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Mrs. Virginia Wells of Desloge makes no bones about it --
she prefers a career outside the home to the ordinary housewife routine. The sameness of
keeping house still holds no appeal for this woman who has found fulfillment in the
challenging job of teaching school. Now 70 years old (and a great-grandmother), Mrs. Wells
is still alert and capable -- and anxious to continue teaching. She retired this past
spring from the Valley Park School system where she had served as second grade teacher for
10 years. A beautiful engraved gold watch and a transistor radio were among the many gifts
she received from the school board, faculty and friends as tokens of remembrance. The age
factor made retirement compulsory, but it is possible that in one of several schools a
late vacancy may arise and Mrs. Wells may be hired to teach in an emergency situation. She
is ready.
The daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Story, Virginia Wells was born in Cape
Girardeau County, Mo. Her father taught for 48 years in the schools of St. Francois and
Ste. Genevieve counties and also in Arkansas. Virginia attended high school in Desloge and
did her first teaching in Ste. Genevieve County at the age of 18.
She was married to Claude Wells and the couple established a home in Desloge. Their
only child was a son named Vernon. He is presently owner and operator of the Imperial
Service Station in Desloge, where his father also works part time. Vernon is married to
the former Lillian McClard and they have two married daughters, Dorinda and Jeannine.
Mrs. Wells resumed teaching after Vernon was out of school. Being called upon
repeatedly to be a substitute teacher, she decided that she should complete her college
work (started years before at the State College in Cape Girardeau) and become qualified to
hold a full time job. After attending Flat River Junior College, Mrs. Wells took extension
courses from the University of Missouri and the University of Arkansas; and completed
requirements for a B.S. degree in residence at Arkansas State College, Jonesboro, Ark.
Since she was teaching most of the time while working toward her degree, it took a long
time to complete the required number of hours. The goal became closer each summer as
additional requirements were met and in 1961 Virginia Wells, then in her 60's, received
her B.S. degree in Education.
Mrs. Wells' outside jobs and interests have not been confined to school work. She has
done saleswork in Cape Girardeau and in Detroit, Mich., and for several years managed the
service station in Desloge while her son was in military service. In addition to her
teaching positions in Ste. Genevieve County and Valley Park, Mrs. Wells has also taught in
the Desloge system and at the former Barton School near Esther.
The comfortable home of Mr. and Mrs. Wells at 307 S. Main St., Desloge, gives no
indication that the lady of the house is not a confirmed "homebody." She is one
of that legion of interesting women who require the career level for the fullest
expression of their interests and talents.
Published by the LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Wed. August 11,
1965.
TEACHER, OH TEACHER!
By Bess Lore
Published by the LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO,
Wed. July 31, 1969.
A local businessman calls her "mother", two generations of descendants
call her "grandmother", old acquaintances call her "amazing", and her
contemporaries call her "stupendous"! So it is with Mrs. Virginia (Claude) Wells
of 108 Roosevelt, Desloge, who is still teaching school four years beyond the Missouri
state retirement age and approximately 10 years beyond the age set by most local schools.
The fact that Mrs. Wells had a continuing interest in teaching through the years, even
though she was not actively engaged at all times, she attributes to the influence of her
father and their close relationship. Little Virgie had a deep admiration for Wilburn
Story, her farmer-school teacher father, and some of her fond recollections concern school
days in Jefferson County when she was only 5. Other youngsters who have attended his
classes remember him as a tall, gaunt figure, whose stern mien demanded order and precise
conduct, a teacher whose love and devotion to the subjects he taught could make the Greeks
and Romans of their fearful ancient history books as real as the farmers who plowed the
rolling hillside outside their classroom window.
Virginia Wells says very little about her two sisters and her brother and indicates
that her mother was interested in homemaking and had few, if any literary interests. From
the beginning her close alignment with her father's work presented a challenge to the
young girl and it was this spirit that led her to accompany him on a trip to a teacher's
exam in Ste. Genevieve, which she also attempted and handled successfully. At that time,
persons who had finished high school and could pass the county teacher's exam, which were
given in county courthouses, were subsequently qualified to teach.
She finished high school in Desloge and after meeting the qualifications she began her
first year of teaching at Pine Hill School, near Weingarten in Ste. Genevieve County. Next
she taught at Thurman School, near Lawrenceton, but her marriage to Claude Wells, whom she
had met while at Desloge, temporarily ended her teaching career except for Sunday School
teaching which she had done intermittently for the past 20 years or more.
Mrs. Wells has lived in the Cantwell and Desloge area most of her life and former
pupils will remember her when she taught school in the old Presbyterian Church in
Cantwell, as well as the first year of school held in the Cantwell brick building that was
erected later and eventually destroyed by fire. In the early days Chestnut street was
known only as "Cantwell Lane", a dusty, bumpy thoroughfare with a crooked narrow
path on the left side, running from Cantwell to Desloge, through ragweeds and over an
occasional small rainwashed gully. As if to save face, a well-kept, white wooden fence ran
parallel to the road on each treeless side, whose actual purpose was to enclose the wide
expanse of green tilled fields of National Lead Company.
When her son Vernon had reached the age of 4 or thereabout, Mrs. Wells returned to
teaching and taught in Desloge, Cantwell, and Little Vine (Ste. Genevieve County). During
the ensuing years she was again sidetracked from her chosen work and went to Detroit,
where she worked in a drugstore for about two years. It was not until Vernon had finished
high school, about 1936, that she again took up teaching. She had taken a commercial
course at Desloge High School and tentatively was going to try her hand at secretarial
work, as her teaching certificate had expired. Then, in 1941 when the war came up,
teachers were in great demand and she was persuaded to do substitute teaching at Big River
Mills School. This experience revived her dormant interest in the profession and she
decided that substitute teaching was "not her dish", she might as well get her
degree.
She attended Flat River Junior College, Southeast Missouri State College, Cape
Girardeau; Lindenwood College, St. Charles; did extension work from Missouri University
and Fayetteville, Arkansas, and finally attended the University at Jonesboro, Arkansas in
the summer (teaching in the winter) to receive her B.S. degree.
Among other schools that Mrs. Wells has taught was Barton, where she spent six years,
but she reached the customary retirement age while she was teaching in a suburban area of
St. Louis, the Valley Park system, ten years after she had received her degree.
If this story were fiction it could be ended by saying that Virginia Story Wells has
retired to her easy rocker and that gray-haired men and women often drop by to pat her
hand reassuringly and speak of the days when they sat in her schoolroom as little boys and
girls, but this is a true story. Virginia Wells has not retired to her rocker! For the
past four years she has been teaching in Flint, Michigan. Her group of second graders will
probably remember her as well as those who attended her classes in those far-flung
yesterdays and they will be taught as well, if not better. We can say that any teacher who
has seen her boys and girls grow to adulthood and well into life can profit by the
experience when she is faced with a new group of another generation.
Mr. and Mrs. Wells' only child, Vernon, operates a filling station in Desloge. They
speak with great interest and affection of their two married granddaughters and three
great-grandchildren. Mr. Wells has been in ill health the past year but has improved to a
degree that Mrs. Wells plans to return to Michigan this fall with two other ladies from
Kennett, Mo. (one younger, the other older than she) to continue their teaching. It might
be added that their salaries will be comparable to those paid elsewhere.
"My only regret in regard to my teaching is that I have not qualified for teaching
in high school or college," was the lady's firm comment. Marveling at her enthusiasm
and seemingly inexpendable energy one has a notion that she may be secretly contemplating
a move to do something about the matter.
Likely, the attitude of the woman is part of her heritage, bequeathed by her spirited,
Kentucky-born, Civil War grandmother whose philosophy was, in essence, "Make the most
of this day, there may be no other!" Virgina Wells is living for each day, but it is
interesting to note that she holds a teaching certificate that will not expire until 1971!
Published by the LEAD BELT NEWS, Flat River, St. Francois Co. MO, Wed. July 31, 1969.
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