Stephanie Vavra wrote this article.
At 3:00 p.m., on Friday, October 4, 2019, the annual Homecoming Parade processed westerly along Main Street, Morrison, IL. Among the many who lined the sidewalks were two cousins–members of the copious “Vogel Clan”–Alice “Sis” Bordner, age 99.5, and Ruth Ann Tervelt, age 97. Bordner, left, was graduated 81 years ago, in 1938. Tervelt is a member of the class of 1941 and was graduated 78 years ago. School spirit lives strong within them.
Alice Bordner is a former local teacher. As a student she played trombone in Band. She was never Prom Queen, but stated, “I was Queen of the Class [for] one day and rode on top of a car.”
Ruth Ann Tervelt was a homemaker and farm wife. She remembered being in Chorus. Bordner told her she “had a beautiful voice,” and reminded Ruth Ann that she “sang solos in a grade school play.”
These women are loyal attendees of Homecoming parades. Bordner made that clear in her first comment, “We’ve been to most every one of the Homecoming Parades. We’re both interested in being outside.”
To do so now requires loving family collaboration. Someone must drive the ladies to and from Main Street, and safely transfer them to the sidewalk. Both women navigate with a walker for stability, but this was the first day for Tervelt. It was not easy, she noted, to move the walker. Standing could be a effort. Pharmacist Luke Vander Bleek was asked by his great-aunt, Sis, to provide a chair for her cousin, Ruth Ann. He arranged for two chairs to be placed near the curb in front of his Fitzgerald Pharmacy. He was unavailable to view the parade, but his wife, Joan, was part of the family gathering on the sidewalk.
The chairs were comfortably padded and had arm rests. That was not sufficient for the event. Employees Mindy Ritchie, Savanna, IL, and Cassidy Stoecker, Morrison, made gold ribbon sashes marked with the honorees’ first names and beribboned scepters/miniature pompoms to wave. They also constructed identification signs; Joan Vander Bleek helped position the stick-on letters.
As these beloved Homecoming celebrities sat awaiting the newest parade, they were surrounded by acquaintances and multi-generations of family. The photo shows but-a-few members of the Vogel Clan.
