Valedictorian, Class of 1935

Since I attended a high-school graduation ceremony a few days ago, it seems an apt time to present to you a high-school graduate whom we last saw out front of her home on Central Avenue: Joyce Malone, valedictorian of the Class of 1935 of Edison High School in East Gary (Lake Station).


(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Fred Ols.

This is the speech she gave at the ceremony:

Good Bye and Good Luck

During the past year we have listened to the Byrd broadcast and the thrilling communications between America and Little America[1] and as we heard the announcer, Harry von Zell, sign off with his "Good bye and good luck" we have thought that those men in the expedition must have been reluctant to hear those words for it meant that a whole week would elapse before they would again have the same opportunity of communicating with home folks. Harry von Zell was given a special privilege in the opportunity to say for all the people in the United States, "Good bye and good luck."

I feel that mine is a special privilege when I am permitted to voice the farewells for the class to teachers, fellow school mates, school associations and class members. We have enjoyed our years of fellowship together, particularly this last year of school, and we are reluctant to say the last good bye. We have enjoyed many sessions in this school. Some of us have been here for years and others but a comparatively short time and we hope that we have been able to give something to the school as well as to take so much from it. What we take from the school has not lessened its usefulness nor its material content but is measured in our training and in our character and our abilities. In giving to us the school has not lessened its efficiency but rather it has given us something that money cannot buy and that nothing can take from us.

Today we come to the last program together. Soon we will separate and go our several ways, some to one thing and some to another and will attempt to put into practice some of the knowledge and abilities we have secured while in school. Education is something to be desired and thinking people are anxious to give the young graduates a chance to do something with their training. We need education to live worthwhile lives in this great democracy, and democracy needs educated men and women and thinking boys and girls.

As we say good bye and good luck to old school friends and go out into the world of business and adult living we need to consider what our part will be in the future and what is needed from us in the present. While it is true that we will doubtless have difficulty in securing what we commonly call "paying positions"[2] there will be work of one sort or another for each and every one. It may be that we will be able to do something to make life easier for our parents who have denied themselves in order that we might complete our school work and now may be our "golden opportunity" to repay them in a small measure. Our community offers many opportunities for service in leading young people's activities or assisting with adult organizations. There is no need of our simply sitting down with folded hands, waiting for something to turn up.

As we say "good bye" to schoolmates who remain in the school for another year or more we do so with a feeling of sadness. You will be going on in the old ways that are no longer ours, you will tread the stairs and enter into the school activities but we will be out and away. We trust you to carry on the school spirit and traditions and to make us proud that we once belonged to this school. We are sorry to leave but such is the decree of progress. We would no longer remain once we are fitted for higher things but still we are saddened at the parting. As another school year opens before you, fellow school mates, we shall be watching you with pride and anticipation.

Teachers of this school, to you we must also say "good bye and good luck." Faithfully you have performed your duties and more, for you have gone outside your regular work to help us and to guide us. We may have seemed ungrateful at times and often you have questioned if it was worth all it cost you. In the future we hope to make up to society if not to you for what you have given the members of this class. Will you accept our heartfelt thanks and our "good bye and good luck."

As we come to the parting of the school ways we look back over our school life and wish that we might have done some things differently but this is no time for hashing our past mistakes.

Tonight we are looking into the future with eagerness, and with joyous anticipation of what life may hold in store for each of us. Tonight we are starting forth in a new life, a new world in which each one is to be the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. Parents, school mates, officials and friends, we hope that this new life may bring to each of the members of the class of 1935 some of the richer blessings, some of the finer things of life and that each member of this class may succeed in life to such an extent that we justify the confidence which you have placed in us. Trusting that our ambitions and ideals of tonight may not prove to be empty dreams I bid you all "good bye and good luck."

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[1] The "Little America" exploration base established in Antarctica set up the first radio station on that continent in 1933 and continued broadcasting until January 1935.
[2] Joyce and her classmates were, of course, beginning their adult lives in the midst of the Great Depression.