Mr. Smith, aka The Dart to us KHS folks, passed away 2/19 at age 91. Thanks to Pat Corpening Hoag for the heads up about the obituary in today's Kirkwood Webster Times. You can see the Obituary here. Several of us were privileged to spend an evening with Mr. Smith not too many years ago, courtesy of Ken and Darleen McBride who had him and some of us to their beautiful Chesterfield home. We had a great time chatting with him and reminiscing. I love to tell the story of my manning (or is that personing?) the KHS Alumni Assn check-in table at Greentree one year, with our large poster of one of our Yearbook pix of him blown up and mounted, hanging from a nearby tree limb. Boy was I ever surprised when he walked up to the table and asked if the poster belonged to me; I said well no, not really, it belongs to the class of 1965...he thought it was great and a bit surprised that we'd remember him all those years later and even bring along his photo.
The visitation is Weds 3/1 4 to 7pm at Bopp, with Memorial Service on 3/2 at 11:00am at Webster Groves Christian Church. I'm thinking his family would love to see many of us who grew up, behave ourselves, and didn't forget him.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Thursday, February 2, 2017
WHO KNEW HE HAD A BAND???
"Alfred R. Hoemann closed the doors to his jewelry business, after 47 years, in the early 1990s. Most Kirkwood residents could tell you how to get to his shop on 123 W. Jefferson Avenue. He was Kirkwood Citizen of the year in 1980, and continued with watch and clock repair until his death in November 1997." Thanks to Kirkwood Historical Society (my OTHER KHS) for this great article.
Today P J's Tavern is located in the jewelry store space, where so many of us spent our time, money, and probably money of our loving parents. Hoemann provided our class rings, the "lavalier" charms that many of us wore on necklaces, the KHS gold pins with the chain attached to a 65, and maybe our Gold Ks. My class ring, lavalier and a gold disk to which I had the KHS 65 pin (after removing the backs) attached reside today on my gold charm bracelet. I still have the scarab watch I bought there too, but it wasn't like the one EVERYONE else had. I didn't want mine to be just like everyone else's, so I bought, from Hoemann's, another scarab bracelet, and another watch, had one scarab link removed and the watch, sans its band which I pitched, inserted to custom craft MY scarab watch. It still runs, I wear it with a smaller scarab bracelet given to me in the 1970s I think, and a pair of funky small scarab earrings I found much more recently. (I also still wear a watch given to me by my dad the Christmas of 8th grade.)
Then there's PJs, a favorite restaurant and pub in Kirkwood, frequented by many of us here in town. We've hosted several reunion activities there, and just last month Peggy Entenman Kramer and Pat Corpening Hoag and I had a gossip-fest over drinks and great food, and lo and behold we chatted with Steve Woodard as he was exiting. (Our table is always one near the front door, even in the cold winter!) We frequently run into someone we all three, or at least one of us, knows while dining at PJs. Funny to think of standing at the bar ordering a drink in about the same spot we stood at Al's counter ordering our jewels!
I'd LOVE to hear any stories some of you might know about the musical history of our favorite hometown jeweler!!! Jack?? Alan?? Other class musicians??
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