Tapping the memory resources of Mrs. Peterson’s classrooms

BY EILEEN BRADY
​THE NEWS JOURNAL OF WILMINGTON, OHIO

As the second world war raged in far-flung places, Virgene Webb quietly began making her mark on public education in a small school in western Clinton County. 
She carefully entered the names of her first students into her grade book, in beautiful, teacherly cursive: Lorraine Baker, Ruth Esther Bloom, Shirley Bloom, Donald Brewington, Richard Butts ... John Shinkle, Betty Stingley.
Miss Webb started teaching in the basement of Kingman School in Chester Township, in time working her way up to a top-floor classroom with windows. 
That was 1943. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. Classrooms were filled with female teachers because

most local young men were serving in the military, supporting the war effort.
Three years after she started teaching, Miss Webb, a graduate of Adams School, married Marvin Peterson, a Wilmington High School graduate two years her senior. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson eventually had two children, Bunny and Jay. 
Twelve U.S. presidents later, Mrs. Peterson can even now be found in Wilmington’s classrooms, continuing as a substitute teacher 20 years after she officially retired in 1993. 
She still has that first Kingman grade book — and all the other grade books from her 50-year career teaching third, fourth and fifth grades at Kingman, Smith Place and Denver Place schools. 
She still has the kind smile, easy laugh and deeply held belief that education can be fun. Her once-tireless energy has slowed slightly as she deals with recent health issues, but her enthusiasm for teaching has not once waned. 
“I never thought of it as work,” she says. “It’s just some place to go to be with the kids.” And, she adds with a laugh, it’s a good excuse to buy clothes.
Mrs. Peterson, 88, could very well be the longest-teaching educator in Ohio’s schools, but because the Ohio Department of Education’s database is only accurate to the 1960s, the ODE spokesman could not confirm the achievement. 
With 70 years in the classroom, she could also easily be the record-holder in the United States, but the spokeswoman from the U.S. Department of Education says, “We wouldn’t have records on that.” 
At a time when individuals hold an average of 11.3 jobs from ages 18 to 46, simply keeping the same job for 70 years is an unrivaled feat. Loving that job the entire time is rarer still, though the ability seems to have been passed down to Mrs. Peterson’s daughter, Bunny Bradshaw, who has taught for 35 years, and to her grandson, Curt Bradshaw, who is in his fourth year of teaching. The three generations have taught for a total of 109 years in Clinton County.
Mrs. Peterson continues to receive hugs and cards from current and former students, and she is admired by those who have worked with her over the years. “I used to call her my guardian angel,” says Ann Williams, a teacher at Denver who first met Mrs. Peterson when she taught her oldest daughter. Later, the two women taught in the same school, and Mrs. Williams frequently leaned on Mrs. Peterson for support, guidance and encouragement.
“As many years as she's been around, I think she's seen everything,” Mrs. Williams said. “If I needed advice, or just someone to talk to, ... she was always there to listen.”
Many of the co-workers who hold her in high esteem have joined forces to applaud Mrs. Peterson’s 70th year of teaching. They have met for months, on their own time, to plan an event to honor Virgene Peterson, choosing May 6 as a grand kickoff for Teacher Appreciation Week, with a community open house at Denver Place from 4:30-6:30 p.m.
That group wants to hear from former students, co-workers, principals and parents of former students, requesting that they send their memories, photographs and stories of Mrs. Peterson by April 12 to Shari Murphy, c/o Denver Elementary, 291 Lorish Ave., Wilmington, OH 45177 or via email to [email protected]. 
Many memories were likely made on trips to the Peterson farm, or during square-dancing lessons, or while learning the finer points of baseball from the devoted Cincinnati Reds fan.
Other fond memories of Mrs. Peterson revolve around, of all things, classroom trash cans. Over the years, it became a tradition for her to offer to mark students’ birthdays by “dunking” them in a wastebasket. 
She’d ask them first, and if they said yes, Mrs. Peterson — all of 5 foot, 3 inches — would lower them by their ankles, careful to not allow them to touch any of the discarded paper, then flip them back up. 
Students thought it was so entertaining, they’d try to convince Mrs. Peterson it was their birthday, even when it wasn’t. “They thought it was big fun,” she says.
And there is always room, Mrs. Peterson says, for fun in school.