• Summary
• Early Years
• 1947-1948
• 1948-1949
• 1949-1950
• 1950-1951
• 1951-1952
• 1952-1953
• 1953-1954
• 1954-1955
• 1955-1956
• 1956-1957
• Later Years

Pie Supper

Mrs. Maggie Davenport (1892-1973) taught at least twice at Bohannon, but she may not have finished out the year in 1955, possibly because of illness. Here is all we've learned about her. The only picture we have found is the one above from the class picture of 1952.

Mrs. Maggie Davenport lived in Macon County most of her life, taught at various schools for over 25 years, and passed away in 1973.

The Find-a-Grave website, linked at left, offers this obituary:

"Maggie Davenport, 81 of Callao, died today at the Samaritan Hospital. Funeral services will be held Saturday at the Old Chariton Primitive Baptist Church of which she was a member. Burial will be in Chariton Cemetery. Mrs. Davenport was born Apr. 3, 1892 in Atlanta, the daughter of Thomas and Matilda (Ford) Lyda. She had lived in Macon County most of her life and taught schools for 25 years. Surviving are one brother, Oscar Lyda of Billings, Montana; one half-brother, Curtis Lyda of the state of Nebraska; and one son, Theodore Davenport of Callao. Arrangements are under direction of the Bram-Edwards Funeral Home in Callao. Mrs. Davenport was preceded in death by her husband, who died in April of 1951; her parents, one son, three half-brothers and one half-sister."

Maggie Lyda married Roy Davenport in 1912. He suffered mental health problems in 1915, apparently undone by the horror of WW I. He was ordered into the state asylum in St Joseph, Missouri in early 1915. There was a legal divorce action filed in 1919, but it may not have been finalized, or was perhaps dropped, because Mr. and Mrs. Davenport are buried in the same plot. Roy passed away in 1951, slightly before I first met Mrs. Davenport, and her obituary refers to him as her husband.

She began teaching at various country schools in and around Macon County in 1910. She attended the Kirksville, Normal School, now called Truman State, in 1907-1908, took the teachers exam in 1908, and began teaching in the Charlton district at a salary of $30 per month. She finally earned her degree in 1950. Prior to coming to work at Bohannon School she was running the “Jack and Jill Tot Shop,” in Atlanta, Missouri.

There is always more to people, I’ve learned, than is apparent from our initial encounters.

Bohannon School picked up some new students about this time. Everett Sandner, his wife, and his daughters, DeEtte and Bonita, lived several miles to the west, and may have come to Bohannon because of a school closing. It must have been a long trek for them. The Hoffman family moved in to the North of the school, on the road where Phillip Graves and Owen Walker lived, and their children, Deanna and Billy, started school at Bohannon in this year. The Wray and Rufener families continued to be the dominant presence in the school, as more and more of their children entered school. Everett Sandner was a positive force in the school. Unfortunately, one of his daughters, Bonita, died in an auto accident in 1962.

I remember Mrs. Davenport as a kind, but strict task master. She made some changes to the recess schedule. I believe she instituted a thirty-minute lunch recess so we could get out earlier in the day. She put it to a vote, and the matter carried, probably unamiously. I later petioned her, privately, to make an exception on the day my grandparents were coming to visit. I was confident she could be made to see reason, but the matter wasn't up for discussion. We all agreed, she reminded me. We can't change after we all agreed. It seemed pretty arbitrary to me. I complained to my mother, but it was obvious she wasn't going to get involved. It was an early lesson in majority rule. Consistency is fine in its place, I decided, but what about visits from the grandparents? They're pretty important too.

During this time several new students arrived. As I remember, they had been attending a rurual school closed for lack of students. I think I remember my parents talking about the decision, glad that Bohannon had survived, because nothing would ever have been as convenient for us as walking a short way up the hill to school.

Billy and Deanna Hoffman were frequent playmates, in addition to being companions at school. We loved going over to their house, because in addition to their Shetland pony, they had some toy telephones, and we loved running back and forth to make calls to each other. I believe my brother and I overdid it on one visit, because the next time we visited, the telephones had been decommissioned. Visiting was a favorite, if infrequent social activity. Transportation was often troublesome on the dirt roads, but we could always pile into the wagon, hitch up the tractor, and go calling. As I recall, there was usually no advance warning. We just showed up, and as far as I remember, were always welcome. We had a party line, crank-type telephone, and perhaps my parents did call ahead, but I'm pretty certain we got visits from neighbors that were not expected. They were always happy events, though.

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