy on the right.
Suzanne (Bandow) thinks the gal with the glasses is her aunt Phyllis (Zerwas) Snyder.
This is about the least amount of time I've had to spend with a picture ID in decades.

1948 Grade School Operetta

Carol Rowedder, Lyle Frahm, ?Phyllis Zerwas?, ??, Gwanetha Horbach

Back to Dave Kusel's main page