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A Typical Evening

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Kathy Marbach Montgomery Receives Award

The class of 64's own Kathy Marbach Montgomery has been awarded the Randall Children's Hospital Hero Award.

Randall's Hospital is a trauma one hospital specializing in pediatric care located in Portland, OR.  

Kathy volunteers in the acute care and respiratory unit and care for newborns through age 10.

Congratulations Kathy!

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Sioux City Council approves rezoning request to turn the former East Junior High School into $17 million apartment project

The Sioux City Council's approval of a rezoning request Monday will allow a developer to move forward with plans to convert the former East Junior High School into 38 apartment units. 

Commonwealth Development Corporation of America plans to invest $17 million in the project, which will include a mix of apartment units ranging from one to four bedrooms. The property consists of the former school, 1520 Morningside Ave., and adjacent parking lots at 1525 S. Saint Aubin St., as well as 3814 and 3918 Peters Ave.

The council voted unanimously to rezone the property from Public Institutional and Neighborhood Conservation to General Residential. The project's site plan will come back to the Planning and Zoning Commission for review. 

Before the vote, Councilwoman Julie Schoenherr asked Tyler Sheeran, vice president of development for Commonwealth Development Corporation of America, whom the apartments would be marketed to.  

"It is IRS section 42 housing," Sheeran said. "So, looking at Woodbury County, specifically, we're targeting individuals making $68,880 on an annual basis -- that's pre-taxed. So, as long are you're making less than that, which equates to about $33 an hour, you'd be eligible."

"What are you going to do with the old auditorium?" Mayor Bob Scott asked. 

Sheeran told Scott the auditorium would be left open for tenant space. He said the building will contain a leasing office, a community room and a kitchenet for tenants to enjoy.

"The hope is to kind of maintain the historic structure inside. That said, we will be doing some extension rehabilitation there," he said. "The units, when you walk in them, they'll still have the historic feel. We'll still have a lot of state-of-the-art finishes your average renter would like to see right now." 

The former East Junior High School closed in 1972. In 1985, the Sioux City School District sold the property to Western Hills Area Education Agency. The Education Agency sold the property to Morningside Preservation, LLC in 2021, according to the Sioux City Assessor's website.

SCJ March 14, 2023

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Class of 1962 60th Reunion September 23-24 2022

Back row: Andrea Snave Kingery, Sam Peterson, Ken Lewis, Jim Clark, Jerry Forbes, Jim Sorenson, Mike Boulden.

Middle row: Jean Pease Jewel, Betty Hair Dutcher, Bob Larson, Tom Reisdorph, Gerry LeMoine, Gary Jones, Howard Peterson, Jack Holloway, Sharon Brown Flick.

Front row: Cindy Davies Lachnit, Gloria Jacobson Klein, Diane Prescott Strait, Margaret Boe deBuhr, Gale Olsen Peterson, Cheryl Nichols Fisher,  Carol Voloshen DeSmet, Michelle Bocian Patton

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The Vietnam Memorial Wall  

A little history most people will never know.  Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.  Our classmate, Jim Balch was 20 years old.  8,283 were just 19 years old.  The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.  12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.  5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.  One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.  1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

8 Women are on the Wall, nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.

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Charlie (Chuck) Andersen's Viet Nam Experiences

The class of 64's own Charlie Andersen was interviewed by one of the local TV stations regarding his Viet Nam experiences.  Copy the following link, and paste it into your browser.  Charlie's interview lasts 3 minutes.  You will have to put up with a short commercial prior to Charlie's interview starting.

https://www.siouxlandproud.com/video/veterans-voices-remembering-vietnam/6319778/   

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Tour of Sioux City

For those of you that have not visited Sioux City in a while, here is a 7 minute tour of the city. 

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The Warrior Hotel renovation is nearly complete! 

After being a downtown eyesore for over 40 years, the final product of the Warrior Hotel, located at 6th and Nebraska, is about to be realized.  Watch a five minute video tour of the facility, hosted by Amy and Amrit Gill, whose vision has made it possible.  

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East High Students Show There Is Hope For Our Youth and Young Adults!

Several of our class roving reporters (Janene and Paul Rehder in North Carolina, and Glenn Perrin and Linda Lou Ellard in New Mexico) filed Christmas Day reports that they saw a report that day on "CBS This Morning" that mentioned how students from East High School in Sioux City started a pen pal program with a local senior facility, Bickford Assisted Living & Memory Care.  

In doing research, I found that the reports were originally broadcast on the three local TV stations in the March-May timeframe, with "CBS This Morning" showing it again in a segment on Christmas Day.

Today I talked to Deb Conley, the Life Enrichment Coordinator at Bickford, to see what the current status of the program is.  Deb said that the pen pal program is still VERY active.  The latest event with the East High students and residents of Bickford was a inflatable Christmas costume parade.  The students put on the costumes and marched in front of the two buildings on Bickford's campus.

Below are two links regarding the program.  One from the local ABC station, and the link to CBS This Morning.  Each story is a little different.  You will have to put up with a 15 second commercial at the beginning of each.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/student-pen-pals-help-senior-citizens-cope-with-coronavirus-isolation/

To our roving reporters, we thank you for your working on Christmas Day, but no, you will NOT receive double pay for working on a holiday.  Your pay will be the same as always!

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Renaldo Keene Article and Passing Announcement

Renaldo Keene graduated with the class of 65, but he was a member of our class until around the 9th grade, when due to illness he had to temporially drop out of school.  When he was able to start school again he became part of the class of 65.

Renaldo passed on February 7, 2020 and his services will be in Virginia on February 20th.  Interment will follow the service in Quantico National Cemetery. 

After graduation from East High he joined the Marine Corps. Renaldo spent 35 months in Vietnam and retired from the Marine Corps as a Master Gunnery Sergeant in 1990. He then wrote for Leatherneck Magazine during retirement.

Below is an article on Renaldo that was printed in the SCJ on March 13, 2013:

If he hadn't grown up in Sioux City, Renaldo Keene said, he might not be the award-winning writer he is today.

“I owe everything to my family and to the teachers I had at Hobson (Elementary), East Junior and East High schools,” the retired Marine told me Tuesday from his home in Stafford, Va. “They made me into a standup guy and to do the things you were supposed to do.”

Keene received the 2012 Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Col. Robert Debs Heinl Award for history writing. The foundation presents the annual award to a Marine or civilian in recognition of exemplary work in advancing and preserving Marine Corps history, “giving prime consideration for high literary quality and originality.” Keene was the first staffer at the corps' Leatherneck magazine, where he's associate editor, to win the prestigious honor.

The foundation recognized him for his two-part series on World War II battles on the small Pacific islands of Saipan and Tinian in 1944. He accompanied two veterans back to the islands in 2011, where he related their firsthand accounts and delved into the islands' history and what they're like today.

“One of the guys had talked about how terrible a place it was. When he went back, he was amazed at how beautiful it was,” Keene said. "It's kind of like Hawaii with a hometown atmosphere."

As he has done in some other stories, he found a way to “put in a plug” for his hometown. Saipan, he wrote, is home to 62,392 people, while Tinian has about 3,000.

“By comparison, the population of Middle America’s Sioux City, Iowa, with 83,262 people, is only slightly more.”

He can’t pinpoint why he wanted to become a Marine, only that he always did. His late father, Alan Richard Keene, stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day during World War II. Dad, he thinks, wasn’t thrilled at the decision of his only child to become a Marine. His mom, Lucy, just worried about his safety.

This past Sunday, he returned from a two-week visit to Vietnam to write a story about Marines who fought in the Battle of Hue during the Tet offensive. In 1968, he arrived just after the battle so has firsthand memories of what occurred.

Two of his three sons joined the Marines but have since entered civilian life in Virginia. His other son and daughter also live in the area, along with three grandkids. His wife, their children and other family members attended the awards ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps outside the Quantico Marine Corps Base. Keene received a medal and had his name engraved on a brick set in a walkway around the museum. 

Although he could retire altogether, he has no plans to do so since he gets paid to do what he loves – write for a living.

“Besides,” he joked, “nobody’s shooting at me.”

SCG March 13, 2013 

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Jerry's Pizza (aka Morningside Pizza) Celebrating 60th Anniversary

Back in late summer of 1959, Jerry and Ilene Foister hopped in their car for a drive around Sioux City.

The couple happened upon a vacant storefront at 1417 Morningside Ave. 

"We were out for a ride one day and I saw that building for rent and I said to Jerry, 'We should start a pizza house,'" Ilene Foister, 86, recalled in a recent interview. "About a month later we had a pizza house." 

At the time, Jerry worked as an insurance agent. Ilene Foister has "no idea" where she got the idea to start a pizzeria. She may have been inspired by other, early restaurants that served pizza in Sioux City -- the dish wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it is today, but it was quickly developing a following. 

"I didn't like pizza at all, so that wasn't the reason," she quipped.

At the time, she wasn't even sure how to make a pizza. 

"At 3 o'clock I made the first pizza and we were opening at 4. I put it in the oven, I had no idea how much cheese to put on it, and a man came in and he said, 'I want to buy that first pizza,'" Foister recalled. "I said, 'Well I don't know what it's going to be like, the cheese is running all over the oven.' He said, 'I don't care, I want to buy it.'" 

The business, originally called Morningside Pizza, became known as Jerry's Pizza in 1980. One of the most ubiquitous eateries in Sioux City, Jerry's turns 60 years old this year.

Jerry Foister died unexpectedly in 1989 at age 60, and Ilene Foister is now retired. The family business today is operated by their sons, Mike and Terry, Mike's wife, Barb, and Terry's wife, Diane.

Terry and Mike were 8 and 9 years old, respectively, when the restaurant opened. They've spent their entire careers at Jerry's Pizza, except for stints serving in the Army and Navy, respectively. 

Their children and some of their grandchildren also have shared in the fourth-generation pizza legacy. Having as many hands on deck as possible is a necessity in a business where timely service is essential.

"One of my father's favorite phrases was, 'I don't care how, we just need to get the job done!'" Mike Foister recalled. 

In the early days, Jerry and Ilene Foister used a shoebox as a cash register and a card table to roll the dough, according to Jerry's obituary. At the time of his death, the family operated five locations, including one in Le Mars and one in South Sioux City. 

The family has since pared back to two stores -- the original one in Morningside and a location at West 25th Street and Hamilton Boulevard.

The Foisters' pizza parlor was innovative from its earliest days. Years before pizza delivery was a bring-your-own-car proposition, Jerry's kept a fleet of delivery vehicles. Their auto insurance company put the kibosh on this practice years ago.

"My father was the first person to ever deliver food in Sioux City," Mike Foister, 68, said. "Somebody'll question that I'm sure."

Though he was hesitant to provide the information, fearing someone may challenge his math, Mike Foister suggested that over 60 years the family has used about five to six million pounds of cheese for its pizzas. 

To commemorate its major milestone, Jerry's plans to make a sizable donation to GiGi's Playhouse in Sioux City. A portion of all pizza sales on Thursday, Sept. 5 will go to the nonprofit organization, which provides programming and arts education for people with Down syndrome. 

"I have a great-niece that has Down syndrome," Barb Foister said. "We were trying to give something back to our community. And that money does stay here." 

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Most of us over 65 were Home Schooled  - in many ways

1 My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL  DONE.

"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2 My mother taught me RELIGION.

"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3 My father taught me about TIME TRAVEL.

 "If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4 My father taught me LOGIC.

"Because I said so, that's why."

5 My mother taught me MORE LOGIC .

"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6 My mother taught me FORESIGHT.

 "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7 My father taught me IRONY.

"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8 My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.

"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9 My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.

"Just you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.

"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.

"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.

"If I told you once, I've told you a million times, don't exaggerate!"

13. My father taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.

 "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION

 "Stop acting like your father!"

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.

"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16.My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.

"Just wait until we get home."

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING

"You are going to get it from your father when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.

"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.

"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My father taught me HUMOR

"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.

  "If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22.My mother taught me GENETICS.

  "You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS

"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

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Jim Ashmore's Vietnam Experience

The Sioux City Journal ran a series of stories on local guys about their experience on serving in Vietnam.  The October 1, 2015 article is about our own Jim Ashmore.

Jim Ashmore doesn't mince words when asked why he joined the Iowa Air National Guard 185th Tactical Fighter Group.

"I joined to avoid the draft and avoid going to Vietnam," Ashmore said.

He laughed before adding, "It didn't work."

Ashmore, a 1964 East High School graduate, attended Nettleton Business Training College in Sioux City and completed a two-year accounting program. He signed on at Williams & Co., a CPA firm, and joined the 185th in May 1966.

"In January 1968, we were activated," he said, noting how the USS Pueblo had just been taken by North Korea.

Ashmore shipped out in May 1968, headed for Phu Cat, Vietnam, in the central part of the country. He flew on a cargo plane overseas.

"I was not familiar with Phu Cat," he recalls. "It was like we weren't supposed to know. I stepped off the plane and it was a different world."

Ashmore, 21, was assigned to outside receiving. Anything that came to the base and weighed more than 50 pounds passed through Ashmore's work station. Everything but munitions entered the base at Phu Cat through his place in the supply chain.

"Within our first week, the base came under mortar attack," he said. "We were sleeping, I remember. I also know we were in the bunkers before the sirens went off. I could hear the debris from one of the mortar hits."

Ashmore took extra weapons training a short time later. He soon was called to join a police squadron that helped surround the perimeter of the base, offering an extra level of protection.

He served in his supply role for 12 months, save for a five-day period of "rest and relaxation" in nearby Sydney, Australia.

At Christmas, Ashmore saw entertainers Bob Hope and Ann-Margret, who dropped by for a holiday show.

Ashmore wrote letters home at least once a week, including those to Jan Fletcher, who would one day become his wife.

"I was with guys from Sioux City, friends of mine, and that alleviated homesickness," he said.

"I had a job to do and I did my job during the day and then went to the NCO club at night," he said. "For being in Vietnam, it wasn't that bad compared to a guy going through the jungle."

A low point in his tour came when a letter arrived from Sioux City. It told of one of Ashmore's buddies, a soldier who did go through the jungle in Vietnam, a soldier who ended up losing part of one of his legs. The tale still saddens Ashmore, causing tears to well in his eyes as he stopped talking.

Ashmore befriended a man who was hired to offer interpretation services on the base at Phu Cat. Ashmore and a fellow soldier traveled to the man's village in Vietnam to deliver lumber that U.S. soldiers were going to discard.

"When we saw their village, we could appreciate what this lumber meant to them," he said. "Their living conditions were so primitive."

If Ashmore took home a lifelong lesson when he left Vietnam on May 14, 1969, it would involve that notion of appreciation.

"What I did gave me an appreciation for veterans in general and for what my uncles went through (in previous wars)," he said from his home in Sergeant Bluff. "It also gave me an appreciation for what I have. I think people in the U.S., at least some people, don't realize how good we have it."

Ashmore received the Commendation Medal for outstanding performance in the line of duty, a medal he thinks has something to do with the extra training he took and the work he did to help guard the perimeter of the base.

Interestingly, Ashmore never owned a firearm, either before or after his military service.

He arrived back in Sioux City in mid-May 1968. His parents greeted him at the airport, as did his grandmother, a brother and his brother's family.

Jan Fletcher stood with a friend in Morningside as the plane circled over Sioux City and descended toward the airport. She and Jim would go out on a date the next night.

Jim Ashmore returned to work at Williams & Co. two weeks later. After he and Jan watched Neil Armstrong step foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, Jim Ashmore took his own "giant leap." He asked Jan to marry him.

The parents of two and the grandparents of five, the Ashmores recently celebrated their 45th anniversary.

(In addition, if you go to http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/vietnam/video-vietnam-veteran-jim-ashmore/youtube_5b4e0dee-b4e3-5dbe-a33c-514d11aae5cc.html you can watch a video interview with Jim.)

October 1, 2015 SCJ

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Class of 64's Port-A-Potty Guy

Tom Lindblom sure knows how to make an entrance. After all, not too many people drive into Cottonwood Cove Park, hauling 20 portable toilets.

"People seem to love the slogan on the back of our big truck: 'Yesterday's Meals-on-Wheels,'" Lindblom said with a laugh. "Yeah, you gotta have a sense of humor when you're in this line of work."

Since 1969, Lindblom Services has been responsible for portable toilets, urinals and handicapped-accessible lavatories at construction sites as well as outdoor festivals like Dakota City's Cottonwood Days.  "Cottonwood Days is actually one of our smaller events," Lindblom said. "We also have the contract for such events as Saturday in the Park, River-Cade and (the outdoor concerts at) Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that keep us very busy in the summertime."

Certainly no Johnny-come-lately, Lindblom, 69, came into the latrine business strictly as a sideline.

A longtime Sioux City firefighter, he actually began pumping septic tanks for residential homes.

"Back then, firefighters worked a schedule where they were on duty for 24 hours and then off for 48 hours," Lindblom remembered. "That gave me plenty of time for a second job."

Gradually, his sideline became his main job and, over time, he acquired nearly 500 portable toilets.

"It's a dirty job but somebody's gotta do it," Lindblom added. 

Over the years, Lindblom said he's noticed construction workers treat portable toilets better than festival attendees.  "You treat them better if you know you'll constantly be using one," he speculated.  Yet Lindblom said he's finds more interesting things left behind following a festival.

"In general, we've found plenty of cellphones, keys and wallets left in portable toilet," he said. "We return all of that to the event organizers.  "But Lindblom said he has also found beer cans, beer bottles, diapers and, even, bras left inside outdoor commodes.  "You never know what you're gonna find," he said. "Let's just leave it at that."

"It's only when you're in the hot sun and have plenty of beer in you that you'll be happy they are plenty of facilities around you," he said.

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Classmate Crowned Miss Iowa

Markie Anderson, 20, of Sioux City, won the Miss Iowa crown Sunday night at Arnolds Park.  She represented Morningside College in the pageant.  She will compete in the Miss U.S.A. contest in Miami.  She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Keith R.W. Anderson, 4748 Mayhew Drive.

Well...this was an article in the Sioux City Journal in June 1967, but our congrats still go out to Markie!

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Trip Down Memory Lane to the tune "Sioux City Sue"

If you click on the following link you will see some familiar scenes around Sioux City.  Hopefully you will remember them anyway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjYpwawAWJY&feature=youtu.be

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Iowa Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Includes 3 of Our Classmates

In 2003 a group by the name of The Rockers was inducted into the Iowa Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.  Included in the group were 3 of our classmates: Ric Van Haitsma, Gary Murkins, and Roger Rothwell.

Other East High grads that were members of the group were Reuben Hanson (63), Mike Erskine (65) and Jim Shea (65).

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Jim Henry, the 'Canyon Kid' and Siouxland TV Pioneer Has Died

Jim Henry, a Siouxland television pioneer and icon, died Thursday, January 30th, surrounded by family members at an assisting living facility in Midland, Mich. He was 90.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Henry came to Sioux City to train as a bombardier at the Sioux City Army Air Base (now the Iowa Air National Guard 185th Air Refueling Wing). He was later stationed in England and flew 25 missions aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress.

He returned to Sioux City following the war, got a job at a Weatherwax's men's store and soon helped start the Sioux City Community Theatre, appearing in the theater's first production in 1948.

Henry made a name for himself on the local stage and the success helped him land a television role as the "Canyon Kid" host a children's show at KCAU-TV in 1953, not long after the station began broadcasting.

He filled the airwaves and did community events, parades and promotions for KCAU until 1985, hosting an estimated 70,000 children as the "Canyon Kid," the affable cowboy with the Brooklyn accent.

In 1989, Henry went to work for KTIV in Sioux City and would host the station's "Around Siouxland" program until 2004, retiring from television at the age of 80.

He and his wife Karen Henry moved to Midland, Mich.,in 2013 to be close to their son, Jason Henry. Karen Henry said Friday that her husband died peacefully on Thursday night. She said Jim's funeral will take place in Sioux City, although arrangements with Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel of Sioux City are still being made.

"He loved his career, he loved Sioux City and he loved Iowa," Karen Henry said Friday morning. "That's why we're bringing him back to Iowa."

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Listen To Your Favorite Songs

To listen to your favorite songs from the good old days, go to the following website:  http://www.1959bhsmustangs.com/VideoJukebox.htm

Once there you can click on the "To Visit 60s JukeBox Click Box" button to listen to the top 60s songs by year.

Enjoy!

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Here's a great video that will bring back lot's of memories of the 50's.