50 Years Ago: Mrs. ‘Steve’ retires after 28 years at SSHS

When Siloam Springs High School opened for the school year, it was the first time in 28 years that Mrs. Vera Golden Stephenson (Mrs. Robert William) was not a contracted High School faculty member and had not been present to greet the pupils for the new school year.

Mrs. “Steve” retired from school teaching as of the close of the previous school year of ‘67. However, she hoped to do substitute teaching in the Elementary Schools, as her “first love” and first four years of teaching were done in the Elementary Schools of her home town, in Batesville.

In fact, Mrs. “Steve” never asked for a change of teaching duties — changes were always at the request of her Superintendent of Schools, in order that some advantage might be secured for the school — i.e., when the Superintendent of Schools Wayne H. White asked her to become the High School librarian and to build a library of such a stature that the school might fulfill that requirement for admission to the North Central Association of Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities. Main Street, Siloam Springs Inc., a group dedicated to the renovation of the city’s downtown area, received some good news: proceeds from a September country music/variety show, being presented by the Siloam Springs Walmart store, would be donated to fund a landscaping project for the downtown area.

In another development, Main Street, Siloam Springs adopted a new logo, designed by one of the group’s board members.

Beginning immediately, Main Street, Siloam Springs began using its new logo, designed by Sarah Rogers of S.L. Rogers Design. “This logo represents the focus of Main Street, Siloam Springs,” Rogers said, “which is revitalizing downtown: preserving architecturally historic buildings, upgrading the city’s parks and basically allowing the downtown to function as a self-sufficient area for retail, restaurants, shopping and recreation.”

Locally, Rogers had designed promotional materials for Tyson Foods, Simmons Industries and Allen Canning Company. Bobby Curtis of Siloam Springs, finished in 19th place in the FLW Cup Championship. Curtis caught 175 pounds of bass during the tournament and won $12,000 for his finish. When asked about the championship Curtis said, “It was disappointing being so close to finishing in the top 10 and winning the tournament. It was a great opportunity to be in a group of anglers fishing for $1 million.” It was thought that Curtis would be a force to be reckoned with the next year.

Editor’s Note: FLW stands for Fishing League Worldwide.