| Golden Alumni | Class of 1931 |
| Helen (Whitney) Toburen | |
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Article by Ethel (Graham) Chapman and Helen (Whitney) Toburen |
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Ethel Graham was born Feb 18, 1913 in Keats, Kansas. She and her twin sister Edith, who died last year, went to school through the 8th grade in rural. Everybody had to take an exam and pass in order to graduate from the 8th grade and go on to high school. Helen Whitney was also a country girl born in 1913. She spent her early years in rural schools, too, then journeyed to the test center to take the 'graduation exam'. "In those days," Helen and Ethel explained, "all the 8th graders from the different schools in the County had to go to a County Graduation Exam in the same place." The next year, Ethel and Edith came to Manhattan Jr High School for the 9th grade, as their big brother had done so before them. He graduated from MHS in 1921. Ethel was immediate in remembering what impressed her most about her first days as a freshman at MHS, "The cafeteria!" she said. After packing a lunchbox for eight years, the good, hot food the cooks served was a treat. "I think it cost 23 cents," Ethel remembered. Helen agreed that the food was good. "The cafeteria was run by Mrs Caughrun, who was wonderful to us." Helen Whitney didn't come to MHS for her 9th grade year, however, as her family's farm was too rural. For her freshman year, she lived with an aunt and uncle in Asherville, exchanging housecleaning and baby-sitting for room and board. By her sophomore year, Helen's parents had found a place close enough to Manhattan High for Helen to get there for grades 10-12. They lived where the College Hill Methodist Church is now (across from the KSU Baseball stadium) and Helen walked to 10th and Poyntz from there – and back – every day. Ethel, living as far out in the country as she did, drove to school every day. She'd been driving since the age of 12–that's the way it was on the farm. Neither she nor Helen remembered ever having a license requirement. Ethel said she and Edith had to drive home right after school every day, so the sisters didn't participate in the extracurricular activities. Helen, under her own foot-power, was able to stay for school fun and what she most enjoyed was Intramurals. She admitted, however, that while she loved the sports, she only liked half of the gym class year: the semester of games and not the semester with dancing. Intramurals at MHS, Helen explained, were well structured in those days, and she turned the pages of her well-used 1931 Blue M to help explain the system which had been introduced at the school in 1925. In the fall, the sports played were soccer, volley ball, tennis (singles and doubles) and horse shoes (singles and doubles.) Winter brought the indoor sports of basket ball, basket ball free throw, and handball (singles and doubles.) In spring, they had baseball, tennis and horse shoes again, and track and field. The boys Intramural sports were divided into two leagues of five teams each with competitions towards a championship at the end of each season. They played on the field behind the school and on Griffith Field. Helen still has the ribbons she won in her Intramural competitions. During Ethel and Helen's years, MHS organized their first pep club - the Blue Dragon Pep Club, complete with cheerleaders and a 10 member Pep Band. (Manhattan High School did not become the "Indians" until 1940.) Helen remembered this with enthusiasm, "It gave the girls something to do during the games!" she said. The Pep Club members, who were both boys and girls selected from the whole student body according to the yearbook, tried to attend all out of town games. One of their faculty sponsors was Herbert H. Bishop, then a teacher of Physics, Geometry, and Algebra and later aftectionately known to many MHSers as "Herbie" the Principal, and for whom Bishop Stadium is named. The Pep Club also adopted a Pep Song. Ethel asked if it?and the MHS School Song?was still sung. We all know "Deep in our Hearts, there lives a love for dear old MHS." Here are the words to their MHS Pep Song, written by Vinton Johnson of the Class of '31. It's sung to the tune of "Anchors Aweigh." March on, Manhattan High, March right on through; Keep up your spirit, for this victory's made for you – M.H.S. March on, Manhattan High, Go throw that goal: For if you make this goal You're on old victory's road. No sooner was their Pep Club all set to cheer for what looked to be a tremendous season with the most outstanding team "in MHS history," than gloom covered the high school: the football season was cancelled. There was fear of an Infantile Paralysis epidemic – Polio. Helen remembers that all large gatherings were prohibited. The Intramural teams still played and MHS football coaches kept the boys playing by scheduling games within Riley County, which was allowed. They devised creative intra-squad contests. Football season ended with an inter-squad "Army" vs "Navy" game, played in the City Park, and Football letters were awarded that year on the basis of practice. All through MHS, Ethel and Helen remembered, everyone was assigned a 'home room', which they had as a part of their schedule once a week or so. Among other things, home rooms were each responsible for presenting a program during what was known then as 'chapel' – not a religious event, but a gathering of the entire student body for programs, meetings with the principal or superintendent, and so on. (Helen remembers that Superintendent of Schools Sheffer had a favorite word he liked to use in his talks, so the kids would each count how many times they heard this word during his speeches. Often, she admitted, she had no idea what he'd said when he was finished – just that he'd used the word 20 times!) Ethel's home room presentations for Chapel were not memorable, she said, but Helen had one that was. The subject was Nutrition. She and several of her classmates were to wear the names of foods. "The teacher pinned a card with MILK right across my chest," she said – laughing but still indignant over the idea of it. She quickly assessed the situation from the audience's point of view. "No way!" she told the home room teacher. "Give it to a boy!" (Helen doesn't remember what she did wear, but a boy wore MILK.) Other groups presented Chapel programs, too. Their Blue M mentioned the program presented by the Colored Students: "Boy, now, Jesse Baker and Marvin Dimary can step!" By December, athletic matches were no longer proscribed. The day when KSAC beat Nebraska in football, the College boys were so excited they "raided" MHS – "whooping and hollering in the halls" was how Helen remembered it. The Blue M claims that the MHS Sr English teacher, Miss Socolofsky, put up a "manly fight" against the "welcomed intruders." Helen laughed remembering it all. "The College football team was good in those days," she said, "and everyone celebrated whenever K-State won. Groups of kids would storm the theaters – our feet would hardly touch the ground on the way in!" Ethel still has one of the new grade cards that MHS issued their senior year. Showing excellent grades, she said, "It's the best one I ever got, so it's the only one I kept." According to their yearbook, "many students" found on their report cards that year that they were "capable of doing better" or were "inclined to mischief." Ethel got neither report. Parents signed the report cards, which the students then returned to school. Helen remembered that signature as being about the extent of her parents' participation in school. This is one thing she sees as a difference between school in their day and now. "Parents didn't go down to the school to meet the teachers like they do now." Ethel didn't remember things like conferences between parents and teachers, either. As Helen explained, she considered it her job to work things out. Her first geometry class, she felt was going to be a failure. But she went to the office and requested a change of teachers – and got it. She didn't need an intermediary with a conference first. She discovered she actually liked geometry with the second teacher's methods. For MHS winter sports, the basketball team – the "Junior Wildcats" – gave the Pep Club and the student body a lot to cheer about. They went undefeated in League play and through the Regional tournament as well. They lost in the second round of the State tournament, but after the loss of the football season, it was a great year. Intramurals for girls was not as extensive as that for boys, but Helen always played softball, either at school or for the town team. When she stayed after school for any activities or into the evenings, she then had to walk across the park (which, she assured, was safe back then) and through Aggieville and the College (nobody had heard of muggings or rapists in town yet) and across a few fields to get home. In the dark. (In winter, in the snow.) Spring at MHS brought the Track season, where the Blue M labeled the MHS team the "Blues." Helen competed in Intramural track. For seniors, spring also turned thoughts to their Senior Sneak. Ethel smiled at this memory for their class, and then wondered what Senior Sneaks were like at MHS today. Helen laughed with her memory – first at the day before the day of the Senior Sneak. The Sneak day was kept a secret until the last minute. She was on the field behind the school playing softball when another senior, Dick Swart – the big athlete and everybody's dreamboat - came over to her and whispered in her ear. When he left, everyone immediately wanted to know: what did he say to her? "Tomorrow. Meet at the Colorado St. Bridge. Pass it on." It was the date and start of their Senior Sneak. She didn't know why he'd chosen her to be a messenger. Ethel went on the Sneak, too – she was a driver. Whoever had a car, drove, and the rest just piled in. They went to Pillsbury Crossing. Ethel doesn't know how they all made it out there – people were hanging off the sides of her car and out doors and windows! They had a great time. They swam, played tug of war, played soft ball, and ate a good picnic. Helen thinks the food was prepared by the school. "I got so sunburned!" she added. According to Helen's notebook, which she's kept on her class and classmates over the years, she and Helen were two out of a class of169 graduates in the Class of 1931. They seemed to have had no queens in their time, but they did have a "Most Popular Student" (always a boy,) an election sponsored by the Blue M and shown in the Yearbook as the Blue M Ace: Charles Finney in 1931. In the fall after graduation, Ethel Graham continued her education at the Business School of the Sacred Heart Academy, completing the nice month course in the spring of 1932. She got a job the day after she graduated, working in the office of the law firm Evans and Clammers, above the Union National Bank. Helen Whitney worked for a year after she was graduated from MHS. She cleaned houses to earn the $100 tuition for the same Business Course at Sacred Heart. When she finished, she went to work in the office of the Golden Belt Lumber Company. Staying there for five years, she dated, and then married, Vernon Toburen in 1937. The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2007. Ethel married Alton Chapman in 1938 who had graduated from Manhattan High earlier. They had known each other for years, as their families had been close. After moving around Western Kansas for several years, the couple came home to Keats in 1944 to raise their new little daughter, Marcella. Alton ran the filling station in Keats until his death. Ethel's twin sister Edith also passed away this last summer in California. Ethel Graham Chapman continues to live in Keats. Helen Whitney Toburen and Vernon raised their three children , John , Karen, and Lynn, in Manhattan, where all graduated from MHS. Helen has attended every reunion of the Class of '31 and Ethel is sure she made most of them. They both remembered the year that their classmate Paul Yowell got the prize for coming the farthest: he was quite a surprise - he'd come back from the dead! They'd had him on the list as "deceased" by mistake. (He still got the prize by coming to Manhattan from California.) Ethel has kept items from her years at MHS, as has Helen, and both keep notice of any classmate they find in the paper, exchanging information when they meet. Both had the photo from their well-attended 50th reunion, their last one, in1981. Both would probably enjoy another reunion if there were someone to plan it. 2005 article Helen Whitney was born August 24, 1912 on the family farm to Asaph Whitney and Grace (Conrow) Whitney. The Whitney Farm was in the College Hill vicinity. She was the oldest of eight children.Helen attended College Hill School, a two room school with grades 1 through 8. Helen and her brothers rode ponies to school, and remembers they were fed and watered at noon in a barn near the school yard. During recess the children played games, with the most popular being pump pumps, pull away, ante-over, baseball, jacks, and spelling bees. After graduating from College Hill School, Helen didn’t have a way to get from her home to the high school in Manhattan. She spent her first year of high school in Asherville, Kansas where she stayed with her Aunt and Uncle. She played guard on the basketball team in Asherville. Helen then returned to Manhattan and spent her next three years at Manhattan High School, graduating in 1931. She was active in sports and played basketball, volleyball and softball.
After graduating from MHS, Helen attended the Sacred Heart Academy Business School in Manhattan and graduated in 1936. In later years, she worked at the Golden Belt Lumber Company and baked in the Manhattan High School cafeteria for 11 years. Her baking talents included winning the Blue Valley Pork Producer’s Grand Champion prize for her cherry pie. Helen married Vernon Toburen on October, 15, 1937. They are happy residents of Meadowlark Hills. Helen and Vernon have three children, seven grandchildren, and nine great grandchildren. Helen's three children also graduated from Manhattan High School. At the ripe young age of 93, Helen is still playing basketball and is a member of the Meadowlark Wildbirds basketball team.
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