A Terrific Trio!
Virginia Adams Schmitz in center.
On Monday evening, January 25, the Sunset Hills Historical Society’s meeting will feature an informal conversation about life in St. Louis. The guest speakers will include Wanda Winter, Ginny Schmitz and Joyce Franklin, all of whom had arrived in our community before Sunset Hills was a city.
Virginia Schmitz grew up in a neighborhood of farming while her dad, like a lot of men in those days, worked at Alpha Portland Cement. They moved and she chose to go to Kirkwood high school, where she met her husband Bob.
She had a job at the PX at Jefferson Barracks, which she said was a lot of fun. “There were busloads of service men coming home. Too bad I was already married in 1941.”
The photo above shows left to right; Laverne Hunkler Wilke, Virginia Adams Schmitz, and Lillian Bender Mueller bicycling in Concord Village. The photo is from page 206 of the out of print book, Sappington-Concord: A History, by the Sappington-Concord Historical Society. It is available at the St Louis County libraries.
Wanda Winter arrived in St. Louis in the spring of 1947. She was in high school in Texas, writing to her brother in the service. Unbeknownst to her, her brother was letting his army buddy, Bob Winter, read her letters. In 1946 Bob and Pete Winter were busy with Winter Brothers, located in Sunset Hills, but Bob took a week off to visit his army buddy in Texas.
“I had graduated from high school and was working at a Houston oil company, and Bob drove me to work every day that week. He proposed, we got married on January 1, 1947 by a preacher who was our neighbor. He moved me to St. Louis. I always say that January 1 is ‘The Rule of Good Cheer’…all good things happen on that day.”
Joyce Franklin, a former Sunset Hills Historical Society honoree as Historian of the Year, will moderate the conversation. Franklin was a teacher in the Lindbergh School District for ten years. Her teaching career began near Cape Girardeau in a one-room schoolhouse with all eight grades. She met her husband Glen at Southeast Missouri State, they got married and moved to St. Louis in 1954. They have three daughters.
Franklin is also a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, has been active in veteran affairs, including bringing the Vietnam Memorial Wall to Sunset Hills, and has donated more than 600 handmade quilts to veterans.
“This quote attributed to Marcus Garvey says it best: ‘A people without knowledge of their past history, origin, or culture is like a tree without roots’,” said Nick Dragan, President of the SHHS. “With Wanda, Ginny, and Joyce we have some truly special and deep roots that have allowed us to flourish as a community. This promises to be an especially interesting program.”
We hope you can join us at 7:00 at Sunset Hills City Hall, 3939 South Lindbergh Blvd.
Anne Jesse, Secretary – Sunset Hills Historical Society
See the Sunset Hills Historical Society Facebook group.
See info about the society on the Sunset Hills city website which calls the society a “commission.”
See the current Sunset HIlls Historical Society 2016 event schedule.
See the past Sunset HIlls Historical Society 2015 event schedule.
