Virginia and Kathryn - Double Trouble

Entrance to Bessemer School after numerous renovations.
Lettering was part of the original school built in 1931
photo courtesy of flickr

Virginia taught first grade in my school [Bessemer], and her sister, Kathryn, taught in a nearby school. I had been told that they went down to a liquor store every evening and would go home and drink [their purchase]. Then quite often Virginia would call me on the phone and proceed to tell me all of the mistakes she thought I had made, and how unfair I was, and how I was not qualified to be a principal, especially because I was a Mormon.

I could always hear Kathryn in the background telling Virginia something to say to me. After criticizing real or imagined events of the day, she would always say, “I don’t know what you think you are doing here in this good Catholic community when you are nothing but an ‘old Mormon.’”

I would let her go on until I would finally tell her I had other things to do and would say “Goodnight,” and hang up. Sometimes when my brother and his wife were at our house, I would put the phone down in the middle of the carpet and we would each lay with our heads near the phone and listen.

I felt certain that she was drinking at school occasionally, but she would never let me get close enough to smell the alcohol. One night during Open House, I was pretty sure she had been drinking. She never had many parents attend, and when she had no parents, I went in and tried to make small talk and get close enough to smell the alcohol. She kept the desk between us. I would wander around the desk, she would too, never letting me get close. She finally said, “I know what you are doing, and if you ever try to take my job, I will take you to court and I’ll win because I have more money than you will ever have!”

The Superintendent of Schools used to ask me about these sisters. He had been the principal of Bessemer and had both of them at one time. One Sunday morning I got a call from the Superintendent, and he informed me that Virginia had died. She “fell” down the stairs, which was probably the result of a fight (which was a frequent occurrence.) The paper called it a heart attack.

Monday morning when I arrived at school, a parent was waiting for me and really lit into me. She said that Virginia had called her Friday night and she was sure that the teacher was drunk. She (Virginia) told the mother that her son was an imbecile and should not be in public school, but in an institution. She said many other insulting things about not only the child, but the parents too. When I was finally able to get a word in edgewise, I said, “Did you know she died yesterday?” She said, “Well, I don’t care! But I guess there is nothing else to talk about,” and she left.

And you think you've got problems at work?