Lostine School reunion set for Saturday

The old Lostine School is now Providence Academy. Lostine School closed in 1966, but some of the student who attended the Bowlby-stone structure will be holding a renunion at the school at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. File photo

Nuss and Myrla Zollman Clark, who graduated in 1961 with only one classmate, are organizing a Lostine School Reunion that will be held Saturday at the school in Lostine beginning at 10:30 a.m. with visiting and sharing old photos, which everyone is encouraged to bring. Old school year books and memorabilia will be on exhibit.

The event is open to anybody who ever attended Lostine School, including the most recent attendees, students of the Providence Academy, which opened in 2000.

“We heard from one guy who said he is surprised the building is still standing. But that Bowlby stone isn’t going anywhere,” Louise said, referring to the locally quarried stone the building is constructed of.

The building has had much use over the years, including storage for heavy equipment tires in the main building and machinery in the gymnasium where the Mid-Valley Theater Co. now holds its productions.

Mryla Clark remembers the third and fourth-grade classroom was on the right inside the front doors and fifth and sixth on the left. The younger grades were down the hall on the left, and seventh and eighth on the right. The high school classes were conductedon the second floor, which is in the process of renovation and not accessible now. A lunch counter was installed in the space under the staircase, as Louise and Mryla remember.

The Lostine School athletic teams had several successful seasons, including championship volleyball. Louise remembers a basketball game against Enterprise when all but three Lostine players had fouled out. Play continued in spite of the dwindling numbers of eligible team members, resulting in a one-point victory for the Lostine team.

“It took participation by the whole school to make up our teams,” she said.

Interscholastic competition was phased out, due to a lack of students, and non-conference “play days” were arranged.

Myrla and Louise both remember their teachers well. Myrla said that Linda Carper taught English, typing, shorthand, business law, yearbook, band and choir.

“She would have two or three different classes going at once, with no classroom aide,” she said.

Louise Scott, who is still living, taught bookkeeping and English; Mr. Black was the history teacher; Mr. Johnson taught biology, earth science and FFA. Laurence Slater was their principal and superintendent.

“We had good relationships with our teachers. We could get into the school when we needed to. In fact, I could open the lock on the front door with my rat-tail comb. I’d go in, take care of my business and leave and lock the door,” Mryla said.

“We respected our teachers. They were like our parents to us. And the town of Lostine looked about the same as it does now. The owner of the Lostine Tavern opened up for the teenagers after school because we

didn’t really have a gathering place. He would make the adults in the back go to the back of the room and would tell them to quiet down and behave when the kids came in for sodas or whatever,” Louise said.

Some traditions never change. The “senior sneak” trip at the culmination of students’ high school careers is still an important part of current graduation traditions and was a much-anticipated event for the classes of 50 years ago. Louise remembers traveling to Cove Hot Springs for swimming and then dinner out and a movie in La Grande.

One of the traditions that has been all but completely phased out in most high schools is Freshman Initiation Week.

“We had to wear goofy outfits and take orders from the seniors,’’ Louise said. “We each got an assignment to carry out. Somebody had to count all the bales in a stack of hay somewhere. Someone else had to count chickens in a chicken coop. I had to go to Lostine Cemetery and pick up a note on a grave at night. When I got there I was scared by a ‘ghost.’ I had a flashlight with me and I thought ‘if I hit it and it goes through, it’s a ghost. If not, it isn’t.’ So I hit the ghost on the head and almost knocked poor Roger Makin out!”

These and many other stories will be brought back to life at the Lostine School Reunion, which last took place in 1996.

For more information, call Louise at 541-426-3527, or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; or Myrla at

541-432-8003, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it