Norma Lee Christy rose from her easy chair and headed for the front door of her home to welcome a guest.
It was the first time she had felt up to having company since entertaining more than 150 family and friends over the course of a couple weeks, as they celebrated her 100th birthday Oct. 29.
“There were people I hadn’t seen for years. It was fun,” she said, but exhausting.
A come and go celebration was held at the Wall Family Center on her birthday.
“There were about 100 people there,” she said. “Then when all our family came, we have a big place out at the farm and everybody came out. There were 50 to 60 out there, so there were just a lot of people.”
Finally recovered from all the activities, the retired Parsons teacher was ready to resume her daily activities, and she took a few moments, reminisced and shared stories with her guest.
She chuckled as she told of how her driver’s license was coming up for renewal on her 100th birthday, so she had made her way to the Driver’s License Bureau. She thought, “If I get it, okay. If I don’t, I won’t drive.”
“I had made up my mind I wasn’t going to let it bother me,” she said. She answered the questions she was given to read, had her eyes tested, and her picture taken. She came back to the desk and the gentleman said, ‘That will be $20.’ She handed it to him. And then he said, “I’ll see you in four years”
“Isn’t that funny,” she said. “I don’t think he added how old I was. I had to laugh, and thanked him very much as I left.”
There is nothing about Mrs. Christy that would make one think that would not be the case, though.
Born in Oswego at the old hospital there, the small town is where Norma Lee grew up, in a house her folks had built just south of the courthouse on Merchant Street. She graduated from Oswego High School in 1942, as World War II continued to escalate with the entrance of the U.S. in the conflict following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Of course all the young men were going to war,” she said, and she was heading off to college in Pittsburg to become a teacher, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandfather.
After earning her teaching degree, she and four other graduates headed to Winfield where they secured jobs. She began her career in 1946 teaching kindergarten. By then, men had been returning from the war and were headed to college, and Norma Lee met Merrill Christy, who was attending K-State.
“Merrill grew up on a farm between Oswego and Labette City. He went to school in Altamont and I went to Oswego, so we didn’t know each other during that time,” she said. “We really met after the war.”
The two wed in 1947. She couldn’t get a job at K-State, so got her job back at Winfield, and her husband transferred to Southwestern. They lived in Winfield for two more years.
“Do you know what I got the first year I taught school? I only got $1,900 a year. Then the next year I got $2,400 a year,” she said. “So see, salaries were really low. That was kind of the salary back then.”
After her husband graduated, the two returned to Southeast Kansas, first living in Oswego, then in Coffeyville.
“When my children were little I didn’t teach full-time, but sometimes the superintendent (at Coffeyville) would call and he’d need a teacher someplace. We only had one car, so a lot of times I wouldn’t have a car, so he’d say, ‘I’ll come and get you.’ He would come get me and take me wherever he needed a teacher.
“Guess how much money I got? Five dollars a day to substitute teach. So that was in the 50s. The funny part was, our little daughter was probably just two. I told my neighbor, 'I will give you half, $2.50 to babysit.’ I didn't realize they were taking out all the taxes. That came out of my half. I just gave her the $2.50. It was funny, my husband, when they would call early of a morning, I can still hear him hollering down the hall, ‘Don’t go. It’s costing us money.’ Of course he didn’t care that I’d go, because I enjoyed teaching and going to the different schools,” she said. “You can just learn so much. I always picked up a few good ideas from teachers I would substitute for. I always thought it was fun to do that.”
She said it’s hard to believe substitutes today make around $140.
As her children grew, she began considering returning to teaching full-time. By then, Title I, designed to deliver specialized intensive educational services to economically disadvantaged children with the greatest academic needs, was just really getting started in Kansas. She decided that is what she wanted to do.
“So I went back to school and was certified as a reading specialist. Then when we moved to Parsons, they wanted me to start the Title I reading (intervention) program in the middle school. They called it the junior high then,” she said.
Through the new program, all students' reading scores would be checked and if they were reading below grade level, the students were tested and put in the program to help them get up to grade level.
“I didn’t think I wanted to teach junior high. Lou Hevel came to me three times, and said, ‘I want you to start this new program.’ Our daughter was a junior in high school at that time. She said, ‘Well mom, if you don’t like it you can always quit.’ I hadn’t thought about that, see. Then I thought well, this is a challenge to start some big new program and everything, so I did it and I liked it. I enjoyed it very much.
She began the program at Parsons Middle School in 1975, when she was just 50-years-old. Norma Lee found her passion, though she admitted, “It was very much of a challenge. There were a lot of kids who didn’t even care if they improved.”
She did her best to find items that would be of interest or importance to them to draw them in to wanting to learn to read, and understanding the importance.
From the Kansas State Library an 8 page report titled “A look at Kansas Title I, E.S.E.A. [1975]” stated: “In 1975, the average Kansas Title I reading student had previously achieved only about three fourths (72%) of the normally expected progress in reading skills. In other words, an average 4th grade Title I reading student had acquired only 3rd grade reading skills. That same average Title I reading student learned at 133% of the normal rate while in Title I in 1975. “
Seeing that kind of progress is what kept her going. She stayed at Parsons Middle School 13 years as a Title I teacher, retiring at the end of the 1988-89 school year.
“You know, I hadn’t even thought of retiring. So many of the young people were thinking about when they were going to retire, and I hadn't even thought about retiring. Isn’t that funny,” she said. “It hadn’t even crossed my mind.”
However, at age 63 she decided to make the jump, allowing her and her husband to travel together across the U.S. and overseas. When home in Parsons, through the years, she would sometimes run into some of her students, though she said a lot moved away. Then, one day, there seemed to be none.
She said had not heard from any students she formerly taught until about four years ago, when out of the blue she was surprisingly contacted by her second year kindergarten class from Winfield.
“They got in touch with me and have written me letters, and for my 100th birthday they sent me a beautiful flower arrangement. Isn’t that something? And they sent me the sweetest little notes about them being in kindergarten and the start to a wonderful education,” she said. “To think they looked me up and started writing me letters. I have beautiful letters from the boys, too, men now in business there in Winfield (or retired). I guess they would all be in their 80s now. That is really special. these lovely letters. You wouldn’t think about men writing a letter, and I have all these letters. “
When she and her husband moved to Winfield they lived in an apartment right across from the school.
“The ones who really kept in contact are ones who lived in the neighborhood,” she said. “I hadn’t kept track of any of them, but had a picture of all of them.”
She went to a back room and returned with a print out of a black and white photo of her standing beside her 1947 kindergarten class. She pointed to two little girls whom she said were the ones who first contacted her from the class.
“They would stop by, and now see, you couldn’t do this, but they would come in and I would let them dust the house. The children liked to help,” she said.
She isn’t sure if any of her old Parsons students came to her birthday party, but said quite a few people who taught there or were employed there in other capacities during that time came to her party at the Wall Center.
“Lou Hevel and his wife. Bonnie McMillan came. (The late) Perk Reitemeier, he was superintendent when I came, and his wife Norene came. I remember David Self, he was the principal.
Seeing everyone was wonderful she said and brought back so many great memories, things she has not thought about in years. Those old passions rose to the surface.
“I really loved teaching,” she said. “I still enjoy reading about what is happening with the schools and the students and graduates. It’s interesting to see everything that is going on and how things change.”