Dorothy Evelyn Park.
By the time that I was born in Rockport, Dorothy Park was about to graduate from Rockport High School and Dorothy Park was a figure in Rockport then, as well as being a figure today. She has spent her entire life and career in Rockport. Occasionally, I will see her doing her own grocery shopping. She does not drive anymore, thus has help in taking her to the grocery and other places, but she is mobile and her mind seems to be as sharp as it was back when she taught me in the fifth grade.
Dorothy Park graduated from high school in 1938 and then went on to obtain a teaching degree from Western Kentucky State Teacher's College, known today as Western Kentucky University. Dorothy started teaching at Rockport, even before she received her teaching degree. She continued teaching until retirement and I think that it was mandatory retirement or she might still be teaching. If you grew up in Rockport in the last half of the twentieth century, sooner or later you were influenced by Dorothy Park. It would be interesting to know the number of children that were taught by her. Figure twenty-five kids a year for fifty years would be just a start. She made a mark on Rockport, the state of Kentucky and guess the entire country as her students are certainly spread out all over the United States.
At this writing, Dorothy lives alone in the old Dr. Park home, the home that she was born and continued her life in. The house sits today, much like it did fifty years ago, at the bottom of Bob Swain Hill. I walked passed it going to school as a pre-teen and drove past it when dating as a teen. I have passed it many times, going to the river, going to visit, or just driving around Rockport. Dorothy has good neighbors and they try to watch out after, but she is independent, does not need much help, and enjoys a retirement life relaxing and reading. She never married and has just about outlived all of her kin. May there be more people like Dorothy to help make this a better world.
Space for a photograph.
Reserved for a 1938 grduate. Please share if you have any info.
Onolee Hines.
Onolee was the mother of one of my best friends and he and I, along with several others, grew up together in Rockport. During a part of this time Onloee was living with her parents, working and trying to make ends meet for her and her son. I saw and talked to her a lot and she seemed to be content that her son and I were good friends. I seem to know Onolee well, but in reality, I did not. After graduating from Rockport High School in 1938, Onolee attended beautician school in Bowning Green and became a licensed beautician. A failed marriage had produced a son and Onloee struggled trying to make a living and to raise a son. Along with many others from the area, she commuted and worked at the GE factory in Owensboro during the war years. Life, even then, is a struggle with both parents working and participating in raising a family. Onolee was fortunate in that she had her parents to fall back on and they helped in taking care of raising their grandson.
Life continued and some ten years or so later, Onolee met and married Carroll Lee Thomas, a great guy. All of us teens and preteens liked Onolee's new husband, but they did not make their home in Rockport. Carroll's career took them all over the USA and Canada constructing various types of refineries. They retired in Central City and are both buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.