Looking Back: Burley High School has six graduate in first-ever graduation ceremony; and major fire breaks out at local school
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of May 11 to May 17 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
BURLEY — Burley High School had its first-ever graduation class in 1914 with six students receiving diplomas, the South Idaho Press reported on May 15, 1914.
The graduation was going to take place on May 21 inside the Burley Opera House. The graduates were Sylvia Salmon, Rollo Bulkley, Carrie Johnson, Haslett Leigh, Bertha Madsen and Frank Baker.
“Seats are free. Children of school age and under 14 years of age are being asked to stay away so that the grown-up people will all get seats,” the article reads. “Arrange to be present and see the first class graduate from the Burley schools.”
1926-1950
BLACKFOOT — A Firth teenager returned to Blackfoot from St. Louis after police there told her she was wanted on a charge of “passing worthless checks,” the Idaho State Journal reported on May 11, 1950.
Betty Lou Murphy, 17, left Idaho about a year earlier. St. Louis Police reported in early May 1950 that Murphy and another girl had been picked up there on a minor charge.
At that time, Murphy “volunteered” to return to Idaho. The complaint in Blackfoot had been filed by Snowball’s Sport Shop, where Murphy allegedly cashed a $65 check.
She waived her preliminary hearing and was being held on a $500 bond.
1951-1975
POCATELLO — A two-year-old Pocatello girl was knocked unconscious when a neighbor threw some rocks over his garden fence, the Idaho State Journal reported on May 14, 1952.
Judith L. Walradt was walking in an alley by her house that was below an embankment about 10 feet high when rocks were tossed into the alley.
The neighbor didn’t know the child was walking in the alley when he threw the rocks. Walradt was unconscious for five minutes. She was not seriously injured, although a rock struck her along her left eye.
She was “treated by her mother” and didn’t need to be hospitalized.
1976-2000
SHELLEY — A major fire broke out at Shelley Junior High School, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on May 16, 1976.
The fire was reported about 11 p.m. Thursday. It was believed to have started from faulty wiring between the auditorium ceiling and the floor of the room above.
District superintendent Donald Hobbs said the damage was at least $500,000.
Hobbs said school records had been saved along with industrial arts and home economics equipment, but nearly all of the rest of the items inside were destroyed.
“The contents of the junior high’s library were destroyed in addition to everything in the gym and a number of audiovisual items like slide and film projectors and record players,” the article reads. “The school had acquired new wrestling mats and a weight machine in the gym.”
School was canceled for the remainder of the year, though teachers met in a different area to finish grades and end-of-year business.