Click the image for an East High School campus view

Click the image for an East High School campus view.


Welcome to the "Home Page"


of the


East Des Moines High School Class of 1956.



This site is maintained by Tom Lettington, your Class of '56 Webmaster. My personal web site, http://www.tfl.net, is here.

See the footnote at the bottom of this page regarding security.

Thanks to Bob Trotter, I can include two pictures taken at the EHS 56 Luncheon on April 11, 2022








One of our classmates, Lyle Simpson, was inducted into the EHS Alumni Hall of Fame. Congrats Lyle - well deserved.








Dear East High, You Are The School For Me !
Scalp 'em Scarlets, Ugh! [ Not exactly politically correct! ]


It has ben a long time since I made any updates to this web site, so here we go - thanks to a care package provided by John Carr, Bob Trotter, Lyle Simpson, and Mevelyn (Wooderson) Richardson.

Good News on the scholarship front from Lyle: Our Class of 56 Scholarship Fund under the management of the East High Foundation is now able to fund an annual $1,500 scholarship on a perpetual basis through the earnings on the fund's investments. The scholarship could be increased should we be successful in adding to the total investment in our fund.

John Carr has forwarded a series of letters from Lyle Simpson, former President of the East High Alumni Association, that discusses our college scholarship program and other issues having to do with the Class participation in Alumni affairs. Click here to read the letters. Doing so will be worth your time. Hats Off to Lyle and John for the work they do to represent our class and keep us in touch.

Here are photographs of the first two scholarship awardees: 2018 (Mr. Timothy Schonkaes) and 2019 (Ms. Savannah Kohler).




Click here for a collection of EHS Photos provided by Mevelyn.
Click here for a piece from the Des Moines Register of May 12th, 1993 discussing the beginning of public school in Des Moines.


The September 12th, 2016 meetup was a great success and a good time was had by all. Janeene (Miller) Carlisle took some pictures and provided captions to identify the suspects: Here is a slide show.

The 60th class reunion committee -- Kay (Edwards) Alcantar, Janeene (Miller) Carlisle, Janet (Bales) Douglas, Larry Solomon, and Bob Trotter -- did a great job of putting the event together and a wonderful time was had at the Bright-Grandview Golf and Country Club on Saturday evening, May 7th, 2016.
Here is the group picture. More information about our reunion will provided as I get my act together.

Janeene has provided the legend to the group photo so you can attach a name to a face.


Row 1: Barbara (Belluchi) Wertz, Tom Fjelde, Ruth (Cook) Haag, Norma (Treanor) Burke, Kay (Edwards) Alcantar, Janeene (Miller) Carlisle, JoAnne (O'Boyle) Shelley, Kathleen (Graney) Finkenauer, Barbara (Lowe) Penn, Bette Lou (Raymond) Neal, Janice (Crain) Stueckrath, Judi (Daman) Janes, Marlene (Roberts) Wheeler,

Row 2 : Janet (Griffiths) Harmon, Lois (Bengston) Thompson, John Hill, Ronald Olson, Tom Lettington, Charlie Alllen, Larry Gilliland, Mary Lou (Katzmann) Goodman, Dennis Parker, Bing (Kinney) Miller, Mary Lou (Weisbrod) Nicholson, Jean Allsteadt, Annette (Anderson) Audas, Loretta (Woods) Ware, Janet (Bales) Douglas, Sally (Peterson) Goeser, Carol Adams, Suzanne (Samo) Newton.

Row 3: Jerry Smith, Kenneth Viggers, Rod Campbell, Tom Pierick, Jerry Hall, Max Miller, John Carr, Lyle Simpson, Larry Watkins, Harold Olsen, Arnold Erickson, Robert Trotter, Jo Ann (Brady) Wilson, Bill Foster, Don Spaw, Janice Webber, Steve Larson, Jerry Schartner.


Here is a slide show of candid pictures taken at the 60th Reunion event.




Here is - the Class Picture taken at the 50th Reunion.

Here is the "Class of 1956 Response" speech given by Lyle Simpson at the Thursday evening "129th Annual East High Alumni Dinner".

I have five sets of candid photos taken at reunion events by classmates:
These by Janeene (Miller) Carlisle
These by Tom Fjelde
These by Suzanne (Samo) Newton
These by Tom Pierick
These by Sharon (Burris) Howse


Here is the Class Picture taken at the 45th Reunion.

Here are a group of candid shots from reunion festivities provided by Janeene (Miller) Carlisle, Bob Trotter, Suzanne (Samo) Newton, Sharel (Truers) Spendlove, and Deanna (Wheatly) Peterson.


Having a little trouble matching faces with names? Maybe this will help. Following are links to pages which show names with the faces for each row in the photo above. I also put in the year book photo so you can see what your classmate looked like in 1956.
First Row
Fourth Row
Fifth Row

The class met at Pagliai's Pizza in Johnston on September 25th for one of the 45th reunion planning sessions. Pictures are here. Thanks to Janeene (Miller) Carlisle for passing them on.

Janeene also passed on to me a group of pictures taken at the Spring 2015 get together. Here is a slide show of the pictures. Full resolution images can be viewed here with file names identifying those in the photo.


Further closet cleaning (it's a BIG closet) yielded more treasure. Thanks, Mom, for never throwing anything away! Take a look at the programs for graduation, class night, and baccalaureate.
The 1953 graduating class of Woodrow Wilson Junior High School is (still) here.


Carol Adams found this original picture of the June Class of 1956 on the front steps.


NewsLink News





Our web site includes a collection of more than 20 years of Class of '56 Newsletter editions linked below. I can't believe I have been doing this same web site that long. Time flies when you're having fun! Thanks much to our current Editor, John Carr and Publisher Bob Trotter. We are all grateful for your efforts to carry out the long standing tradition of our own "Chief Fog", Larry Fogelson. We all still miss him.

You will need the PDF reader plug-in in order to view it. Click this button to visit the Adobe reader download page and download your copy if you need one. It is free. We are doing this because PDF formatting makes the on-line version of NewsLink appear with the same formatting as the version that is mailed out via USPS. Some of these .pdf files are large and take a long time to download. Use the Zoom feature of Adobe Reader to get a close up of each photo in the archive issues with photos.
Links to the current and past issues follow:


The larger, full color photo of the Spring 2022 Picnic is Here .

Fall 2024 , Spring 2024 , Fall 2023 , Spring 2023 , Fall 2022 , Spring 2022 , Fall 2021 , Spring 2021 , Fall 2020 , Spring 2020 , Fall 2019 , March 2019 , September 2018 , Spring, 2018 , August, 2017 , April, 2017 , September 2016 Edition - More on the Reunion , May 2016 Edition - The 60th Reunion Edition , Second Spring 2016 Edition , Spring 2016 , June, 2015 , December, 2014 , June, 2014 , December, 2013 , June, 2013 , December, 2012 , June, 2012 , December, 2011 , May, 2011 , December, 2010 , June, 2010 , December 2009 , June 2009 , December 2008 , June 2008 , December 2007 , June 2007 , December 2006 , June 2006 , December 2005 , June 2005 , December 2004 , June 2004 , December 2003 , June 2003 , December 2002 , June 2002 , December 2001 , June 2001 , December 2000 , June 2000 , December 1999 , June 1999 , December 1998 , June 1998 , December 1997 , June 1997 , December 1996


Thinking about someone you knew in high school but not certain which class they were in? East High class of 1957 is here.


The 45th Reunion Page is here. The June, 2001 NewsLink had all the pre-event information. It is on line and can be read using the link provided above.


Below are some pages form the January and June 1956 Quill. I imagine more than a few members of our class are having difficulty remembering where they put their treasured copy. These images are fairly large and will take a while to download unless you have a high speed Internet connection. Oh well, they're worth waiting for!

Here are the covers.



Here are the pictures of the January Class Officers.

Here are the pictures of the June Class Officers.


Here is the January Class Board.

Here is the June Class Board.


Following references are to individual pages of Year Book pictures, indexed by name so you only have to download the pages you want to look at. Use the "Next" and "Back" buttons to browse through the pages or the "Home" button to return here.
Enjoy!
The January Class

Adams through Bellis

Belluchi through Butler

Cahow through Dixon

Doyle through Hobbs

Hodges through Lewis

Livengood through Meline

Mireles through Peacock

Pearson through Sacco

Schmeling through Snyder

Soloman through Waltz

Ward through Woxell plus Donald Kiefer (Bob Freeborn and Judy Lea Ridgeway Freel not pictured)



The June Class

Abbott through Angell

Aspengren through Beebe

Beeman through Brady

Bird through Carnel

Carrington through Cooper

Crain through Elder

Ellis through Frakes

Funderburk through Hamilton

Harris through Howser

Hudson through Johnson

Jones through Larson

Law through May

McGriff through Moore

Mullin through Owens

Parker through Rear

Reese through Rummans

Rushing through Simmons

Smith through John Sullivan

Kay Sullivan through Vantrees

Warren through Wiggins

Williams through Yarges plus Gary Mines

August Grads Anderson through Price

August Grads Shepherd through Thompson


And -- if you think those pictures are funny, have a look at what June class did to themselves for the "Kiddy Party" here.
A couple of years ago the server at the ISP that hosts this web site was severely attacked and a major security breech resulted. Some files referenced on this site were lost in the process. I have recovered most of the site from local backups but you may still encounter some broken links and missing files. My personal web site, www.tfl.net, suffered the same fate. I still work on the recovery effort from time to time, but some content, I fear, is irretrievably lost.
Updated 4/14/2024