Betty Keller, Janice Davis named Alumni Parade Marshals

DAYTON–Two Dayton High School Alumni from the early Fifties will marshal the 2023 Dayton High School Alumni Parade, 10 a.m. this Saturday. Janice Hall Davis, Class of 1952, and Betty Eaton Keller, Class of '53, share the honors this year in recognition of their longevity and contributions to the association.

It has been 71 years since Davis's class graduated, and Keller's class has been out of high school 70 years. There are about three members of Davis's Class of 1952 living locally and in 2022, on the 70th, they did not gather. Around 10 members of Keller's Class of 1953 are still living, but most are in care facilities and unable to get together, she says.

Both alums were born and raised here, and attended country schools.

"I had a very good time in school," Davis recalls. She was busy and popular, was named Football Queen, Harvest Ball Queen, a delegate to Girl's State, an officer in Girls' Federation and a majorette. Band, dramatics, Annual staff, Junior Prom committee, class secretary, yell leader, basketball and FHA were among her activities.

Davis had fond memories from four years as a majorette. "We had great fun practicing," Davis said. "One time practicing in the gym, Jean Trudgeon hit her face with a baton and we were all laughing. She broke a tooth and even she was laughing." The majorettes performed during halftime, assemblies, and other school programs, practicing daily to keep skills sharp and qualify for academic credit.

Janice was born in the hospital in 1933 to Ura and Lola (Swanson) Hall. The first eight years of her life they lived on the Erbes Orchard, up the North Touchet, and she attended Star School, located near the intersection of the North and South Touchet roads. She had Mrs. Wiley for first and second grade.

Her folks and she and brother Jerry then moved to Dayton Avenue, and she walked to school from Third Grade through senior year.

"I worked all the time I was in high school," Davis said. She worked at the Big Dipper, Monty Montgomery's Radio Shop, selling record albums and giving Monty time to make deliveries. Shortly before graduating, she was hired as an operator for Bell Telephone.

After graduating, she continued working as an operator and when high-school sweetheart Gale D. Davis completed his Army stint in the Korean War, the couple married in 1952.

Together they raised two daughters and a son: the late Lynn McCaw; Sheila McMillen of Dayton and Scott Davis of Spokane.

Keller was born in 1934 at "Aunt Minnie's," a person she guesses was a midwife to whom Dr. Day sent her mother Ruth, as the Brining Hospital was under construction. She was the first born to John I. and Ruth Campbell Eaton, and grew up on the family homestead on Eckler Mountain. Three brothers followed: the late Maurice, Wilbur and William "Bill."

By school age, the family had moved to the McLarry Place, location of the residence of Lester III and Jana Eaton. First Grade was at the Mt. Vernon School with Miss Maddie Cochrane teaching her and two cousins, Bobbie and Byron McCubbins. "We were the only students until spring, when the Jack Powers family came and they had several children," Keller said.

She attended Second Grade at Star school, a two-room schoolhouse taught by Miss Isabelle Douglas. First through Fourth grades were in one room, and Fifth through Eighth in the other. While attending Star, she lived with an aunt within walking distance.

The family moved to the East Patit Road location, where she lives at present, when Betty was in Third Grade, and from that age until senior, she rode the school bus.

"The first thing I remember...the teacher asked 'Do you know what "parents" means?' ...and I didn't know," Keller remembered. "She taught me to write my name in cursive. I never learned to print."

"Busy" is how Keller describes her high school years. Her high school C.V. is five lines and includes Dramatics Club, Senior Play, Honor Society, Girls' Federation, Student Council, ASB Treasurer, FHA and DAR Pilgrim Girl.

She played "Annie" in the Senior Play "Annie, Get Your Gun," laughing as she remembers a sound-effects miscue: when she was supposed to fire her rifle, the back-stage person missed the cue, and "I had to improvise."

Keller received a $100 scholarship to the nursing program at Washington State College to the brand-new, four-year program, and graduated in 1958 with a B.S. in Nursing. Her career lasted 56 years until retirement in 2014, and she enjoyed varied experiences at Seattle Children's Orthopaedic Hospital, hospice, clinics, private-duty nurse and public health. "My first love was public health," she said.

In 1955, she married Edward M. Keller, who passed in 2003. They have a son and two daughters, Phil, Marue and Jenny, and five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.