The Robert E. Lee Elementary School
1912-1957
For forty-five years the Robert E. Lee School has operated as an elementary school. During this time many changes have occurred in the building, in the curriculum, in techniques of teaching, and in the environment of the school itself. These changes are described in this portion of the study of the history of the Robert E. Lee School.
Fundamental environmental changes had occurred since the school was first organized in 1884. In 1880 the population of Denton was 1,194 and by 1890 it had more than doubled, being 2,558. By 1900 there were 4,187 people living in the town, and by 1910 there were 4,732 inhabitants. In 1880, the major portion of the population lived close to the public square and branching out along the major streets of Hickory, Oak, Locust, and Elm. The first public school was within easy walking distance for most of the pupils living within the town.
In 1890 a private college was established out beyond the line of population in West Denton, and in 1900 the college was taken over by the State and became a teacher-training institution. A shift in the population followed the organization of this school and many homes were built nearby. In 1903 still another State college came to the town, this one being at that time the College of Industrial Arts and located about as far northeast of the square as the other college was west of it. Once again, the population shifted, this time to the northeast.
These two great State institutions brought many new people to the town. Families moved to Denton so that their children might have the advantages of a college education, and instructors in the schools also settled near the colleges. In the meantime industry had moved closer and closer to the Robert E. Lee School campus. Business houses had filled up the spaces around the square and spilled over into the areas surrounding the school. The Stonewall Jackson and the Sam Houston ward schools, being located in residential areas, in a sense had some advantages of location. With many distractions surrounding the school campus, the Robert E. Lee School faced many problems if the school was not to follow many of the schools in the larger cities which had found themselves caught in the vortex of surrounding industry.
The Robert E. Lee School, too, still had a much larger school population than the other ward schools. In 1911, there were 457 elementary pupils in the school, and in 1913 this number has increased until there were 502 pupils as against 435 for both ward schools combined in 1911 and 508 in 1913.
These were some of the problems confronting the leadership of the school. The school campus was directly in the path of foot traffic between the industrial district and the town, there were more students in proportion to other areas, and streets to the school were more congested, especially with the coming of automobile traffic.
J. E. Parks, graduate of the Normal College in 1909, became principal of the Robert E. Lee School in 1912, the first year of its existence as an elementary school alone, and remained in this position until 1919. He left Denton to become principal of the Alamo School in Wichita Falls, where he taught until ill health caused him to retire.
Professor Parks had many progressive ideas. While he was principal of the Robert E. Lee School he established a school lunch room, using the auditorium as kitchen and dining room combined. He enlisted the aid of the Mothers' Club in the project and with some borrowed equipment a hot lunch program was started. Mrs. Billie Woods recalls that the first hot lunches were prepared and served at the Lee school by mothers active in the organization of the Mothers' Club, two of whom she remembers as being Mrs. Emma Belle Lipscomb and Mrs. Walter Kimbrough. The lunches consisted of home- made chili and crackers one day and beef snip the next. The price of each was five cents. Some of the mothers would go down and start cooking about 10 o'clock in the morning. The money taken in each day was used in buying supplies for the next day's lunch.
So far as can be learned, the hot lunch program at the Robert E. Lee School was the first one served in any Denton school. After he began teaching in Wichita Falls, Mr. Parks started the first school-lunch program in that city.
The school was badly in need of equipment because finances were inadequate at the time of its construction. The Mothers' Club was very active in many activities, seeking to raise money for purchase of the needed equipment. Mrs. Woods recalls that after the advent of motion pictures the mothers conceived a plan of buying a motion picture machine, showing pictures in the auditorium, and using the proceeds for needed improvements. The machine, however, was never used; on its arrival it was found that the Club had to be responsible for any damage incurred in its usage. In the words of Mrs. Woods "we had teen-agers then as now, and our school fire was still in our memory." The machine was never set up and the mothers were glad to get it back to Dallas.
Many improvements, however, can be credited to the Mothers' Club. Shrubs were planted on the school campus and playground equipment bought. Sometime during the time when Mr. Parks was principal, the Mothers' Club became the Parent-Teacher Association. In 1910 Dr. A. Caswell Ellis of the University of Texas came to Denton and was instrumental in the organization of a Denton School Improvement Club at each of the three ward schools.(1) These organizations were popularly called "Mothers' Clubs." Later, after the Parent-Teachers Association organizations were developed, the first District Convention of this Association was held in the Robert E. Lee School auditorium and after this time, in the words of Mrs. Woods, "We were Parent-Teacher Associations."(2) Fathers were also recognized as parents after this.
A. 0. Calhoun replaced Mr. Parks as principal when the latter resigned to accept a place as Principal in the Wichita Falls schools. Mr. Calhoun held a Bachelor of Science degree from what was then North Texas Teachers College and later he attended Columbia University where he received a Master of Science degree. After four and one-half months as principal of the Lee school, Mr. Calhoun went to senior high school in Denton as principal and remained there until his retirement in 1956. "Prof" as he was familiarly called, is one of the best-loved school teachers of the area.
A Professor Smith succeeded Mr. Calhoun as principal of the Robert E. Lee School in the spring session of 1920. He remained only for the half-session, and little information is available concerning his background or training.
W. A. Combest, former principal of the Stonewall Jackson ward school in Denton, succeeded Mr. Smith as principal of the Robert E. Lee School and remained in this position until 1923 when he resigned to become vice-principal of the Alexander Hogg School in Fort Worth. Later, Mr. Combest was principal of the Denver Avenue School in Fort Worth, which position he held until his retirement. He held a Bachelor of Science degree from North Texas State Teachers College.
Mr. Combest was succeeded as principal at the Robert E. Lee School by Mr. J. H. Davidson who held a Bachelor's Degree from North Texas State Teachers College with additional study at The University of Texas. During the time that Mr. Davidson was principal, 1923-1925, the school suffered a serious setback. The heavy, two-story-, and a basement, building began to slip on its foundations and the building was eventually condemned as being dangerous for use. Once again the children of the Robert E. Lee School had to be scattered around over the area in any building available for use. Mr. Davidson, in commenting on the situation, said he had classes "all over town." Churches in the main were utilized for classrooms.
There was much discussion concerning the building of another schoolhouse at this location. The subsoil had been proven unstable. The first schoolhouse, before it burned, had had to have its top story removed in order to lighten the load or weight. The First Methodist Church directly west of the Lee School had also encountered serious difficulties and piers had to be sunk to strengthen the walls of the building. At length it was determined to build just a one-story building on the Lee school location. This type of building is much used at the present, but at the time the new schoolhouse was built at the Lee School it was an innovation. The building is long, U-shaped, and has an eight to-ten foot solid foundation. The building is now thirty-four years old and has experienced not too much more difficulties than the average building over a period of years.
Once again the school administration was plagued with financial difficulties. Funds were inadequate in furnishing the new building and only the absolutely necessary equipment could be purchased. The school building included a handsome auditorium with a stage but there was no money for curtains or other equipment. Hot-lunch programs were beginning to be used in the other schools - the one in the Lee school had been discontinued after Mr. Parks resigned - but although there was now room in the new building for a kitchen, there was no money for the project The grounds were rough, there was no fence, and traffic from the mill area still crossed the grounds going to and from town. There was much that needed to be done.
In the fall of 1925 a new principal took up her duties at the Lee school. She was Mrs. Clara Skiles, wife of Burney Skiles, and one of the Perryman sisters who had given service to the schools as teachers. She was the first and only woman principal of an elementary school in the town. At the time she was principal of the Lee School, Mrs. Skiles held a degree from North Texas State Teachers College, and later took a Master's degree from Columbia University and a Doctor's degree from New York University. She served the Lee School as principal for two years. After leaving New York, where Mr. Skiles did graduate work at New York University, Mrs. Skiles taught at Pelham-Manor School from 1928 through 1931, then at Flat Bush Teacher Training College from 1931 to 1935, and since this time she has been an instructor in New York University.
Things happened at the Lee School while Mrs. Skiles was principal. She was not only an excellent school administrator, but she had a great deal of initiative in improving the school environment. There wasn't any money for a fence but the P-TA raised the money through rummage sales, lee cream sales, and various types of entertainments for an amaryllis hedge that was planted entirely around the school grounds. This did not stop the foot traffic across the grounds but it did serve somewhat as a deterrent.
Mrs. J. L. Wright, whose husband was the Ford dealer in Denton at that time and later mayor of the City of Denton, was typical of the mothers who worked so faithfully at the school. A second-hand stove was purchased for twelve dollars, and Mrs. Skiles took the older boys and, supervising them, managed to get a ditch dug for the gas pipes to where connections could be made with the main gas lines at the curb. A small kitchen was set up in the room that is now the teachers' lounge, and this, along with the classrooms, was used for a dining room. Mrs. Mary Paschall who as Miss Mary Fox had graduated from the school in past years, managed the cafeteria. She was an excellent cook and the hot-lunch program became one of the high spots of the school program.
The merchants of the town were most helpful in giving encouragement and aid to the groups working for school improvements. There was no money for sidewalks and in muddy weather the red clay sidewalks became quagmires. Different merchants in the town donated money for a concrete block as a part of a sidewalk, and the names of these merchants and the year of donation are still reminders of all who walk along the south sidewalk bordering the grounds of the generosity and interest of the merchants and business men in the school. The merchants also made possible the purchase of curtains and drapes for the auditorium stage. They contributed advertising for the curtain and thus brought the cost within the means of the Parent-Teacher Association.
Mrs. Skiles initiated the popular entertainments and musical plays which are still a part of the school program. One mother recalls being present at one of these in 1926 when one of the girls in the graduating class was crowned Queen of the festival. The mother was so much impressed by the poise and performance of the little girl that she asked the teacher for the name of the child. She was told that the little girl was Clara Lou Sheridan, who later took the name of Anne Sheridan, the actress.
When Mrs. Skiles resigned to go to New York, Mr. A. L. Banks was elected principal of the Robert E. Lee School. Like many of the early teachers in the town, Mr. Banks was a highly trained professional educator. He was the first graduate of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College and came to Texas State College for Women, then College of Industrial Arts, in 1903 as one of the members of the first faculty. He taught mathematics in this institution for many years and resigned this post to become postmaster of Denton. After his term of service as postmaster expired, he was elected principal of the Lee School where he served until his death in 1929 when he passed away on the way to school one morning.
Mr. Banks was succeeded as principal of the Lee School by another highly trained school executive. C. F. Walker, who had been superintendent of schools at Henrietta, Texas, for many years had retired and moved to Denton where his daughters, Miss Mamie Walker, and Mrs. Come Walker Allen, were teaching in the colleges of the town. When the vacancy occurred in the middle of the school term, Mr. Walker volunteered his services and he served the Lee School as principal from 1929 until his retirement in 1941.
Mr. Walker had received his Bachelor's degree from Mississippi State College, and later took special work in the University of Wisconsin and at Southern Methodist University. As an administrator, he was strongly in favor of the "Three R's" and pupils who were fortunate enough to learn mathematics from him still praise him for his thoroughness and skill in teaching.
J. D. Parnell, who held both Bachelor and Master's degrees from North Texas State College, succeeded Mr. Walker as principal of the Robert E. Lee School. He was no stranger to the school, having taught the sixth grade therein from 1937 until 1941. His term as principal was short because of the outbreak of World War II. He entered the United States Navy for military duty at mid-term, 1941-42. After his return from the war, he became a member of the faculty of the Fort Worth schools and is today principal of the Diamond Hill School in this city. He studied further at The University of Colorado and holds the D.E.D. degree from that college.
Lyman Gregory, who held both the Bachelor's and Master's degrees from North Texas State College, replaced Mr. Parnell as principal of the Lee school, but military duty claimed him after finishing out the 1941-42 session. Morris Wallace, who likewise held two degrees from North Texas State College, then became principal and remained in this position until 1946 when the present incumbent, Arthur J. Seely, took his place. After leaving Denton, Mr. Wallace taught in the University of Mississippi one year, went from there to head of the education department of Agricultural and Mechanical College at Stillwater, Oklahoma, and at the present time he is Director of the School of Education at Texas Technological College at Lubbock.
Mr. Seely, a member of a Denton County pioneer family, had been reared near Sanger and before the war had completed work on a Bachelor's degree at North Texas State College. He took over the principalship of the Robert E. Lee School in January, 1946. In addition to his duties as principal, he served as Director of the Youth Center in Denton for a number of years and wrote his thesis for completion of his Master's degree on the history and work of youth centers. Mr. Seely's work in this field made him particularly fitted for leadership of the young people in his school.
In order to more fully evaluate the work of the present faculty, a survey is used which was made of the Robert E. Lee School in 1943, prior to the time when Mr. Seely was elected principal of the school. Mrs. Margie Lynn Brooks, as a part of her graduate work at North Texas State College, made a survey of the public school system of Denton, Texas, dealing with the financial status, the school plants, the teaching Personnel, and the libraries.(3) The goal of her study was to evaluate the schools of Denton in the light of accepted standards. Mrs. Brooks used the Strayer-Engelhardt Score Card in rating the school plants of the town, the Senior High School, the Stonewall Jackson School. and the Sam Houston School. The following table shows the comparison of the Lee School plant with standard scores and with the other school plants in the city.
RATINGS OF THE FIVE PUBLIC SCHOOL PLANTS IN THE CITY OF DENTON
| Item Measured | Standard Score | Senior High School | Junior High School | Robert E. Lee School | Stonewall Jackson School | Sam Houston School |
| School Site | 125 | 115 | 120 | 90 | 115 | 120 |
| School Building | 165 | 145 | 135 | 145 | 165 | 165 |
| School Service System | 280 | 213 | 222 | 200 | 260 | 255 |
| Classrooms | 290 | 245 | 280 | 250 | 290 | 290 |
| Special Rooms | 140 | 105 | 50 | 90 | 110 | 115 |
| Total | 1000 | 823 | 807 | 775 | 940 | 945 |
The Robert E. Lee School, the above scores show, was the lowest rated school in the town, with the school site, special rooms, and the school systems showing the lowest ratings. Criticism of the school site was that it was situated near the railroad and adjacent to business houses on two sides of the school ground and thus subject to more distractions from outside noises than the other schools. In the school service system, the chief criticism was of the water supply system. It was also found that the school did not adequately utilize all the space it had for special rooms such as those for officials, teachers, and janitors.
Mrs. Brooks also made an evaluation of teaching personnel in the different schools, giving attention to academic preparation, graduate study, types of certificates held, and tenure in the profession. Data developed here show that the teachers in the Robert E. Lee School all held the Bachelor degree and that 77.7 per cent of them held the Master's degree. This was the highest percentage of teachers with this type of training in any of the schools in Denton. Other phases measured are not pertinent to this study and therefore are omitted.
Ratings in Mrs. Brooks' study, it should be emphasized, were not made by a committee of experts in the field of public school plants and personnel but they were made by the investigator with the help of the principals of each school. There is no claim made that they are conclusive, but they do point up many needed improvements in the Robert E. Lee School system as well as in other schools of the town. The data are mentioned here merely to show school needs in 1946.
Mr. Seely took over leadership of the Robert E. Lee School in January, 1946. One of his first acts was to make a survey of school -needs and ways and means of meeting them. The school, at that time, had eight class-room teachers, a music teacher, and the principal. Four rooms of the twelve in the building were not used as classrooms: Room 6 was used as a music room; Room 7, as a library; Room 11, a dining room; and Room 12 for a kitchen. The addition of two extra teachers, one in 1947 and one in 1948, were of help but complications were still prevalent. It was necessary to combine one section of the second and third grade, and one section of the fourth and fifth. An effort was made to limit the students in these combination rooms to forty-five, but enrollment increased until there were forty-eight or forty-nine pupils in each of these rooms at the end of the year. The school had a large auditorium, but it was used for no other purpose.
During the year 1948 the enrollment reached 510 pupils with ten teachers as instructors. In spite of planning and working, not too much could be done to improve the crowded conditions as they then existed. The school board and Mr. Chester 0. Strickland, new superintendent of Denton Public Schools in 1946, came to the rescue and in 1949 the building was remodeled. A new cafeteria was built on the south side of the building adjacent to the auditorium and it was then possible to work out a plan of better utilization of the available space.
The auditorium seats bad become warped and noisy through years of use, and it was difficult to hear speakers in assembly. The old seats were discarded and collapsible chairs purchased in their place. Folding tables, also, were purchased, and it was then possible to set up the auditorium as a dining room in a short time and vice versa. Music classes were then shifted to the auditorium where they are still held. Two more teachers were employed and all twelve of the rooms in the building were fully utilized.
There were still many other needed improvements that it required time to effect. The floors of the building were approximately twenty-five years old and the feet of hundreds of boys and girls had worn them badly. They had been oiled for years and in the process had become soft and splintered easily. The entire school faculty saw the need for making the floors look better, give more light, and be more sanitary. Mr. Seely. with Mr. Joe T. House, principal of Stonewall Jackson School, were granted permission and furnished supplies by Mr. Strickland and the Board of Education, to spend the Christmas holidays of 1949, with the exception of Christmas Day, working on the floors. The floors were sanded, finished, and waxed. The auditorium floor was sanded and finished by Mr. Charles Frady. Jack Schmitz, Jr. and his assistants laid asphalt tile on the hall, lounge, and office floors.
Each year since the floors have been gone over with new finish and wax. They are still as nice as they were when the projects were undertaken. In a survey made of architectural designs of public schools in Denton by Miss Mary Carden in 1951, the Robert E. Lee School was given special commendation for the dual use made of the auditorium of the school. Through planning and the good housekeeping of the custodian, Mr. Otis Reed, the school building itself has been modernized and made more sanitary and attractive.
Equally effective improvements have been made in the outside school environment. Once again the School Board and Superintendent Strickland came to the rescue and funds were provided for a new chain-link fence with gates that can be locked when the building is not in use. The hedge, which had become unsightly with age and wear, was dug up, the fence installed, and one of the most vexing problems besetting the school was solved - that of traffic across the grounds, to and from the industrial district.
See-saws and other playground equipment on the grounds had also become worn, and children were constantly hurt playing on them These were all removed and small houses built within the U-shaped enclosure between the east and west wings of the building. Here the children bring their toys and play "house" much as they do at home. In earlier days, competitive games were played with other schools, but this has been discontinued in favor of intramural games between the different grades. The practice of intramural games in elementary schools provides opportunities for all the children, not merely a selected few who are usually the most physically developed.
One of the greatest improvements to the school environment has been accomplished within the past year. In the fall of 1915 the City of Denton had made a contract to lease the block immediately north of the school grounds for use as a trade square. In later years, title to the land was acquired by the City, and further use of it as a trade square was continued. A large barn for the sale and keeping of livestock was then built adjacent the trade square. As time went on, the trade square lost much of its original purpose, and its operation was a distraction to the school on the opposite side of the street. The Parent-Teacher Association of the Robert E. Lee School, which through the years has been most active in the interest of the school placed the matter before the City Commission. Under the leadership of Mrs. Marvin T. McDonald, Mrs. Weaver Wisdom, Mrs. H. W. (Pete) Pockrus, Mrs. Rex Reeves, Mrs. Jodie Seibert, Mrs. 0. B. Smith, and Mrs. H. H. Williams a plea was made for the City to improve trade square conditions. The question was taken under consideration and a committee appointed to work with the Lee School Parent-Teacher Association in seeking a solution. Such a solution was found, and a plan made and. carried out which has eliminated the objectionable features heretofore present. The trade square was modernized, parking meters installed, the trade area localized on East Hickory Street away from the school, and sanitary practices improved. With this improvement, the Robert E. Lee School, in spite of being located in a business area, has an environment that eliminates much of the criticism heretofore directed against this phase of the school plant.
A few statistics will help in understanding the present school program. The average number of students for the last five years has ranged from 312 to 372, with the present number at 348. Building of the Jefferson Davis School in northeast Denton relieved the crowded situation existing in 1953. Six grades are included in the school's offerings. The total full- time employees comes to nineteen: principal, twelve classroom teachers, music teacher, four cooks, and custodian. In addition to these, two part-time corrective speech teachers, a part-time band instructor and his two assistants, and some eight student or assistant teachers are used. The school also has the part-time services of a school nurse.
There are a number of things offered all children other than regular school work. These may be listed as: 1. Corrective speech (2 part-time teachers) 2. Band 3. Full-time music teacher. 4. Health program with health cards and charts kept on each child 5. Only one grade per teacher (2 teachers per grade). 6. Hot lunch program - 4 full-time cooks. Average feeding 215 students per day in cafeteria. Balanced meal, drink and dessert, with seconds on everything except milk at 25 cents per child. Extra milk costs 2 cents per bottle. 7. Sixth-grade girls are used as office girls, bankers to deposit school money, and help make daily cafeteria reports. These girls do simple filing, answer telephone, meet visitors, roll school money and count it, and almost anything else that a full-time secretary is required to do. They are extremely helpful aside from the fact that they receive valuable training through this experience. 8. Boys are used as patrolmen. One is stationed at each of the four corners of the school ground. All children are required to leave school premises at one of these corners and under the direction of a school safety patrolman. 9. Lee School has an average of 110 students per day who are transported by school bus from as far as 25 miles each way. Eight school buses serve these students.
Evidence of school stability is shown in the tenure of the personnel. Present employees and length of service are as follows:
| Employee | Years tenure |
| Mrs. E.C. Wiley | 38 |
| Miss Willie Brashears, 1st Grade | 27 |
| Miss Roberta Rogers, 2nd Grade | 13 |
| Mrs. Mildred Dobbins, 3rd Grade | 12 |
| Mrs. Herman 0. Sims, 6th Grade | 12 |
| Arthur J. Seely, Principal | 11 |
| Mrs. Artie Wallis, Head Cook | 11 |
| Mrs. Clyde Graham, 5th Grade | 9 |
| Mrs. Joe H. Teasley, Music | 8 |
| Mrs. Elbert Parker, 4th Grade | 8 |
| Mrs. C. R. Brown, 4th Grade | 8 |
| Mrs. L. R. Huggins, 6th Grade | 8 |
| Mrs. Charles Saling, 2nd Grade | 5 |
| Otis Reed, Custodian | 5 |
| Mrs. Otis Reed, Cook | 4 |
| Mrs. Jack Hester, 3rd Grade | 4 |
| Mrs. George Slinker, Cook | 3 |
| Mrs. Myrtle Steadman, Cook | 2 |
| Mrs. Albert E. Harpool, 5th Grade | 1 |
In listing the school personnel, Mr. Seely did not differentiate between the teaching and non-teaching members. In his philosophy school administration, he makes the following statement:
Our school operates on the theory that we have thirteen teachers, four cooks, a custodian, and a principal. The job of one is no more important nor no less important than that of another. It is the duty of each and everyone to help one another in every possible way. A teacher is not hired as a teacher of any certain grade. She is hired as a teacher in the Robert E. Lee School. She may be assigned to a certain grade but she is also responsible for the welfare of this school and for anything good or bad that happens within the premises of it. 'It is the duty of the teachers to help the cooks or the custodian in any way that is needed when necessary and the duty of the cooks and custodians to help the teachers any time they are called upon. We feel that there is a faculty of 19 of us, a student body of 346, and the parents of all these students. It takes the combined efforts of each and everyone of us to do the job we all desire.
Mr. Seely's words are self-explanatory. Under his conception of school administration, it is a democratic process. If democracy is to be taught, it must be practiced.
The two teachers with the longest tenure of service, Mrs. E. C. Wiley and Miss Willie Brashears, are not only companions in long service to the school but their relationship has been very close since childhood As little girls, they both lived in the Sam Houston ward district and in September, 1906, they both enrolled in the first grade at this school. They were seated together and became good friends. They continued in school together through elementary and high school days. They entered the Normal College at the same time, received their diplomas together and their certificates for primary teachers. Miss Weathers, as she was then, taught first at Dickinson School in Denton County, and began her work as primary teacher in the R. E. Lee School in 1919. She was married to Earl C. Wiley in 1932. Miss Brashears taught in Lubbock and in the Rio Grande Valley before joining the R. E. Lee School faculty in 1930. Both of these teachers have completed graduate work at North Texas State College and have also done graduate work at other universities.
In World War II the little boys who grew up in the R. E. Lee School district and attended school there gave a good account of themselves. Denton lost a number of boys in this conflict and a large percentage of them were from the Lee School district. Twelve boys, who had attended Lee School and there may have been others, are known to have been lost in action. Two of the boys, Claude Castleberry, Jr., and Billie Joe Dukes, were lost at Pearl Harbor. Harold and Henry Chrismon, James A. Ryan, Donald Buck, William Paul Simpson, Frances Meredith, Jack McMath, and James M. Atkins were all commissioned officers either in the Army Air Corps, or the Navy flying wing. Each of these boys was a fighter pilot. Norman M. Penney and Leon Atkins were members of the Army infantry.
Many other Lee School boys distinguished themselves in battle and lived to tell the story. Harry McClendon, now a physician in Denton, saw service as a fighter pilot and landed his plane in flames in one of the narrowest escapes chronicled. Hal and Robert Jackson flew two of the fighting Navy planes in the South Pacific and both earned the coveted title of "ace" and "hot rock pilot" Robert Hilliard was decorated on the field of battle in Italy with the Bronze Star for outstanding bravery. John Ellis, who drove a supply truck behind the front lines all the way up from New Guinea to Okinawa, was near-missed so many times by Japanese bombers that he almost forgot to duck one day in what was a miraculous "miss". Roy Allen participated in the famous "Death March" in the Philippines and lived for the next four years through the rigors of Japanese imprisonment. Billie Harper, who had three other brothers, Mack, Thurman, and Kenneth, in the conflict, manned an assault landing boat on Saipan during one of the bitterest battles of the Pacific, and after a week of continuous shuttling in and out under Japanese mortar and artillery fire was well as ever except for a sunburned nose. Robert E. Lee has just cause to be proud of these boys, as well as many others, who so ably represented Denton in the war that called for the services of all the boys.
Robert E. Lee School, too, has cause to be proud of the civic leadership and business qualities of the boys who have called this district home. Of course, before the high school was transferred to the John B. Denton site, all of the young people in the town at one time or another passed through the Lee School in the process of education, but this study is particularly interested in those who have attended elementary school in the district since 1912 and, therefore, are those whose homes were in the area. A roll call of all of the boys would be almost impossible to make, because many of them have found opportunities in other areas, but a spot survey of a few of those here in town would include such names as Otis Fowler, Jerry Fowler, Marvin G. Ramey, Joe Skiles, Billie Woods, George and R. L. Selby, A. B. and M. D. Penry, Wilford Pierce, Alvin and Don Ellis, Clarence Phillips, M. H. Hooper, Robert T. Ratliff, Owen and Doyle Griffin, Truman A. Kluck, J. W. Adams, Raymond Barnett, Dr. Walter S. Miller, Garner, Archie, and M. E. Payne, L. B., Jack, and Stanley Arrington, Marlin, R. Carl and Morris Smith, Woodrow W. Taliaferro, Ben Ivey, Pat Hamilton, Walter B. McClurkan, Wayne Bushey, Dr. Dickson K. Boyd, Harry Owens, J. B. Bovell, George, Olen, and Jesse L. McBride, Raymond Spalding, Otis Davis, Emory Barton, Coit Carpenter, Harwell V. Shepard, and John Shrader, Jr. These names, it should be stressed, have been picked from a spot survey and in no wise include many, many, others who represent the Robert E. Lee School alumni. It was impossible to learn at such short notice all the names that should be included in this roster of Lee School boys, and it is hoped that all who have been pupils in the school will feel themselves included in our roll of honor.
It should be said, also, that no effort was made to include the accomplishments of the girls as well as the boys. Needless to say, the School has much pride in them, and the number of second-generation youngsters coming regularly into the schoolroom show that many of these girls have remained in the area as homekeepers and mothers. Many of them have entered the business world, and many, many more are teachers.
This brings the story of the Robert E. Lee School down to the present. The roots of the school, the study has developed, go back to the earliest days of the town's history. 'The school has had many ups and downs in the loss of its buildings, in limited finances, in distractions that have arisen with the growth of industry, but it can now be said that it has weathered the storms and today boasts a modern, well-kept plant adequate for the needs of the boys and girls who yearly come to its class-rooms. The present administration recognizes that the success of the school has not been due to the efforts of any individual or -any particular group. It has been made possible throughout the years and down to the present by the wonderful teamwork that has existed between parents, teachers, administrators, members of the school board, and interested citizens, The school today owes a debt of deep gratitude for those who have worked so faithfully through the years in its interest.
For more than eighty years now the Robert E. Lee School or its predecessors, has been in operation at this spot. In that time many thousands of boys and girls have crossed the buildings' thresholds to learn the fundamentals of education It is the sincere hope of those who have been instrumental in putting the history of the school together that there will be a Robert E. Lee School as long as there is a town of Denton. It has rendered a distinct service to the area.