“I like Sequim — I can’t think of any place I’d rather be,” said Mayme Messenger Faulk, who was a representative of the SHS Class of 1948 at the Sequim All-School Reunion in mid-August.

Held for the first time in four years, the reunion saw 203 people register for events that included a golf tournament at The Cedars at Dungeness, a get-together at 7 Cedars Resort, pancake breakfast at the Sequim Prairie Grange, a Hawaiian luau themed dinner at Carrie Blake Community Park and a picnic at the Sequim Prairie Grange, according to organizing group Sequim Schools Alumni Association.

Representing the Class of ‘48 were Faulk, Doreen Brittain St. Clair and Helen Bucher.

“Our class had 48 in [19]48,” said Faulk, who was born in Sequim and grew up in Blyn.

replication of SHS CLass of 1948 school pictures From left, Doreen Brittain St. Clair, Helen Bucher and Mayme Messenger Faulk are three of the 48 graduates of Sequim High school from 1948.

“When we were in high school there were only two blocks in town,” she said. “In the high school there were only 200 people.”

Faulk said that she lived about 70 years in Blyn, where her grandmother had a store which she sold to her aunt and uncle.

“I lived at a place where there were no houses — they were all farms…. Now there are a lot more houses,” Faulk said.

“We liked to go swimming in [Sequim] Bay. There were three big families there. We would go out hiking as high as the mountain behind us went and look out at the view; that was one of the fun things to do.”

Faulk said that she was one of the people who worked “on getting the Sequim Alumni started.” She had access to a computer when they were rare; they had 2,800 names and addresses to begin with. She was the treasurer for 18 years, she said.

The first reunions were 10 years apart, but “we had so much fun that after that we did it every five years,” Faulk said.

She said her own class will celebrate 75 years in 2023.

Photo courtesy of Lynda Coventon / Doreen Brittain St. Clair said that she was the first Irrigation Queen to be in an automobile-pulled float, a convertible, in 1948, the year St. Clair and her 48 classmates graduated. There was a Duke then, Stan Cameron. St. Clair said, “When I was queen it was simple compared to today… we never traveled to other cities like they do now. That one day we went to town for the parade; that was it.”

Faulk said that now she lives very close to Bucher. Bucher said the two take walks together.

“I live right on the property where I grew up,” Bucher said. “My present house is where our barn stood.”

When she was growing up she would help out on the farm. In between then and now she lived and worked in the Renton area.

“I started playing the piano as a young kid … and accordion. I still play some at the senior center when we have programs there … rhythm is in my system; that’s why physical activity is so good.”

Bucher said she sang in the choir at school.

“We had a good choir and good music,” she recalled.

Bucher cultivated a lifelong interest in sports and exercise during her time in Sequim schools.

“We didn’t have an organized sports program,” she said. During recess, she noted, she and classmate Sharon Poole would organize their class into teams and have a game of softball or something similar, with both boys and girls participating.

During study hall, Bucher said she had permission to go in the gym to shoot baskets. After graduating from Sequim High she went to the University of Washington and studied to be a physical education teacher.

“The sports were really good for me physically, and growing up on the farm, because I’m really very active still at 91. I don’t need a cane or anything like that. My legs are good.”

St. Clair recalled those recess games as well, and credited life-long exercise as contributing to the quality of her life and her ability to recover from medical events.

“Exercise and moving around is very important,” she said. “Helen was wonderful when it came to being a coach — she was our coach in P.E. I always admired her.

Photo courtesy of Lynda Coventon / Doreen Brittain St. Clair said that she was the first Irrigation Queen to be in an automobile-pulled float, a convertible, in 1948, the year St. Clair and her 48 classmates graduated. St. Clair said, “When I was queen it was simple compared to today… we never traveled to other cities like they do now. That one day we went to town for the parade; that was it.”

“I was always busy with sports and exercise and tumbling.”

St. Clair recalled that she sang for the school’s glee club, and that she and her sisters would sing at local get-togethers.

“When we had our final assembly for our senior class I sang a song, ‘Now is the Hour,” to the entire class, which was very brave of me because I was kind of bashful,” St. Clair remembered.

St. Clair married and after 10 years moved to California. There she made a record with two of her sisters, but does not have a copy.

She said she was the first Sequim Irrigation Festival Queen whose float was pulled by an automobile, a convertible, in which her future husband, Stan Cameron — also of the class of 1948 — rode as a Duke.

“When I was queen it was simple compared to today; we never traveled to other cities like they do now,” St. Clair said. “That one day we went to town for the parade; that was it.”

St. Clair returned from California 14 years ago.

“I have been flabbergasted, every time Lynda (daughter) takes me for a drive or we go to town, I see all these homes and all these businesses,” she said. “Everything has changed 99 percent. I would guess only a thousand or two thousand people lived here when I left.

“This place has changed tremendously. But it’s all lovely, and the people are so nice.”

Bucher also said that though much has changed in the more than 70 years since graduation, “the friendliness of the people and the scenery, the good climate and the good weather” were some of the things that have been consistent through time.

About the Association

The Sequim Schools Alumni Association (SSAA) is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization formed to promote a channel of communication among the Sequim School District, its former students, graduates and other persons interested in preserving the heritage and history of Sequim schools.

Association memberships allow the group to bestow yearly scholarships, maintain graduating class photos, gift an SHS yearbook to Sequim Museum & Arts, support teachers with grants, gift yearbooks to deserving graduating seniors, publish a quarterly newsletter (“The Ditchwalker”) and other endeavors involving Sequim Schools.

Membership is $10 per calendar year. Checks can be made out and mailed to: SSAA, PO Box 1758, Sequim WA 98382. Include the following information: Name, maiden name (if applicable), graduation year, address and email address. Include if you want a black-and-white paper copy or color email version of the newsletter.