SARASOTA, Florida — Kathryn Howell Lieberknecht enjoys getting together with old friends, especially those from her Grandview high school days.

Her family had moved to the Grandview area from Minnesota when she started high school and she quickly made friends. Classmate Ronald Cross says she was the nicest girl in school.

While living in the Grandview area, Lieberknecht and husband Ralph, who has since passed away, would have former classmates who had moved away come over for supper when they returned to the area for a visit. One in particular was Gus Rexroth, who had joined the U.S. Navy and later settled in Washington, D.C.

“He always came back in the summer,” said Lieberknecht. “It is nice to keep in touch.” Rexroth is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Lieberknecht, 93, one of the three living 1932 graduates, arrived Friday from Sarasota, Fla., where she lives in a Christian retirement independent living complex, to attend the Grandview Alumni Banquet Saturday evening.

She said when she compares her alma mater to today’s high schools’, she envies today’s students.

“Our school didn’t have very much,” she said. “Today there are so many choices and things to do.”

Lieberknecht wasn’t involved in sports, however, she was busy with the local 4-H club. She had learned about cooking and sewing in her home economics classes when she was a freshman and sophomore. She still does handwork and especially enjoys counted cross stitch.

She also had good grades in declamatory, or what today would be called speech. She earned a letter for her gold-colored school sweater in that class.

“I loved our English teacher, Mae Gast,” Lieberknecht said. “She was really special.” She also remembered the superintendent, A.R. Morledge, as a well-liked man. He served as superintendent from 1923-1929 and again from 1947-1959.

Lieberknecht remembers that Gast and two other teachers attended the alumni gathering in 1982.

At one time she was a 4-H leader and now volunteers with her local Salvation Army.

Contact Connie Street at: 319-527-8164 or ckcasey@louisacomm.net