Truckin' on the Western Branch

Nancy Harwood Garrett Nancy Garrett lived in Simonsdale and was bussed to Churchland Elementary and Churchland High School. She graduated in 1956. Years later, at a reunion at her home in Sterling Point, she helped establish The Golden Girls, one of several informal alumni groups that still meet regularly. Churchland High was special, but I was always the one with the books. Dorothy Monroe really influenced me—and I became an English teacher too. I didn’t live in Churchland then, and I was more independent, something of a loner and didn’t socialize much. I remember Frank Beck was a wonderful man and that Gracie Lee VanDyck had my number from the beginning. I hated every moment of phys-ed and she knew it. She used to call out to me “Put that book down and get in here.”

Raymond and Marian Hale Marian Gregoire Hale lived in Pine Acres and graduated from Churchland High in 1966.

I was scared to death as a freshman. Frank Beck was the principal, and Art Brandriff was my homeroom teacher. To change for gym class, we had to walk outdoors to a locker room across from the school.

From left, Kay South, Norfolk Catholic, Annie Groven, Princess from Belgium, and Nancy Harwood Garrett, Churchland High Maid of Honor.

There were cliques at the school, but discipline was not a problem. The whole community used to go to the Friday night football games—biggest thing going on. I remember the fights behind the stadium after the football games—not every game but a few. It was the most excitement we ever had.

Social issues were different then. We were the last all-white class at the school, and I felt sorry for the one black girl who was there—an underclassman.

Raymond Hale, originally from North Carolina, started teaching science at Harry Hunt in 1965 before becoming an assistant principal at Churchland Junior High and then later principal at Cradock and Churchland High Schools. Marian Gregoire’s young neighbors were students at Harry Hunt. They slipped Hale her photo and suggested he call her for a date. He was 25; Marian was working as a hairdresser. She was surprised when he called, but agreed to a movie. They married in 1968 and moved to Castle Heights and then to Hatton Point.

The Churchland High School on Cedar Lane had been open only a few months when Hale was assigned there as principal in June 1992.

“The only issue was Cradock and Wilson closing at that same time,” he said. “The Wilson and Norcom students came to Churchland in September, and there were some racial clashes, but sports brought them all together.”

Raymond and Marian Hale. Image by Sheally

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