9/25/08
ron carr photo
The Lakeview School historical marker is in place near the intersection of FM2397 and CR27 southeast of Friona, directly in front of the big AT&T cell phone tower.
Lakeview School remembered with official historical marker
BY RON CARR
There is not much out there anymore except a field full of memories. On Sunday, September 21, 2008, a small group of folks gathered southeast of Friona at the intersection of FM2397 and County Road 27 to dedicate an official historical marker to honor the Lakeview School which served students from1928-1942.
The marker is on FM2397 in front of the big AT&T cell phone tower. The Lakeview School was located a mile south on CR 27. It is still a dirt road. A house near the intersection, now abandoned, was home to John Hand’s family. Mr. Hand, a Lakeview student, was present at Sunday’s ceremony.
Where the school building used to be is now a cotton field. Across the road is where the “lake” was. It is just a big pasture where a playa lake forms after a good rain. To the children of the area in the 1920s and 30s it was a lake, hence the name of the two-room schoolhouse, Lakeview School.
Former students of Lakeview shared their memories at Sunday’s ceremonies. Present were Tom O’Brian now of Dimmitt, John Hand, John Allen, Sam Mears, and Billy Joe Mercer, all of Friona, and Sue Crow Inman of Hereford.
They said the building was divided in half. Grades 1-4 were in one room and grades 5-7 in the other side. After all these years they could even recall the names of their teachers. A three-room house was built for the teachers to live in.
Sam Mears and Billy Joe Mercer said they were the only two students in first grade when they started school at Lakeview. Mr. O’Brian, now 93, remembers graduating from the school in 7th grade. Mrs. Inmon brought along a scrapbook with a few old photos and shared about the kids bringing lunches to school each day.
Sam Mears recalled a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Since kids didn’t have watches in those days, he remembered one time thinking the 10 a.m. recess was dinner so he ate his lunch and when the dinner hour arrived he didn’t have anything to eat. He didn’t do that again.
Billy Joe Mercer said if a student needed to be excused to go to the bathroom they needed to ask permission early because the “bathrooms” were a quarter of a mile away from the schoolhouse, the boys in one direction and the girls in another.
John Allen’s family came to Parmer County in 1938. His dad was a farmhand and they lived 3-4 miles from the school. Most of the time John rode the bus, which gathered the Lakeview students, dropped them off, then took the high school students into Friona. They had to wait for the bus to come back from Friona in the evenings to take them home again.
Mr. Allen remembers, with a touch of humor, the daily lunch sack. “We were poor and I usually brought a sausage on a biscuit. Some of the other kids had baloney on light bread and I remember thinking how good that looked and wanting to trade with them. I know now I probably had the best lunch. Today I wouldn’t trade a sausage biscuit for a baloney sandwich.”
All the former students remembered that Lakeview had a good softball team that played other teams from Rhea, Oklahoma Lane, Easter, and Muleshoe. Both boys and girls were allowed to play on the team. One of the best pitchers, they recalled, was a girl student.
Many of the school activities centered around the “lake” across the road from the schoolhouse. They also recalled on occasion a preacher would come to the school and “preach an entire sermon” to the students, a concept that has long since disappeared from modern school activities.
The Parmer County Historical Commission, chaired by Gladys Spring, organized the effort to have Lakeview School designated as an official historical place. The idea for the marker was introduced a few years ago by John Allen, now 80, who was a Lakeview student from 1938 to 1942. Mr. Allen is a retired electrician and a 50-year member of the Friona Volunteer Fire Department.
The school building was moved to Friona long ago and is still used by the school district, mainly for storage. It is located on Euclid Street on the east side of the junior high football field. Mrs. Spring told the gathering that a plaque will also be placed on the building designating its historical significance.
ron carr photo
Former Lakeview School students attending Sunday’s historical marker designation were, l-r, John Hand, John Allen, Sue Crow Inman, Sam Mears, and Billy Joe Mercer.
Lakeview School, Then and Now.
The old photo shows Lakeview students and the building, which had a front porch back then. The building today is on Euclid St, without the front porch, and is used by the school district for storage. Lakeview School was built in 1928 and incorporated into the Friona school district in 1942.
ron carr photo
Perhaps the oldest surviving Lakeview student, Tom O’Brian, 93, was present at Sunday’s marker designation. Mr. O’Brian now lives in Dimmitt. He and his sister, Julia O’Brian Fairchild, who recently passed away, were students in the first Lakeview class of 1928-29.