Sagamore Archives

April 11, 2013April 11, 2013

1967 Sagamore Ball

This has to rank as one of the three worst queen crownings I ever shot. When two out of three of the main players have their eyes closed and you can’t even SEE the eyes of the third person, then you should hang it up.

The April 10, 1967, Missourian caption under this photo said Mrs. Steven (Janet Brasier) Curtis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth E. Braiser of Robertsville, is pictured as she was crowned Sagamore Queen in festivities Saturday evening at the annual Sagamore Ball held at the Arena Building. Officiating at the coronation was, at left, Miss Sandra DeClue, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeClue of Hazelwood. Miss DeClue has been editor this year and last of the Sagamore, college yearbook, in which Mrs. Curtis will be featured. At right is the queen’s escort, her husband.

Convoluted Missourian style

Married women usually didn’t didn’t have first names in The Missourian: they were always Mrs. Steven Curtis, never Janet Curtis. I’m sure it threw the society editor for a loop when she had to figure out what to call a married college woman. Even as a married woman, she was still identified as the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so. Notice that her husband didn’t have his lineage traced.

The shot of them approaching the steps is a nicer picture, but I guess you had to have the actual moment of coronation.

Photographer usually tipped off

Someone generally came up to the photographer in advance to let him know who the winner was going to be so we could be in the right place. We had to do it without being obvious. In this case, I wonder if I didn’t get the advance warning. That would be odd, because I shot for both The Sagamore and The Capaha Arrow while I was working at The Missourian.

Women with crowns

April 4, 2013February 16, 2015

John C. Bierk

This is going to sound like a contradiction that John C. Bierk would have marked me down for, but the English professor was one of the handful of instructors I remember from SEMO, but, for the life of me, I can’t recall why.

I had him for Freshman English, the year before I shot this photo of him for The Sagamore (which has been consigned to the dustbin of journalism). He wasn’t an engaging lecturer like Arthur Mattingly, the history prof who taught American History in the present tense and could make you see the enemy sneaking up over the rise. He didn’t have the easy style of speech and debate teacher Fred Goodwin.

He was a man who set high standards for his students and wouldn’t accept anything less than their best. I ran across my old SEMO transcript not long ago, but don’t know what grade he gave me. I had a 3.75 grade point average when I transferred to Ohio University, so I couldn’t have done too badly in his class.

I did quick Google and Southeast Missourian searches without finding much. One surprising thing was that he became a prolific Letters to the Editor writer after his 1957-1987 academic career. He was a lot more liberal than I would have thought from his class demeanor.

Did anyone else have him? What do you recall about him?

February 1, 2011February 20, 2021

SEMO’s Capaha Arrow Turns 100

Southeast Missouri State University’s student paper, The Capaha Arrow, turned 100 on Feb.l, a Missourian story by M.D. Kittle pointed out. Despite what my kids might think, I wasn’t around to help put out the inaugural issue.

I know I had a lot of photos in The Arrow, but the 1966 and 1967 Sagamore yearbooks don’t list me as being on the newspaper staff. The photo above shows the front page of the newspaper set in type at The Missourian’s print shop. The picture on the front page is one I took, and this image appeared in The Sagamore.

Journalism Class

I had W.W. Norris, the paper’s adviser, for Journalism at SEMO. It was an easy A. I don’t remember Mr. Norris as being a particularly inspiring instructor, but we got along fine. After I’d breezed through the class exercises, he’d come over and we’d trade newspaper stories.

I wish I could dredge up some fond memories of The Arrow, but I can’t think of any memorable photos I shot there.

Part of that was because I spent as little time as possible on campus. That drove poor Missourian Editor John Blue to distraction because I was ostensibly hired as Campus Correspondent. I have a number of memos from him pointing that out and asking when I was going to get around to actually writing about SEMO doings. He’d probably have fired me if I hadn’t worn so many other hats (so cheaply).

Chief Sagamore and The Sagamore are gone

I’ve already written about the exile of Chief Sagamore for the more politically correct Rowdy Redhawk. In fact, The Capaha Arrow has dropped the “Capaha” from it’s name. It’s just The Arrow these days.

Bill East wondered what happened to The Sagamore if Chief Sagamore was deemed inappropriate. I went to the official SEMO website, put “Sagamore” in the search box and was directed to “Fun Facts,” where I was told, “The Sagamore Yearbook is no longer in production. Southeast began the Sagamore in 1912 and in 1989 decided to no longer print a University yearbook.”

So, if the university hadn’t pulled the plug on it, The Sagamore would have celebrated its centennial in 2012.

Don’t dis the subdivision editor

Wife Lila worked on The Sagamore as a subdivision editor. She rejected a print from one of the staff photographers, who sassed, back, “Let’s see if YOU can do any better.”

That was a mistake. She marched right into the darkroom and showed him that she HAD learned something from all those hours looking over my shoulder.

I normally side with the photographer, but I’d have loved to have seen that little exchange.