Memorable Miss Clegg

Margaret Clegg was one of the "hard to forget" teachers Dad worked with during his career as a principal. From time to time he told us these stories about her, and fortunately he recorded them also. Miss Clegg was a very small woman who had taught at Minnequa School when he was there. Dad thought she had retired, but when he was assigned as the principal at Bessemer, she was at that school teaching first grade.

Bessemer School Staff - 1954
Lou Butler, Principal (back row, center)
You'll have to guess which one is Miss Clegg. . .

Lunchtime Naps
Miss Clegg used to go home for lunch. She parked on Spruce St. on the other side of the school, so when the First Grades were dismissed at 11:30, she would often leave for lunch 30 minutes early. Her class would be gone and no one would notice she had left during her preparation period. Then she would often have time for a nap at home since she had an hour and a half for lunch. The only problem was that she would not wake up in time, and the bell would ring before she could get back to school. So her class would be lined up at the door to go in, but when all of the other classes would go into their rooms, her class would still be outside. I would then be notified if I was not on the grounds, and would take her class inside and try to get them started to work. It didn’t really seem to bother her that I was taking her class for her.

Fire Drill
One day I had a fire drill, and we always checked to make sure that everyone was out of the building before we rang the bell to send the classes back into the building. This particular day, I went over to the annex to see that everyone was out, and when I looked into Miss Clegg’s room, the class was still in their seats. I looked around the room and then saw Miss Clegg down on her knees by one of the students’ desks. When I got over to where she was, I saw her trying to untie a jump rope from the legs of a boy. She had him tied to the leg of the desk and couldn’t get it untied! Glad it was just a fire drill!

Asleep at the Desk
Once in a while I would start into the room and all of the children would “shush” me and point to Miss Clegg’s desk where she would be asleep. I would walk around the room and talk to the children about their work and not look her direction. Pretty soon she would be up walking around the class as though she had not been asleep!

Last Day of School
On the last day of school one year the faculty was going out to eat – all but Miss. Clegg. After classes had been dismissed and school was out for the summer vacation for the children, most of the teachers had left for the restaurant. I checked the building, only to find Miss Clegg’s class was still there and she was at her desk making out their report cards.

Last Year She Taught
At the end of the school year, Miss Clegg got checked out several days after the other teachers had gone for the summer. She got all of the essential things done, but hadn’t really left her room in order, and said she would do that in a week or so. She left to go see her family who lived in Kansas. She fell asleep while driving on the highway somewhere in Kansas and was killed in the wreck. When I went out to clean out her room, I found bits of string, little boxes of broken chalk, crayons, and pencil stubs. I filled three large trashcans with stuff I threw out of her closets and desk. I also found many of the books from sets I thought had been lost or stolen, and many books from the library which had not been turned in, and we thought had been lost or stolen.