Latin School of Chicago

"Our formal graduation for seniors, parents and guests was held at the Casino club. It was a very formal affair, black tie and evening gowns. Each senior selected her Lantern Bearer from the faculty. The title symbolized the fact that learning lights the way for future growth throughout one's life. Her choice could be a favorite teacher who was helpful, or taught a favorite subject, or one she respected the most as a friend. It had nothing to do with grades. I picked my Latin teacher, Lucy Brokaw. Though Latin was my worst subject, she never gave up on me. Miss Brokaw also was my mentor helping me with my role as president of student government, a very demanding job. Because learning 'lights the way for all of us to get on in this world,' the teacher carried a lit lantern. Each senior also picked two younger students as their 'props.' They followed behind the Lantern Bearer, who in turn, was followed by the graduating student." — Kay Reynolds Hill '45 A graduation announcement from 1939. 46 L AT I N M AGAZINE Uniforms changed with the times but were compulsory at the Latin School until 1974. In the 1920s, girls wore white sailor blouses, blue ties and blue serge skirts, saving a blue silk two-piece uniform for Fridays and special occasions. For physical education, the girls wore a light blue tunic with an L sewn to it and bloomers. Although the boys and girls attended separate schools, once they arrived in high school, they frequently socialized. Events at the Fortnightly and Saddle and Cycle clubs, dance lessons at Lester Mayhew's, cheering on the boys games at the Kersey Coates Reed campus, meeting up at neighborhood hangouts and dating provided ample opportunities for the boys and girls to build close friendships long before the merger. "Many of us knew each other throughout our childhoods," said Camille McDonald Weiss '44. "We grew up together and, of course, we knew our girl friends' brothers well. Our parents knew each other. In high school, Joe Godair's on Division Street was the place to go. We would buy a coke for a nickel or a dime and there would be about a dozen boys and girls squeezed in there." Weiss, a high school athlete herself, also spent many afternoons and evenings cheering on the boys at their games. According to Grace Conde Kirk '44, who is still close to a number of her Latin friends including Camille Weiss and Howard Carroll '44, the friendships continued even after she left Latin to attend New Trier for high school. "We were a very close circle, boys and girls. We all knew the same people. That didn't change after I moved to Winnetka." The relationships often endured through marriages, children, grandchildren and into old age for those alumnae who remained in the Chicago area. n

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