The war in Europe ended when Nazi Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945, but the Pacific War continued. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, threatening "prompt and utter destruction".
By August 1945, the Allied Manhattan Project had successfully tested an atomic device and had produced weapons based on two alternate designs. The 509th Composite Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces was equipped with Boeing B-29 Superfortress that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands. A uranium gun type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion type bomb (Fatman) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9.
On August 15, just a few days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan announced it's surrender to the Allies. On September 2, 1945 it signed the instruments of surrender, officially bringing an end to World War II.
Times were hard during the 40's and 50' and many would drop out of school to go to work to support their families. As a result the class that started in 1944 would join other local schools and become the graduating Class of 1957 at Parkersburg High School.
Here you will find the many different kids that were in the Shady Hill graduating class of 1953 during their seven years at Shady Hill School. A few would fail and have to take the grade over again and many would move and go to school elsewhere and many students would move to the Shady Hill area.
The Class of '52 began in the fall of 1944 in the First Grade and would have became the 1953 eighth grade graduating Class of Shady Hill but Ben Franklin Jr. High School opened in the fall of 1952 and the eighth grade class of Shady Hill was moved to Ben Franklin. They continued in school and became the 1957 graduating class of PHS. They are shown here in the Second Grade along with the First Grade Class of 1945 which went on to be the Seventh Grade 1953 Shady Hill graduating Class and the 1958 graduating class at PHS.
1st row...Left to Right Annabel Green, Juanita Benson, Shirley Greathouse, Lillian Bargeloh, ??, Bonnie Bowersock, Carl Taylor, John Brown,
Marvin Duckworth, ??, Billie Gene Cook, Jo Ann Duckworth, ??, Gene Duckworth, Frank Daugherty, Grimm, Allen Shears Row 2....Left to Right Darrell
Huffman, Carl Surface, Billie Ogden, Jim Leach, William Green, Richard Daugherty, James Patterson, Joe Rector, ??,
??, ??, Dorothy Kirby, Bobby Gildow, Kathryn
Brown, Kathryn Mills, Helen Cline, ??, Dave Johnson Miss
Gertrude Dye ________________________________
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The first group Class picture that I
have of the Class of '53 is when they were in the Fifth Grade in 1951.
1st row...Left to Right Mrs. Michaels, Dave Johnson, Mary Grace Deem, Jim Leach, Ruth Ann Wilson, Roger Gabbert, Ruth Ann Holleron, Lum Tichnal, Wanda Brown
Row 2....Left to Right John Bargeloh, Barbara Tuell, Raymond Pickrell, Bob Vance, Janet Taylor, Fred Lambert,
Row 3....Left to Right
??, William Green, Arlene Flynn, Bobby Gildow, Bethel Darenburger, Bob Winland, Kathryn Duckworth, Larry McDonald, Donna Kay Wolfe
Row 4....Left to Right Charles Bell, Margaret Leach, Carl Taylor, Irene Jordan, Rolland Marshall, Pearl Duckworth, Butch Whitecotton, Shirley Greathouse
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Shady Hill School Sixth Grade Class of 1952
1st row...Left to Right Carol Jean Barrickman, Fred Lambert, Shirlene Taylor, Larry McDonald, Mary Jo Melrose, John Bargeloh,
Wanda Brown, Lee Roy Graham Row 2....Left to Right Roger Gabbert, Kathryn Duckworth, Mary Grace Deem, Carl Taylor Row 3....Left to Right
Rosemary Schrader, Dave Johnson, Irene Jordan, John Barnhouse, Ruth Ann Holleron, Rolland Marshal, Shirley Greathouse, Butch Whitecotton Row 4....Left to Right
Robert Windland, Margaret Leach, Pearl Duckworth, Donna Kay Wolfe, Barbara Tuell, Janet Taylor, Jim Leach
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Shady Hill School Seventh Grade Class of 1953
1st row...Left to Right Mr.Shomo, Pearl Duckworth, Jim Leach, Barbara Tuell, Carlos Moore, Rosemary Schrader, Richard Daugherty,
Gloria Stribling, Butch Whitecotton Row 2....Left to Right Wanda Brown, Carl Taylor, Janet Taylor, Margaret Leach, Robert Winland, Shirley Greathouse Row 3....Left to Right
Fred Lambert, Irene Jordan, Roger Emerick, Ruth Ann Crouser, Larry McDonald, Joann Nolan, Deleanor Walbrown, Kathryn Duckworth, Bill Dickel
Row 4....Left to Right
Patty Braham, Bob Vance, John Bargeloh, Lee Roy Graham, Donna Kay Wolfe, Hubert Dickel, Marvin Sams, Dave Johnson, Mary Grace Deem
