1957 - Swimming at the Vandalia Pool

Pic #1 Claudia Price is in the striped suit. The boy facing the camera is Mike Duft from Greenville. The man in the middle is Charlie Lee from Witt, IL. (You can see him a little better in #3–he is in the shadows in the first one.).In #2 Mary Kinney is on the right. The girl in the middle may be Diana Burris. The one beginning the dive is under discussion and may or may not be Marlyce Elam (see comments). Jack Busby is facing the camera in #3.

Now about Marlyce -- if you anonymous commenters would identify yourselves it is possible that one of you has more credibility than the other -- like Janet as a sister or Kay Wiseman as a cousin? You can identify yourselves and settle this ... if you will.

Kay says she doesn't think it is Marlyce. Frank Bush agrees, saying, "I think she might have been from Pana. Jack Busby preached there for a while. I remember seeing her at the BBall game when Greenville was playing. I cannot remember her name." Tom Ewald weighed in and said it looks more like his wife Janet than her sister. Swimming caps just confuse the issue!

Mike Heston adds, "The pictures of the Vandalia pool (we bussed kids there twice a week before building the lake) has a rather interesting story behind it. I believe it was Fourth Christian in St. Louis that brought several black kids to camp one week. I recall there being some concern about their being allowed to enter the Vandalia pool. Fortunately, there was no problem. I remember the older black guy was named Rufus and the one my age was Leroy (all ages were thrown together in the early days). Leroy and I became good friends and both dedicated our lives to full-time Christian service the week in question. I’ve often wondered what became of Leroy. It will be interesting to see if Frank has any pictures of those guys." Frank is still working through envelop after envelop of negatives, but he does remember that the Vandalia pool was segregated, but since we were a private party they let the camp bring all the campers regardless of race. The Civil Rights Act was still eight years away.