I found this picture online (don’t remember where . . . maybe Facebook?) and I don’t think I’ve ever posted it. Can anyone identify the girls on the ends?
Update: Thanks to Leah Gonigam Baskin who identified Pamela Spence, on the left end, and Darlene Clark, on the right end. Click on her comment below for updates on the later lives of some of these classmates.
Dayton and the Greens 
Hello Candace, It’s Leah Gonigam Baskin writing. Pamela Spence is on the left and Darlene Clark is on the right. The is Mrs. Swanson’s second grade class. We were the first children to use the new addition built in 1956. (While that addition was being built, all the girls had to use a two-hole outhouse, sort of behind second base in the outfield. We had to go there with a partner which I found much more uncomfortable than using the outhouse itself.) This picture is from the 1957/58 yearbook that the teachers put together. I have the yearbooks from second, fourth, seventh, and eighth grades. Janel Hiland and I put together the eighth grade yearbook. Janel Hiland (White) was my best friend along with Gay Cook. Janel died a few years ago of colon cancer. She lived in Pekin and Peoria and although she had education degrees in German and Russian, she spent most of her career as the chief parole office for Tazwell County. (David Roether has passed also.) Gay Cook (Czopek) is in Denver Colorado and has done everything from being the managing editor of the Denver Post to running education, philanthropic and health organizations. I’ve spent 50 years as a music educator and choir director in public, parochial, and private school settings. I’ve lived in Rockford, IL for the last 42 years. Aside from my parents and grandparents, nothing shaped my life and set my future course more than my years at Dayton Grade School. I enjoy reading your website. The Browns in the Dayton Cemetery are my relatives, and a lot of Dayton history was lived by my ancestors. I hope we can stay in touch. leah
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Hello Leah, my name is Jana Fries. My Grandmother recently gave me a few letters that my great grandfather Julius Fries exchanged with our american relatives. I believe we have a common ancestor named Jacobena Fries. If my assumption is right I would really like to get in contact with you.
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