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School Calling All Alumni; Former Graduates of Sturtevant Graded Tracking Down Classmates for Reunion

Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 15:00 CDT

Sturtevant Students from the former Sturtevant State Graded School are hitting the books again.

Searching through local historical accounts, paging through phone books and directories, and reading through letters from around the country, graduates are studying ways to bring everyone together to remember their old school days.

Graduates of the Sturtevant school are planning its first-ever reunion next year for the school that got its start in a log cabin and was built in the 1800s.

"We are trying to get as many people as we can to remember our childhood, the good old days," organizer Paul Lewis said.

Lewis, 75, graduated from the school in 1945 and found work at IBM. He returned home to Sturtevant to see family every year for many years. Lewis now lives near Raleigh, N.C.

Idea for reunion

He got the idea to unite students for a reunion while he was speaking to a schoolmate. She said many of the graduates stayed in the Racine area, but many others left.

Lewis began making calls and connected with a few classmates. He gathered a list of 50 alumni but knew that many other students were missing from his list. He found some records that listed students from 1927 through 1961.

He and other alumni eventually located about 300 people.

Records from the Racine Heritage Museum show that the Sturtevant Graded School originally opened in the 1870s on 90th St. Mary Clemens was the first schoolteacher and later served as the dean of history at the University of Washington.

The school later moved to Highway 11 and built an addition in 1953. The school continued to operate until the 1960s, when the Racine Unified School District took over the older local students.

Schulte Elementary School was built to replace Sturtevant School. Pictures from the Sturtevant School continue to hang in the School Days Mall on Durand Ave. in the village.

Lewis and his team plan to continue to collect memorabilia, pictures and music from students who lived during that time for a possible book. Lewis said he would like to put something together for former students.

Since Lewis began the project, he has found Sturtevant graduates living in many parts of the world. One former student moved to Paris and works as an artist. Another graduate lives in Australia but continues to visit Sturtevant annually.

"I've found them all over the place," Lewis said.

The school is still looking for former students, especially ones who graduated or attended the school around 1941. Lewis said many of the students he has had difficulty finding have married and changed their names.

If you were a student of Sturtevant Graded School or know of someone who was, e-mail sturtevantschool@bellsouth.net. or call the Sturtevant Village Hall at (262) 886-7200 for contact information.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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