McDonogh No. 11 School
Graduation Class of 1924
With much appreciation to Larie Tedesco, who shared this image with us.  Her aunt,
Ruby Jee Baum, was in this class and submitted the photo to "Pictures from the Past."
            A Big Day for the Little School on Palmyra Street

 It was a sunny day in June 1924 when the graduating class of McDonogh 11 School
assembled for a portrait in the side yard of the school at Palmyra and South Prieur
Streets.
"It was a tiny school," recalls Ruby Jee Baum, third row, fourth from right.  "Tall people
had to stoop down to get in the door."  Baum remembers teachers who were strict
disciplinarians. She says principal, Mele Lancaster, "ruled with an iron hand."
Baum says lifelong friends and former classmates, Fanny Rosenberg Ritterberg and Grace
Feehan Vargas, helped her identify the class.
Pictured, top row, from left:  Norma Varnado, Emily Gremillion, Harold Ratcliff, Celia
Larsen, Lance Bonnett, Ruby Jee, Lionel Henry, Marie Berthold, Fanny Rosenberg.  Second
row:  Cecile Voisel, Thomas Karl, Gaetana Silvestri, Harry Barier, Vera Wilson, James
Azcona, Dorothy Hartshorn, Mary Belle Dauterive.  Front row:  Margarite Banderet,
Grace Feehan, Louise Hazard, Katie Silvestri, Lillian Horton, Evelyn McNulty and Sarietta
Gordon.
The little white-stone school with wooden floors that Baum fondly remembers is still
standing at 2009 Palmyra Street. Al Kennedy, communications coordinator, Orleans Parish
School Board, says the building, erected in 1878, now houses the New Orleans Center for
Health Careers.
            -- John Burke, Times-Picayune, July 30, 1989
"Picture from the Past" - New Orleans Times-Picayune Newspaper