JUDA - They have been called angels for 42 years.
This spring, members of Juda High School Class of 1967 will award its first scholarship in honor of nine of the class' top female students who died tragically about six weeks before graduation during a senior class trip to New Orleans.
The Class of 1967 - We Remember Our 9 Angels Scholarship Fund will perpetually recognize and honor classmates Sheila Babler, Sandra Goecks, Linda Hartwig, Joyce Kaderly, Linda Moe, Janice Siedschlag, Nancy Siegenthaler, Nelva Smith and Doreen Williams.
The class requested Rita Farris, their 1967 senior class advisor, be their representative for the scholarship.
The deaths of the nine young women was "so traumatic, so bonding," Farris said, who was one of the chaperones during the class trip. "It bonded the students and me and my husband so much."
The young women died when a Douglas DC-8 on a training flight at the New Orleans International Airport crashed into the Hilton Hotel where they were staying.
In all, 13 people, plus six crew members in the plane, died in the accident; nine were in the Juda graduating class of 1967.
The class had worked for four years to save enough money for the senior class trip. They wanted to go some place different from previous senior classes. They chose New Orleans because of the history and warm weather.
At 12:50 a.m. March 30, just ten minutes before Farris was due to collect curfew slips, the plane hit, and fire engulfed the lower floor where the girls stayed.
Male students on the second floor had time to evacuate their rooms.
Farris said hotel guests along with remaining class members waited anxiously in the dark for several hours, without any word about the girls. No one knew where they were.
The accident was something the class never forgot, but it was 25 years before they could visit the grave sites of their classmates as a group, Farris said.
Now, every five years when the class meets for its reunion, the group visits five different local cemeteries to view the grave sites of their former classmates.
They never had closure.
"We didn't have counseling, like they do today. You were just expected to go on with your life," Farris said.
Farris had trouble entering her classroom again for the remainder of the year.
"I had one student left in my advance class, and I couldn't go back into that room ... I just couldn't," she said.
She continued teaching her student to the end of the year, she said, but they met in a different location.
Two years ago, Farris brought two tubs of items to their 40th reunion that commemorated the tragic day in the history of the class.
Letters, cards, poems and memorials, many of them hand-written, had been sent from all over the county to the little school in Juda, following the accident. Many of them were addressed "to someone in Juda."
Reviewing the newspaper articles and personal cards and letters at the 40th reunion prompted some classmates to come forward to establish an endowment fund through the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin to assure that their new scholarship will be available annually for the benefit of future Juda High School graduates.
"To see members of the Juda community coming together with this plan to perpetually honor the young women who perished in 1967 in New Orleans is gratifying," Farris said.
The endowment has been created in a manner that permits and encourages additional contributions. Growing the endowment will permit the granting of additional scholarships in the future. A selection committee of local citizens will review the scholarship applications annually and recommend the recipients.
Any individual can support this scholarship by taking advantage of opportunities for memorial gifts, "honorariums" and by giving appreciated assets.
The Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin will be the administrator of the fund. Private and confidential meetings with community foundation representatives can be set up to assist potential donors who wish to discuss how to support the scholarship. Contact Donor Services representative Linda Gebhardt at, cfswgreen@wekz.net, or 328-4060, with any questions you may have about the scholarship.
This spring, members of Juda High School Class of 1967 will award its first scholarship in honor of nine of the class' top female students who died tragically about six weeks before graduation during a senior class trip to New Orleans.
The Class of 1967 - We Remember Our 9 Angels Scholarship Fund will perpetually recognize and honor classmates Sheila Babler, Sandra Goecks, Linda Hartwig, Joyce Kaderly, Linda Moe, Janice Siedschlag, Nancy Siegenthaler, Nelva Smith and Doreen Williams.
The class requested Rita Farris, their 1967 senior class advisor, be their representative for the scholarship.
The deaths of the nine young women was "so traumatic, so bonding," Farris said, who was one of the chaperones during the class trip. "It bonded the students and me and my husband so much."
The young women died when a Douglas DC-8 on a training flight at the New Orleans International Airport crashed into the Hilton Hotel where they were staying.
In all, 13 people, plus six crew members in the plane, died in the accident; nine were in the Juda graduating class of 1967.
The class had worked for four years to save enough money for the senior class trip. They wanted to go some place different from previous senior classes. They chose New Orleans because of the history and warm weather.
At 12:50 a.m. March 30, just ten minutes before Farris was due to collect curfew slips, the plane hit, and fire engulfed the lower floor where the girls stayed.
Male students on the second floor had time to evacuate their rooms.
Farris said hotel guests along with remaining class members waited anxiously in the dark for several hours, without any word about the girls. No one knew where they were.
The accident was something the class never forgot, but it was 25 years before they could visit the grave sites of their classmates as a group, Farris said.
Now, every five years when the class meets for its reunion, the group visits five different local cemeteries to view the grave sites of their former classmates.
They never had closure.
"We didn't have counseling, like they do today. You were just expected to go on with your life," Farris said.
Farris had trouble entering her classroom again for the remainder of the year.
"I had one student left in my advance class, and I couldn't go back into that room ... I just couldn't," she said.
She continued teaching her student to the end of the year, she said, but they met in a different location.
Two years ago, Farris brought two tubs of items to their 40th reunion that commemorated the tragic day in the history of the class.
Letters, cards, poems and memorials, many of them hand-written, had been sent from all over the county to the little school in Juda, following the accident. Many of them were addressed "to someone in Juda."
Reviewing the newspaper articles and personal cards and letters at the 40th reunion prompted some classmates to come forward to establish an endowment fund through the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin to assure that their new scholarship will be available annually for the benefit of future Juda High School graduates.
"To see members of the Juda community coming together with this plan to perpetually honor the young women who perished in 1967 in New Orleans is gratifying," Farris said.
The endowment has been created in a manner that permits and encourages additional contributions. Growing the endowment will permit the granting of additional scholarships in the future. A selection committee of local citizens will review the scholarship applications annually and recommend the recipients.
Any individual can support this scholarship by taking advantage of opportunities for memorial gifts, "honorariums" and by giving appreciated assets.
The Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin will be the administrator of the fund. Private and confidential meetings with community foundation representatives can be set up to assist potential donors who wish to discuss how to support the scholarship. Contact Donor Services representative Linda Gebhardt at, cfswgreen@wekz.net, or 328-4060, with any questions you may have about the scholarship.