Yesterday’s email brought the sad news that Shirley Smith had passed away at age 75.

Or I should use her married name, Shirley Stickler, although I haven’t seen her since she was wed.

I only knew her in high school, during our days at Elco, Eastern Lebanon County High School in Myerstown, PA.

She was in my homeroom with Mr. Graybill in eighth grade as well as most of my classes that year. I remember one of the teachers (which one was it?), when he went over the class names the first few times as he tried to get to know the students’ names, keying in on her last name, he would say something like, “Sounds like an alias.” I guess he thought he was being funny, but nobody laughed.

She was a sweet girl, and I remember her clearly.

After that year, she was in a lot of my classes, like Latin with Mrs. Spitler, as she was in the Academic track just as I was.

But as well as I remember her, I can’t recall any funny or memorable anecdote to relate. I wish I could. Sorry. If anyone reading this has such an anecdote, please send it along either to me or to Cindy Behney and I’ll happily add it to this post.

The yearbook says she wanted to be a Practical Nurse, and her obituary says she was a Dental Assistant for 30 years. Close enough.