Classroom Building and Soup Kitchen at Ray City School

Classroom Building at Ray City School.

The white wooden classroom building was already an old building on the campus when Diane Miley attended second grade at Ray City School in 1939.

This building, which was originally located where the kindergarten is now situated, and was later moved further back from Pauline Street to its present location. The entrances to this building were on the north and south sides. A
central north-south hallway ran through the building. On the east side were two big classrooms for the 1st and 4th grades, and a small room used as the Soup Kitchen. On the west side were 2nd Grade and 3rd Grade classrooms. There were no bathrooms in this building, or in the main brick school building for that matter. The toilets at that time were outdoor toilets. the Ray City school did not get indoor toilets until after WWII.

The teachers in this wooden building were:

1st Grade: Mrs. P.M. Shultz
2nd Grade: Miss Josephine Collier
3rd grade: Eloise Johnson
4th grade: a young unmarried teacher

Other Ray City teachers around that time were Jesse Francis Webb, Hazel Tabor, Dorothy Chisholm, and Mary Peele, James Garland Grady. Julius Glen Tatum was an Ag teacher.

This building housed the original “soup kitchen” lunch room at Ray City School. Off of the 4th grade classroom was a small room which was used as the lunch room. It measured about 10 feet by 12 feet and was equipped with a cook table, but no sink counter. A big cast iron wood-burning stove occupied one corner of the room. There were counters and benches along two walls where the children ate. The lunchroom ladies could not feed many children at a time. The charge for lunch was 10 cents, but not all children could afford to get a hot lunch. Many brought their lunch from home and ate in the school yard.

Mrs. Hun Knight worked hard to bring the soup kitchen to the school and worked in the kitchen. Mrs. Eula Swindle Hall was the first cook. She was followed by Mrs. Allie Purvis Starling. Leila McConnell also cooked. Martha Burkhalter was a lunchroom “waitress.” Agnes Knight Guthrie also helped in the kitchen. For the paying students, soup was served every day, with brown whole-wheat flour biscuits and butter. The kitchen was supplied with surplus government commodities supplemented with fresh produce that was brought in by local farmers in trade for their children’s lunches. Rossie Futch brought in sweet potatoes in trade for a hot lunch for his children.

Later, after the first school cafeteria building was constructed on the Ray City School campus in 1941, the small soup kitchen was turned into a trigonometry classroom for the high school students.

WWII Vets added Vocational Building at Ray City School

History of Ray City School

Second Grade Portraits, Ray City School, 1939

1939 Ray City School 10th Grade

Charles Woodrow Schmoe ~ Ray City School Principal

Ray City School 1934

Ray City School Gets Lunch Room, 1941

Senior Class of 1951, Ray City School

Ray City School Teachers 1950-51, Ray City, Berrien County, Georgia

Senior Class of 1951, Ray City School

Wilma Harper Shultz Began 60-year Teaching Career at Ray City

1939 Ray City Glee Club Goes On Tour