An era gone, not forgotten
Newton's Prudence Price taught
school in a different era - one long over, but not quite forgotten. Price began
her teaching career, which lasted more than 43 years, as a one-room school
teacher in Furley. "I'd never been in a one-teacher school," she
wrote in her autobiography. "It was an experience. I had all grades,
taught all subjects." Price died Monday at the age of 94. Her funeral
service will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Presbyterian Manor. Price was born June
5, 1912, in Cordell, Okla. The family
moved to Kansas, and Price spent her first two years of school attending
classes at McKinley Elementary - now McKinley Administrative Center on East
First.
Her father, William Romine,
owned a dealership for Overland and Willy-Knight cars.
It was an eight-passenger
Willy-Knight that transported the family to California following her
first-grade year. The family moved back to Newton where she completed school.
She attended Wichita
Municipal University for two years where she earned a teaching certificate.
"I rode the street car
to school for five cents," she wrote. "If I could 'hitch a ride,' I
could buy a five-cent hamburger or a candy bar."
She taught school in the
middle of the Great Depression, earning a salary of $520 a year.
She later was hired to teach
eighth grade in the Arkansas Avenue school near Wichita, serving as principal
from 1942 to 1946.
She was active in the Sedgwick
County Teacher's Association and was the first woman elected president of the
organization.
"I never served my term
as president," Price wrote. "I was hired to teach 1A and 2B at the
Old Fairmount school in Wichita. When Isley was built, I taught second grade
there."
In 1952 she married D.V.
Price and moved to Texas, but she kept teaching. Following his death in 1972
Prudence Price moved back to Newton, where she taught bridge at the Newton
Activity Center and founded musical groups.
She started "Newton's
Newest Novelty Band," a group of 12 ladies who put together musical
programs. She also sang with the "Golden Notes" senior choirs,
organized the "Sunbeams" choir at Presbyterian Church and the
harmonica band "Blowhards."
She wrote her own life story
in 1997.
Memorials have been
established with First Presbyterian Church and the donor's favorite charity in
care of the funeral home.
