Violins & Voices

Week 21: #52 Ancestors – Yearbook

By Eilene Lyon

Family photos tend to introduce us to our ancestors in the context of relatives. The great thing about yearbooks is how they put people in the context of friends in one of the most formative of social institutions: schools.

I enjoyed finding my parents in their high school yearbooks on Ancestry. Then I discovered my Aunt Alice had yearbooks from Oregon State, providing a little later look into my parents’ early lives.

From their high school days (Mom in Portland; Dad in Corvallis, Oregon) you can see a couple activities that probably introduced them to one another and gave them a bond of common interests. (Click on images to enlarge – all from Ancestry.com)

In college, both Mom and Dad continued playing violin and roles in musical theater. (When I was a teen, they performed in “Oklahoma” in community theater.)

They both entered co-housing organizations, though Dad did not live in the men’s house. It was much more economical to live at home with his parents.

Mom was not officially part of a sorority, but The Pines house had some aspects of one. It was one of several homes belonging to Co-Resident Women, Inc. Dad belonged to Acacia, a fraternity established at University of Michigan in 1904.

My parents married just before they began their senior year at Oregon State. Mom got a little hazing from her house sisters. I expect it was a common occurrence in the days when it was easier to get an “MRS degree” than a professional career. Not surprisingly, Mom became a homemaker after graduation. Dad went straight into the U.S. Army.

Feature image: Mom and Dad enjoyed performing in musical theater. Here they are in costume for The Pirates of Penzance at Oregon State College (University).