Expected to be present for this year's alumni event are members of the graduating class of 1916. Members of this class comprised the first group to graduate from the eighth grade in the new Desloge grade and high school building which is now the Central elementary school. A brief account of the five seniors graduating from Desloge High School fifty years ago follows:

FRED M. KLEPPSATTEL --

Born in Fredericktown, Mo., Feb. 13, 1899, Fred M. Kleppsatel moved to Desloge with his parents in 1910. Since 1917 he has made his home in Bonne Terre. At retirement in 1964 he was Business Manager of St. Joseph Lead Company, Vice-President of Bonne Terre Farming & Cattle Co., Vice-President of Lead Belt Water Co., President of Bonne Terre Hospital Association and President of Bonne Terre Memorial Library Association.

Fred started to school in Fredericktown and finished grade school and high school in Desloge. He attended the University of Missouri one summer and taught in Desloge during the 1916-17 school term. He was employed by the St. Joseph Lead Company in September, 1917, and remained with that company until retirement, except for the period spent in military service during World War I. As a member of the armed forces he served in France with the 74th Coast Artillery Corps after about six months' training at Fort Hamilton, N.Y.

In November, 1920, Fred Kleppsattel was married to the former Sarah Bernice Lawson of Bonne Terre. They have two sons and five grandchildren.

Fred, Jr. is a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and is presently on special duty at Marine Corps Headquarters, Washington D.C. He and his wife, the former Jeannine Walker of Desloge, and daughters Susan, Kathy and Joan live in Arlington, Virginia. The eldest daughter, Susan will finish high school this year and expects to attend Mineral Area College for one year before entering Ringling Art School at Sarasota, Florida.

The Kleppsattel's younger son, Charles L. (known locally as Topper) is Director of Quality Assurance for the Electronics Instrumentation Division of Lear Siegler Corporation of Anaheim, California. He is married to the former Patty Pickett of Farmington and they have a son, Charles Jr., and a daughter, Vicky. The Charles Kleppsattel family resides in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Fred M. Kleppsattel, 1916 graduate of Desloge High School, is presently on Boards of Directors of Bonne Terre Hospital Association and Bonne Terre Memorial Library Association.

W. J. BRYAN BRADLEY --

By a strange coincidence Bryan Bradley started his career in the business world with the Post Office Department and will terminate with the Post Office Department.

Soon after graduating in May 1916, he began work as a clerk in the Desloge Post Office, serving under the late Postmaster, W. T. Newman. Later he was employed by the National Lead Company, until joining the United States Navy May 10, 1918. He served on the battleship U.S.S. New Jersey, and received his honorable discharge from the United States Naval Reserve on September 30, 1921. After returning from service with the Navy, he was employed as factory office manager by the International Shoe Company, in their Alton Illinois and Sikeston Missouri factories.

He entered the United States Civil Service as a Railway Mail Clerk in June, 1938 and is presently Schemes and Routing Officer in the Transportation Division of the St. Louis Regional Office of the Post Office Department, from which position he will retire on December 30, 1966.

On November 18, 1922 he was married to Miss Dorothy M. Wilson of Flat River and they now reside at 6309 Lindenwood Court, St. Louis, Missouri.

He is a Past Master and present Treasurer of Keystone Lodge No. 243, A.F. & A.M. He and his wife are members of the Richard M. Scruggs Memorial Methodist Church in St. Louis, where he is serving as Vice-Chairman of the Official Board and of the Board of Trustees.

OPAL COPPEDGE YOUNT --

The former Opal Coppedge, now Mrs. A. N. Yount, resides at Route 1, Benton, Mo., where she and her husband have owned a 120 acre farm for 23 years.

After graduating from high school in 1915 [sic], Opal attended Ozark Business College at Flat River and Farmington. She then worked as a stenographer and bookkeeper for a general merchandise store in Elvins for two years. During the following two years she did office work for two business firms in St. Louis.

On March 6, 1920, she was married to A. N. Yount, son of Rev. and Mrs. J. P. Yount of Marquand, Mo. The newlyweds spent their first two years in St. Louis and then moved to a farm in Madison County. In 1930 they moved near Oran, some 10 miles from their present home.

The Younts have two sons and two daughters, 16 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The three older children live in California and the younger one in Illinois. Mrs. Yount taught one term of school in Madison County when her first son was four years old. She was kept busy with her growing family during the next few years. During the depression period she worked at a shoe factory in Chaffee for 3 1/2 years. For the last 19 years before retirement she was employed at the International Shoe Company in Sikeston. She is now a full-time housewife and finds plenty to do.

Through the years the Younts have thrived on keeping busy -- and the family today is a healthy, happy group.

GLADYS RITTER McNABB --

Gladys Ritter McNabb started school in Desloge at the old frame grade school on the west side of town. She was the only one in this graduating class to start in this school. After she attended school in Desloge two years, the family moved to a farm and stayed there two years. The first school term was four months and second term was three and a half month's duration. The family then moved back to Desloge and Gladys went on to finish high school with the class of 1916.

She obtained additional education at Southeast Missouri State College in Cape Girardeau. She was first employed in a drug store and later worked in a variety store for ten years. Helping with the business census in DeSoto was another of her occupations and she served as a clerk in the Desloge Post Office for more than twelve years.

After her marriage to Robert M. McNabb, she lived in St. Louis for a while. Now widowed, Mrs. McNabb makes her home in Desloge. She has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Desloge for more than 55 years.

GLADYS BROEKER --

Grace Jackson Broeker, now a free lance writer of Washington, D.C., has had an interesting and full life since graduating from Desloge High School in 1916.

She attended college at Cape Girardeau and then taught school in Cantwell grade school, Festus High School and in the public schools of Thompson Falls, Montana. She was also an instructor at the Morse School of Expression in St. Louis for several years.

The former Miss Jackson was married to Dr. Ralph Broeker, a dentist. After his death she attended St. Louis University and graduated from that school with a degree in sociology. While there she conducted a daily radio interview type program. She then took a government job in Washington, D.C., where she spent seven years. For two years before retirement from government service she worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs with the Navajos in Arizona. She found the assignment rewarding, despite its rough and sometimes primitive aspects.

Mrs. Broeker is presently considering moving from Washington, D.C., to pursue her independent writing career.

The Desloge Alumni Association program on Saturday evening April 9, will begin with a program in the auditorium at 7:30. The group will then enjoy a buffet meal of ham, turkey, potato salad, Mandarin orange salad, deviled eggs, relishes, cake, coffee and soft drinks. Bob Bryan's orchestra will provide music for dancing.