When the Lovettsville Alumni Association holds its annual banquet Saturday night, it will not only be celebrating its 50th anniversary but also paying tribute to two grand ladies who have helped keep it going.
“I started it, I know that,” says Mrs. Paul (Winnie) Myers. “It was in 1917 and we had it at my house.” Her sister, Miss Laura (Dot) Potterfield, has saved 1916 and 1917 graduation invitations and declares that “they’re much prettier than the ones today.”
Miss Winnie and Miss Dot, as everyone fondly calls them, are really an institution in Lovettsville. Born and raised there, they taught either in the immediate area on in Lovettsville which had a high school until 1955.
Miss Winnie began her teaching career in 1906. Miss Dot isn’t quite sure when she started but it was before 1900. She retired in 1950 after around 55 years teaching, 30 of which were in her own home town.
Miss Dot, alert and avidly interested in what’s going on, recalls that in her teaching days, they didn’t have any such thing as snow days. She drove a horse and buggy to school and “when a horse wasn’t available,” she walked.
“Maybe I would keep a pair of shoes at school and wear gum boots,” she reminisces. “And I always carried an alarm clock. Why? I guess because I didn’t have a watch.”
The Alumni banquet is an important event to Miss Winnie and Miss Dot and to many students who come back for it. Last year 102 attended. Officers are president, Richard Hickman; vice-president, Nancy George Mullen, and treasurer Katherine Stevens. It’s held at the school and the PTA serves. This year entertainment will be the delightful Zippadee Singers from Leesburg.
Sheriff Bob Legard, a member of Lovettsville’s 1946 high school graduating class and a loyal supporter of the annual banquet, explains, “Whenever you meet former student away from here, the first people they ask about are Miss Winnie and Miss Dot.”