Oh No! He Has a Corsage!

                This is the time of year when talk of prom dresses and tuxedo rental is sprinkled throughout the conversation of high school students. Sometimes it is forgotten that teens from yesteryear had similar interests in the spring, too.

                I recall as a child being fascinated by a formal gown hanging in the back of my mother’s closet. Much to my dismay, I knew she had not had a bridal gown. (See March 2 Blog post entitled Not Much of a Wedding… for more information about her wedding attire.) On a few occasions, she pulled out the pink gown with about a million buttons one right after the other down the back of it. Then she told this story.

                My mother, Bernyce Smith Gates began her first year of high school at Fairfax. Her parents took her the almost 5.5 miles to the bus stop at the Nine Mile Corner west of Fairfax and north of the Belford River Bridge. After two weeks, she transferred to Ralston High School and daily was taken by her parents the 1 ½ miles to the bus stop located at the Y just west of the Belford River Bridge. She and her friend Wanda Faye Forrest sometimes walked home when debarking from the bus. When the Burbank High School superintendent, R.L. Stegall agreed to send a bus to pick her up less than a quarter of a mile from her home, Mother and her parents quickly decided for her to become a Burbank Pirate beginning with her sophomore year.  

                As I fingered the pink dress fashioned from faille, Mother explained that juniors and seniors at Burbank High School looked forward to the junior/senior  banquet  held in the spring. The site for the banquet for Mother’s junior year was the Jens-Marie Hotel in Ponca City. At that time, the Jens-Marie was Ponca City’s premier hotel.  Back to the dress…

                The country was just emerging from the Great Depression in the early 1940s. Even though Mother was an only child, Oklahoma farmers like her parents struggled to make ends meet.  Mother was elated when her aunt, Emma Maryann Rainey Buckley let her know she was sending her a formal gown from Washington, D.C. Her aunt also included a beaded evening bag with the much-anticipated pink floor length dress in the package she mailed. She enclosed a note telling Mother to be sure and order a cornflower corsage to wear with this beautiful gown.

                June Moore, another senior girl, had moved to rural Burbank that school year. She and Mother quickly became friends. They shared a love of music. In fact, both of them played the piano and enjoyed singing.  I’m sure Mother was one to welcome the new student. She has always been sensitive to others and taught my sister and me to practice the same.

                The two were such good friends by the time the banquet rolled around that spring that June invited Bernyce to spend the weekend with her. Mother brought her gown and pretty beaded bag. June was also planning to wear a pink formal accented with a cornflower corsage that complemented the gown perfectly. Mother had no corsage because when she had tried to order the cornflower corsage specified by Aunt Emma she found the flower shop in Fairfax did not have cornflowers. Mother greatly valued her aunt‘s advice because she was the most fashion-conscious epitome of sophistication she knew and regularly attended social functions in Washington, D. C. My mother decided if she couldn’t get the cornflower corsage, then she would not wear a corsage.

                The two senior girls had great fun getting ready for the banquet. There was no prom, no dance. This evening consisted of a wonderful meal with the junior and senior students of Burbank High School dressed to the nines. These students had lived through the patched clothing and hard times of the Great Depression. These kids reveled in getting to dress up and the relief of having parents and relatives who were finally able to afford such luxuries.

              Every individual at the banquet knew someone who was serving abroad or training to serve overseas because the United States was at war with Japan and Germany. In fact, Mother and June were scheduled to sing as a part of the banquet program a duet of a popular song about a girl who loved a sailor.

                My mother had no date, but June did. Her date was R.J. Loyd who would later be her husband for over 60 years until his death. R.J. and June were glad for Mother to ride with them to the banquet. It was held at the home economics room of the high school. That same building has been renovated and is now the Burbank Community Center.

                Both girls were dressed in their similar styled dresses. Mother’s dress was a bit of a mauvish pink; whereas June’s was a truer pink dress. June had pinned on the cornflower corsage that her parents had bought for her to polish off her look for that night. Just about that time they spotted R.J. pulling up to pick them up for the banquet. He had something in his hand.

             “Oh no! He has a corsage,” the two girls whispered and giggled to one another as they tried to discreetly peek out the window at the handsome young man.

              Mother helped June unpin the cornflower corsage from the left shoulder of her pink gown. R. J. had a lovely red rose corsage for June. She graciously accepted it. So rather than have the cornflower corsage wasted and unused, June encouraged Mother to pin it on her dress. Mother could hardly believe she was arriving at her senior banquet looking exactly as her aunt had envisioned -- thanks to R.J.! She felt like Cinderella. Thanks to her fairy godmother – Aunt Emma.

Mother and June just before R. J. arrived.
June still has the "perfectly-matched"
corsage pinned on her formal.

Lela Lieber Stewart, Bernyce Smith Gates, and June Moore Loyd
taken at my parents' 50th wedding celebration. As Dad would say,
"These girls graduated together at Burbank."



R. J. Loyd and June Moore taken September 23, 1943.
This was just a couple of months after their marriage
on July 22, 1943.