Contributed by Carla Haslam Herkner
Below are photos taken in 1964 of the Logan High School Class of 1934 and 1935 at their joint reunion.
Top roll, L-R, 5th John James Haslam (1917-2010), 2nd roll from top, L-R 7th (wife) Thelma Powell Haslam
1935 Logan High School Gallery
Thank you for sharing comments about the Von Pechy family / educators. My mama was named after Anna Lucille Crutcher Von Pechy. ( She was also named after my great grand father’s family Eleanor) I knew Anna Lucile as my great grandmother whom we called, “mom”. She woke early, cooked us eggs and spoke words of wisdom at the breakfast table. She was inspiring, stern, & taught me a “a bird in the hand is worth more than two in a bush.” She would leave me each morning I visited with a word similar to that of “ early bird catches the worm”. Thank you for sharing. I love this page.
Beverly Albert, Margaret Sepessy is in the first row # 5.
You can read her obit on the findagrave.org site.
She’s buried in Green Acres Memorial Park in CA.
Thanks for posting your Sepessy family photo,
hope you have more to post on this Logan site.
This message is for Fred Rushden,
in July 2020 you listed eight teachers
you had in grade school and in 2017 one
at LEJHS.
Could you please take the time and see
if any of them are in the school
teachers photos?
Hoping that more of you will take
the time to look at the photos
and do research finding out
about the teachers that you had
in Logan County Schools.
Does anyone recall the school teacher Lucille ( Johnson ) Marushi,
( 1914- 1992 ). She was the wife of Mr. Rudy Marushi.
She is in the 1934 LHS Class photo 1st row # 6.
What subjects did she teach?
These photos are worth looking at.
Thanks Carla for putting them up.
Lucille Johnson Marushi was my maternal grandmother. She taught elementary school, all subjects, but she specialized in reading. She was a teacher and principal in Logan county from 1936 to 1979. Her daughter Susan married and became a teacher as did her husband, my dad and now, I’m a teacher in Florida.
Jennifer, I thank you for updating your Marushi family history.
Regarding the Banner writeup page for 1934-35
of the teachers.
For those of you looking for Mrs.Elizabeth Spears,
counting down from the top she is in the 2nd row # 6.
Her two-part story is now on the ‘Our Appalachia: A Blog Created by Students of Southern West Virginia CTC’ website – (Part 1, Part 2).
The following info was found at familysearch.org and the findagrave.com sites.
These are fill in the story notes and if anyone can add more to the story
please do so. If anyone had Mrs.Spears as their teacher please
put in your memories about her.
You have to read parts 1 and 2 first to understand these notes.
Elizabeth Spears ( Kark ) ( Vizzi ) was born on December 23,1918
in Ethel,WV. and she died January 19, 2008 in Logan,WV.
She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Pecks Mill.
There is a Memorial Page for her and an obit about her
Spears family. She married Edward ( 1913-1960 ) in 1940.
She was adopted by John and Elizabeth Vizzi in 1925 when her
parents Joseph Sr. and Mary Kark died from Tuberculosis
in Ethel,WV. Her father Joseph ( 1876 – 1925 ) was a coal miner.
Her mother Mary ( 1885 – 1925 ), both were from Hungary.
They are buried in Sun Beam Cemetery near Ethel.
Elizabeth’s brother Joseph Jr. was born August 22, 1909
in Cleveland Ohio and he died February 14,1992 in
Marters Ferry Belmont Ohio. He was a typesetter for a
newspaper company in Belmont.
Joseph married Norma Nelson ( 1913 – 2013 ) in 1938
in Belmont. They are buried in Holly Memorial Gardens.
Their child was Nancy Joe Kark ( 1939- 1978 ).
She married Lawrence Neuhardt ( 1938 – 1984 ).
When Joseph and Mary died in 1925 Elizabeth’s
three sisters were sent to Mount Chantel Academy in
Wheeling,WV. This was an all girls Catholic school.
Her sister Ann was born May 12, 1912 in Holden,WV.
and she died March 22, 1995 in WV. She was married
to John Callahan ( 1908 – 1966 ).
They lived in Marshall County Wv,. They are buried in
Halcyon Hills Memorial Park.
The 1930 census shows that Ann was a servant and
bell ringer at the Catholic School.
Lena Kark born in 1914 was a Ward. Since she was
a Nun no other records were found about her.
Julia Kark was born in 1915, unknown who she married
or what happened to her.
I enjoyed reading Part 1 and Part 2. Your notes were helpful with learning to understand this family’s history. In the interim have been doing some research on Julia Kark. Her full name was Julia Agnes Kark. She lived 1914-1994.
Julia moved to Michigan, as the interview said previously. She married a man by the name of Joseph C. Joseph, and had two children, Raymond Kark, who was born 9 years before the marriage, and a daughter who is still living. For privacy reasons I am not sharing her name. Raymond Kark was not Joseph Joseph’s son. However, I believe he is the father of the daughter. It does not seem like Raymond acknowledged Joseph as his father.
No other information can be found on Lena. Since she was a Catholic Nun, she likely never married or had any children. Unless she stopped being a nun, I do not believe she could be married or have children.
Carlo, thanks for your input about the
Kark family.
Thank you, Carlo, for your follow-up on the Kark family. I appreciate your efforts. You will see how I fit into this family from my other posting. Reached out to Julia (Kark) Joseph many times but never heard back from her. There was also another brother in the family, Michael, who died young.
Jeanne, on May 27, 2024, a Michael Spears made this comment, Elizabeth Spears was my Grandmother, she was married to Edward Bebe Spears. He was a foreman at a local coal mine. I use to visit them in Wilkinson. He left his email address on the General Comments page on this site. Maybe you can connect with him and get him to write up more of the family history.
I was very surprised to chance upon your posting regarding my great-aunt Elizabeth Vizzi and the Kark family. I am a grand-daughter of Joseph Kark Jr. and his first wife, Bessie Margaret Boston. Bessie passed away when my father Wallace was only 2. In the early 1980s my sister and I took a trip to Ohio and West Virginia to do some genealogy research and got to meet Elizabeth, her grand-daughter Melinda and Mrs Vizzi. Your information gave me the impetus to reach out to Melinda and we are now in touch on Facebook. The Kark surname was always a curiosity. From my grandfather’s birth certificate, it was Karcak. From the parent’s marriage record it was Karczak. I never met Lena but was in touch with her. She changed her name to Jane and married a man named Polonchan in later life. They lived in Steubenville…no children.
Jeanne, I thank you for your comments,
glad you enjoyed my research work
that I posted on January 30,2021.
Thanks for the Kark family update.
Hope that you read parts 1 & 2.
Glad that you got to visit with Mrs. Spears.
There is a Memorial for her at the findagrave.com.
site, she is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Do you have any photos of her that you could
post to this website?
Do you know the names of the schools
that she taught at in Logan County?
A couple of people have stated that she
taught at Mt.Gay Grade School, do you know?
Hope to hear back from you.
Jeanne, you can do more family research
at the Ellis Island Research site.
Also at familysearch.org. Put in Hungary
for the country. Then put in the last
names of Karczak and Karcak.
Lots of them on the site.
Also Jane married George Polonchan
in 1963 in WV. She died in 2000.
Still hoping that you can post some family
Kark photos on this Logan site.
Thank you, Bob, for the information and suggestions. It’s been a while since I have researched the Kark name but this is a sign that I need to get back at it. I do have one photo of Elizabeth with her brother Joseph, Mrs. Vizzi and my sister that I took in ~1981. Can you please tell me how to upload it? I can always email it to you if that’s easier. Have messaged Elizabeth’s grand-daughter Melinda but have not heard back yet. She would probably have a lot of information on Elizabeth’s life and teaching career. Thank you for your work on this site. Jeanne
To share a photo, please email it to the admin at loganwv.us@gmail.com.
Jeanne, you’re welcome. I hope that you
can do the Kark family history for this site.
Please read the Augustine Family History
done by Carlo on this site.
Another wonderful Hungarian story.
Carlo did a remarkable job on the story.
He was able to find his family at the
Ellis Island site once he discovered the
name was Agoston for Augustine.
Like the Kark sisters his family members
were sent to the school in Wheeling,WV.
Jeanne, give yourself a few months to
do the research.
Jeanne, thanks for posting your beautiful
family photo. Good for me to see those that
I have done research about.
Hoping that you can find more about your
Kark family history.
Did you enjoy reading the Augustine Story?
Jeanne, could you please go to Site Index
on this site, then go down the list till you
see Mt.Gay Elementary School.
Look at the teachers photo, Is Mrs.Spears
the teacher in the top row # 4 unknown.
The teacher to her right is wearing white.
Photo was taken in 1955 to 1956.
Her age about 42, born in 1913.
Jeanne, Jane and George are buried
in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Jefferson
County Ohio.
You can find the cemetery on the
findagrave.org site.
Jeanne, there is a photo that might
be of Elizabeth at Ethel Grade School
taken 1947 to 1948.
You can find the photo on this site
by putting in Ethel WV.
My mother’s cousin Edith Steele was shown in the graduating class. She was one of C. G. Steele’s (Steele Furniture) daughters. My mom graduated in 1933 hope someone will find an “oldie” of that yearbook. Thanks for sharing
My grandfather was Bill Bryant, seeing these pictures made my dad and I tear up. We do not have very many pictures of him from his youth, let alone, only a few around the time of the war. My grandfather passed away in December of 1998, I miss him dearly, but, these pictures made my day when I found this website. Thank you for posting them.
This is great! I have been trying to find info in my grand and great grand parents!! Bill Vonpechy was my grandfather! It seems most of my family were educators in Logan… My great grandmother Anna Lucile crutcher vonpechy was a teacher at cherry tree and verdunville… My great grand emery vonpechy a preacher.. And my aunt Ann c vonpechy a librarian.. And my grandmother Susan vonpechy teacher at Logan jr high as well as poppy bill vonpechy… This is cool! Thank u for sharing!!
Lucile von Pechy was my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher at Cherry Tree. She also taught my father. I have my 2nd grade report card on the Whites Addition Gallery. There are also some school photos of Mrs. von Pechy on the Cherry Tree site.
Carla, Thank you so much for sharing these pictures! Bill VonPechy was my 8th grade science teacher at Logan Jr. Hi. Virginia Lucas Kovach was also one of my teachers- can’t remember what the class was, but do remember that I liked her a lot. Thanks for the memories!
Dodie, you are so welcome. It’s a small thing compared to all of the great history and remembrances you have added to Frank’s website!