Hickman Kewpie Classmates Directory
Class of 1952

Click Classmates Name (if underlined) to Send Email
If you see the word BIO after a classmates name, click on BIO to read their biography!

For Reunion Information Updates
Kewpies:  Past & Present
Thanks for your continued support!

www.kewpie.net
Charley Blackmore, '98
The Kewpie Gathering Place, Since Oct 1998
Classmates Registered
Coverage of the 50th Reunion - June 14 & 15, 2002
Please send any pictures to charley@kewpie.net

**Thanks for your donation to the, kewpie.net Scholarship.**
"Memorialize a classmate with a scholarship donation in their name."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


1952
Betty Arnold - (Chairperson, but doesn't have email)
Shirley Allen - 2006-06-19 - Briar Cliff college, Sioux City, IA  USD, Vermillion, SD - BA Sociology, MA Sociology
Galen Branham - 2009-07-17 - Calvary Bible College & Seminary - Pastoral Studies
David Calvin(Deceased)- BIO
Carolyn Carruth - Email removed 2007-10-19
Montie Christian
Carol Dickson - Email removed 2012-08-12 - University of Missouri-Columbia - BSN -1956 & Med -1979
Robert Garrett, deceased 2019-06-02
Donald "Lonnie" Gilpin - deceased 2021-09-02
Robert Kinder, deceased 2014-01-27
Jack McKinney - Email removed 2008-10-31
Marilyn McComb - Email removed 2007-10-19
Ruth Nathe - 2015-09-29
George Newkirk - Email removed 2010-07-27
Doug Nelson - 2002-03-23
Betty Pearson - BIO - Email removed 2006-03-28
Doris Poore - Email removed 2008-10-31
Jo Ann Stone - BIO - Email removed 2008-10-31
Carolyne Terry - 2009-01-18
Dale Thornton - Email removed 2008-05-14

David Calvin  September 10, 2001
Served three years in Marines 1953 through 1956.  Entered the Univ. of Mo, however did not finish. (late 50's)  Got married, moved to North Carolina and worked in the Broadcast Industry for five years.  Came back to Columbia in mid sixty's and went to work for GTE as a marketing rep.
Have been in the telephone industry since starting with GTE.  Am now semi-retired with a consulting business, and some other interests.  Married to Jody Calvin, who is in realestate.  We have a grown son and daughter, and I have three daughters by my first marriage.  (Died Saturday, Sept. 29, 2001, at Boone Hospital Center.)
Betty Pearson December 8, 2001

I attended Hickman for my sophomore year and then moved to Augusta Georgia where my dad was stationed. I attended the Univ of Georgia and finished at San Jose State, CA.  I married an Army Lt. from Idaho and we had three wonderful children who have now produced 14 grandchildren. My first (24 years)and second (14years) husbands have died from cancer.  I am now married to my late cousin's husband and we live near Lamoille Canyon, mile high in NE Nevada between SLC and Reno.  It is gorgeous here and the center for Cowboy Poetry.

Jo Ann Stone July 15, 2001
Next year the 50th anniversary for the class of 1952!  We're too late to be the Greatest Generation, too early to be flower children.  Bob Manhart and I married as he was doing his 2 years of Army courtesy of ROTC.  Instead of Korea (there were only two possibilities), he got Germany, and I was able to go.  Spent two years in the Stuttgart area, a great experience for a Southern Baptist like me.   Soon we had 4 daughters, no sons.  Bob was an aerospace engineer, so we lived in California most of the time, Kansas, Oklahoma and back to Missouri.  I became the "egg lady" in Missouri, then the director of a lobbying association for the wider poultry industry.  This lasted 23 years.  (Ask me any egg questions)  Now I own my own business; and employment agency for retired people.  Not making lots of money yet, but it's wonderful to be your own boss.  Got mentioned in the Wall St. Journal, resulted in lots of phone calls; some to sell me something, some to ask if there was a branch of AVAILABLE JONES in their area, some wanting work.  That's where we are now, 2001.  Bob likes retirement (from the University), I definitely did not, thus the launch of a business.  Best regards....Jo
Back



 
 
 
 

The 50th Reunion

June 14 & 15, 2002
 

Hickman alumni return to school after 50 years
 

Undefeated Kewpies huddle up again,
"Teammates gather after 51 years."
 

Pictures from Saturday night @ The Country Club of Missouri
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 



Hickman alumni return to school after 50 years































By CORY de VERA of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, June 16, 2002
They might have graduated from Hickman High School 50 years ago, but the sight of the school’s football field had the Kewpie Class of 1952 breaking out in cheers.
 
 
 

Ed Pfueller photo 
Janie James, a member of the Hickman High School Class of ’52, performs a cheer from her days as a Kewpie cheerleader for former classmates, including Carlisle Lassiter, left, and Dorris Cohen, second from left, in the Hickman lot.
Janie James, who was Janie Immerthall and a cheerleader during her years at Hickman, had no problem remembering the cheers and routines she performed.
"Strawberry shortcake sis-boom-bah, " she cheered outside the school yesterday.

James’ classmates and their spouses gathered in Columbia this weekend for a 50-year reunion. For James and several of her classmates, a tour of the high school yesterday morning marked their first time back to campus since graduation.

"The size of the buildings and all the added specialties in media, horticulture - they have a whole performing arts building," James said. "It’s just all amazing to me."

The group estimated about 175 students graduated in 1952. By comparison, this year’s class had more than 600 students.

Hickman’s junior class principal, Greg Grupe, and seniors Jeff Sanders and Song Mu updated the group on plans to expand the west entrance of the school, renovate the theater and open a Kewpie museum.

Some of the classmates got teary-eyed when they passed a memorial plaque in honor of Donald Byers.

"He died when we were seniors," Robert Kinder said. "Every time I think of him, I want to cry. Everyone liked him because of the way he treated people."

Classmates said Byers died of illness. An award the class established in his name remains one of the top five prizes given out at Hickman, Grupe said.

The classmates got a laugh trying to find their old lockers, figuring out which classroom had housed their Latin or typing class and recalling their teachers.

They also enjoyed the tour guides’ talk of parking problems. Most of them had to ride the city bus to school.

Undefeated Kewpies reunite
Undefeated teammates gathered Thursday after 51 years. Read about the 1951 Hickman football team's perfect season in today's sports section. Click here.
 

John Russey and James remembered performing in school plays and in Hickman’s highly respected verse-speaking choir.

"It was a big group," Russey said of the choir. "We would travel to different cities to perform."

The verse-speaking choir combined spoken poetry, music and some movement in its performances. Russey broke out in verses from Vachel Lindsay’s poem "The Congo," one of the pieces the group had learned.

"It was really unique," James said. "It was done with such precision, there was no room for error."

Hickman opened in 1927. Grupe said he enjoys getting a chance to connect with alumni during reunion season, with as many as 10 groups coming to town each year.

Hickman alumni around the country can keep up with developments at their school and with their classmates through www.kewpie.net, a Web site started by Charlie Blackmore, a 1963 graduate. The Class of 1942 is planning an October 60-year reunion.
 
 

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Reach Cory de Vera at (573) 815-1705 or cdevera@tribmail.com.
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Undefeated Kewpies huddle up again
Teammates gather after 51 years.





























By RUS BAER of the Tribune’s staff
/2002/jun/20020616spor003.asp">Published Sunday, June 16, 2002
As a senior on Hickman’s undefeated football team of 1951, George Simpson has had about 51 years to figure out what made his team unbeatable.
 
 
 

Mark Schiefelbein photo
Members of the 1951 Hickman football team took their offensive positions during a reunion Thursday. Linemen from left are Roland Walker, Bob Lee, Dick Hazell, Galen Branham, Frank Wilhite, John Dunham and John Russey. In back are Coach Cecil Rice, George Simpson, Ken Roberts, Cookie Whitesides and Coach Bo Edwards. Bob Musgrave is behind Branham.
"You know, that’s a good question," Simpson said, leaning back in his chair as if he might need another 50 years to put his finger on it.
After a lengthy pause, Simpson offered his best explanation: "I guess we just had some really good athletes."

Although a few years past their athletic primes, a lot of those really good athletes huddled up one more time Thursday at the Smokehouse Restaurant and Pub for a "Party of Champions," organized by former standout quarterback Bob Musgrave.

A 1952 graduate, Musgrave started the "Jockfest," as some of his classmates call it, about 20 years ago in an effort to bring together his former teammates that he shared so many good times with as a Hickman athlete.

"We had such phenomenal success, I decided every five years we’d get together," said Musgrave, who was a three-sport standout before playing on Missouri’s national-championship baseball team in 1954. "This is a way for me to thank a lot of guys that probably made my career very successful. They were great athletes, and we were a good team. We did wonderful things. I owe them a lot, and I kind of like seeing them, too."

One of eight players making the trip from out of state, Musgrave, who now lives in Hoboken, N.J., was able to visit with 14 of his former teammates Thursday.

A handful of former basketball players and two former cheerleaders - Beverly (Barnett) Carl and Margie (Berkley) Constantine - also made it to the reunion, joining former coaches Cecil Rice and Harold "Bo" Edwards, both 81 years old.

As the players gathered for the dinner, memories of the undefeated season came rushing back. Musgrave had one wall of the banquet room plastered with old newspaper clippings he gleaned from a pile of scrapbooks his father kept for him as a teenager.

"My dad saved scrapbooks of everything," Musgrave said. "You don’t think about it when you’re young, but suddenly, 50 years later, you’re so glad Dad did that."
 
 
 

Mark Schiefelbein photo 
Jerry Whitesides, a sophomore on Hickman’s 1951 football team, points himself out in a team photo to his wife, Virginia, during Thursday’s reunion.
The pictures on the wall made it clear to see a lot has changed since this band of Kewpies last ruled the gridiron.
Roland Walker, a senior end on the ’51 squad, was quick to point out a position change might be in order for several of his teammates after 50 years.

"We were all ends back then," said Walker, recalling the slender builds of several of his teammates. "We’d all be tackles now."

The "Party of Champions" was held in conjunction with the 50-year reunion of Hickman’s 1952 graduating class.

Considering Hickman has had only one other undefeated football season since - a 10-0 record in 1973 - it’s a gathering that was certainly worth celebrating.

"When you’ve got a school that’s 100 years old, and to only have two teams in the modern era go undefeated, that’s saying something," Musgrave said.

Especially since Coach Bob Roark didn’t expect the 1951 squad, which lacked a great amount of size, to be as strong as the 1950 Hickman team that compiled a 9-1 mark.

The lone loss in ’50 was a 14-7 home-defeat to Kirksville. Watching the sloppy game in the stands that night was junior John Russey, who had just moved to Columbia from Texas.

The next day, Russey joined the "horrible team" he watched play. Although Russey never scored in his high-school career, the Kewpies compiled a 17-0 record with the two-way starting end on the squad.

"We were really small - much smaller than anybody we played," said Galen Branham, then one of the Kewpies’ bigger players as a senior center and team captain. "But we were a lot faster."

Party of Champions

Members of Hickman’s undefeated 1951 football team - with their graduation class and current residence - who were present for a reunion Thursday night at Smokehouse Restaurant and Pub:

-Galen Branham (’52), Rose, Okla
-John Dunham (’52), Fulton
-Dick Hazell (’52), Columbia
-Robert Kinder (’52), Hutchinson, Kan.
-Bob Lee (’54), Columbia
-Bob Musgrave (’52), Hoboken, N.J.
-Kenny Roberts (’53), Tucson, Ariz.
-John Russey (’52), Gambrills, Md.
-George Simpson (’52), Springfield
-Roland Walker (’52), Hartsburg
-Cookie Whitesides (’52), Gainesville, Fla.
-Jerry Whitesides (’54), Columbia
-Frank Wilhite (’52), Lincoln, Ill.
-Owen Worstell (’52), Marshall
-Coach Cecil Rice, St. Petersburg, Fla.
-Coach Bo Edwards, Columbia
-Cheerleaders: Beverly (Barnett)
-Carl and Margie (Berkley) Constantine.
 

With Musgrave leading a talented Split-T backfield - which included starting halfbacks Don Webb, Don "Cookie" Whitesides and fullback Kenny Roberts - Hickman’s running game rolled up big yardage. Also helping out in the backfield was Simpson, a state high-hurdle champion.

"It was just an incredibly efficient machine," Musgrave said. "We had a heck of a line blocking for us. Every time we touched the ball, we’d get 7 or 8 yards."

Webb led the big-play attack with a school-record 11.2 yards per carry to gain 839 yards. Musgrave became the first Hickman player to top 100 points in a season, scoring 15 touchdowns and 24 extra points for 114 points.

"Bob was the leader … and the rest of us were all about the same," Simpson said. "Don Webb was a whale of an athlete, and Cookie Whitesides, if you were ever in a fight, you’d want him on your side."

The Kewpies played in two close games during the season. The first was a 19-13 win against Mexico in which the Kewpies committed seven turnovers.

The other tight contest was a 20-12 victory at Sedalia, which was played during the week of senior teammate Don Byers’ stunning death after a nine-day illness.

"We didn’t go to the funeral because the coaches said we may not make it to the game on time," Simpson said. "That was a tough decision, but we figured if Don was there he’d say go play the game."

Hickman rolled through the rest of their schedule with three lopsided victories to complete the perfect season. Lineman Owen "Big Ornery" Worstell, who actually served a stint in the Marines before joining the football team, punctuated the final two shutout wins by returning three fumbles for touchdowns.

In the midst of a six-year winning streak against Jefferson City, which lasted from 1949-54, not even the archrival Jays could stop Hickman’s perfect run. A week before the tough Sedalia game, the Kewpies rolled past the Jays for a 41-20 homecoming win.

"We always pointed to that game," Musgrave said, "and we always kicked their ass."

Hickman’s perfect season earned the Kewpies their second straight berth in the Show-Me Bowl, a playoff game sponsored by Columbia’s Junior Chamber of Commerce.

But the game was canceled because "no suitable opponent could be found" according to the Nov. 7, 1951, edition of the Tribune, leaving the Kewpies as one of just six teams in the state to finish the football season unbeaten and untied.

"That was before they had state playoffs," said senior guard Dick Hazell, "so we were voted as the mythical state champs."

Road to Perfection
Click here to see a game by game breakdown of the Kewpies' 1951 perfect season.
 

According to Jerry Whitesides, a sophomore on that undefeated team who was an assistant coach at Hickman from 1960-96, the ’51 team could arguably be ranked as the best football team in Hickman history.

"That was the best Hickman football team until maybe 1974," Whitesides said, noting the school’s state-champion team that included future NFL stars Leo Lewis and Gerry Ellis. "In their prime and ’74’s prime, it would have been a good game. I’m sure the ’74 team would have had more speed, but this ’51 team was something else."

Amazingly, all but two of the offensive starters from the 1951 team were in attendance Thursday. Billy Young, a junior end, and Webb, who died of a heart attack last month, are the only deceased starters.

"I wouldn’t give anything for the years I had in football at Hickman," Simpson said. "It was the best experience I ever had."

Judging by the endless conversation and hearty laughter on Thursday, Simpson isn’t alone.
 
 

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Reach Rus Baer at (573) 815-1787 or rbaer@tribmail.com.
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photos by Charley Blackmore
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