Dave Clarke: This Class of '47 was ‘very close'

They come from a generation when people were closer by nature rather than convenience.

Almost every graduating class has something special about it, but the Class of 1947 at Wethersfield High School in Kewanee, Ill., has the numbers to back it up.

Out of 43 people who graduated that year, 10 married each other, and the remarkable thing is that all five couples are still living -- and are still married to each other.

The class held its 60th reunion recently at Midland Country Club near Kewanee, minus 11 members now deceased. Of the remaining 32 class members, 24 attended the reunion -- about half of whom were married to another class member.

Class member Marilyn Moss said she contacted the Wethersfield superintendent's office before the reunion to find out how rare it was to have that many wedded couples in one class. After checking, school officials could find no other class from Wethersfield with that high of a marriage rate, let alone all still alive and all married more than 50 years.

"We were a very close class," said Dean Moss, elected president of the class his junior and senior years. "Many of us dated each other and, after graduation, married each other and are still together."

Mrs. Moss said times -- and attitudes -- were different in 1947.

"Today, people get married and divorced in no time. When we got married, we were married to stay."

All five couples raised families, with Dean and Marilyn having the most kids.

Mr. and Mrs. Moss have been married 57 years and, with the other four couples all marrying at about the same time, we're talking a combined total of 275 years of marriage and probably a constantly evolving number of grandchildren. In bigger classes, 10 members marrying classmates would be unusual, but coming from a class of 43, and all still alive and still married, makes this group unique.

"We all bonded with one another in high school, and we're still bonded together like a family," said Dean Moon as each class member was asked to make remarks at the reunion.

Moss gave credit for much of how they turned out to their principal, Elmer Fisher.

"He could take the dumbest, meanest football player, sit him down in his office and he'd walk out with tears in his eyes and Mr. Fisher never laid a hand on him or even raised his voice. He had a way of reaching into a person's heart and changing them," Moss said.

The Mosses were given the framed picture with headshots of all 43 class members several years ago. It had hung on the second floor of the school from which they graduated and was rescued when the building was destroyed by fire in 1965.

"I don't know what we're going to do with it, our kids don't want it," said Marilyn. She did say that Wethersfield school officials have expressed interest in displaying the historic collection but have not yet come up with a location.

The five couples of the WHS Class of '47 are:

- Jack and Donna (Pratt) Mulholland, of Barrington

- Dean and Doris (Moon) Nash, of Estero, Fla.

- Wade and Maurine (Perkins) Chapman, of Sheffield

- Dean and Marilyn (Wolf) Moss, of Kewanee

- Bob and Lois (Schultz) Bracken, of Rockford

Looking at the class directory, most of the students still live in Illinois, with a few eventually living in Oregon, New Jersey, Arizona, California, Michigan and Florida.

Thirteen of the original 43 class members (living and deceased) had Kewanee addresses.

Star Courier