May 13, 1937, Manning Monitor

Marion Orvis
Daughter of Joseph and Mayme (Pfiffner) Orvis

ESTHERVILLE Marion J. Orvis, 85
Des Moines Register, March 12, 1996

Marion Orvis Ending 52 Years In City Schools
By Connie Davis
A 52-year association with the Estherville school system will come to an end when Marion Orvis, a second grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, retires at the end of the school year.

"I was born in Estherville where my dad was a Rock Island train dispatcher, and I went through 14 years of schooling here, including my years at Estherville Junior College. My mother was a teacher and she never wanted me to be one but my father said he never saw anything wrong with being a teacher," said Miss Orvis.

SHE STARTED HER schooling in Jackson School and her first grade teacher there, Vera Brown, was Miss Orvis' principal when she came back to Estherville to teach. She also went to junior and senior high in what is now the Middle School.

"I graduated from Drake University, Des Moines, with a B.S. in education and since have attended summer school in Drake and at the University of Southern California," she said.

Miss Orvis began her 44-year teaching career in Ware, a small town in Pocahontas County where she taught first and second grades. She also taught kindergarten at Manning before returning to Estherville.

ONCE BACK IN Estherville she started teaching in the Lincoln building and taught first and second grades for seven years and second grade for one year. Then she moved to the Jackson school to teach and Margaret Maniece, who was principal there, had been Miss Orvis' second grade teacher.

"Then Mr. Demoney asked me if I would be the principal at the old McKinley school," Miss Orvis recalled. "I spent 11 years there as second grade teacher and principal."

From McKinley Miss Orvis went to Maniece as principal and second grade teacher. "Mr. Hilburn, who was my superintendent in Manning, was in Estherville by this time.

He was the guy who had been said to say that a woman would never be able to teach and hold down the principal's position," Miss Orvis commented.

"The principal's job involved quite a bit of work and included the renting of the gym and the dining area. In the 1970-71 school year they hired three people to replace me and they sent me here to Lincoln," Miss Orvis said.

AT LINCOLN SHE SERVED as principal and second grade teacher for one year and as second grade teacher since.

"We have no teaching principals in Estherville anymore. Many changes have been made, whether some are for the better, though, I don't know," she commented.

"Because of our economic system, we may be going back to what we used to do in teaching," Miss Orvis said. "There has also been a great difference in class size. When I started I had about 40 students per year but for the past two years I have had 23 in my classes. That is much better because it gives the teacher the opportunity to work more closely with the students."

SALARIES HAVE ALSO changed a lot during that time. "I made $90 a month when I started, then I had to take a cut to $60 a month at Ware. It was a farming community and that is when they were killing pigs and burning corn. I had a college debt and I didn't think that I would ever get it paid off," Miss Orvis commented.

"It has been a rewarding career, but I am ready to retire. I know I'll miss the children and the contacts with teachers, but I am going to try to enjoy retirement, too."

She added, "In working with the people of Estherville one couldn't have asked for better cooperation through the years."

DURING RETIREMENT Miss Orvis is planning to do a little bit of traveling and take care of her 94-year-old mother. "Being raised on the Rock Island I rode on passes when I was younger and traveled a lot. I've traveled in all but about six states and throughout Canada."

Miss Orvis concluded, "We are admonished in the Bible, Proverbs 22-6, to train a child so he will have no problem when he goes out into the world. That is as relevant today as it was in the years before Christ."
Estherville Daily News, May 14, 1975