This image below is from page 88 in the school history book. The list of names for directors, teachers, and students are what we found while working on this book and what I had documented over the years, but is by far NOT a complete list of names, but better than nothing because sadly many of the directors books were thrown away and the county courthouses have not done a very goo job of saving and preserving them. At least the names from those books that still existed are now recorded in the Manning Schools history book.

Anyone reading this who might have some of those old country school directors' books because your father/grandfather was a director, PLEASE contact me so I can scan them and then hopefully you'll donate them to be preserved in the future Manning Museum.

When the country schools were closed, those directors' book were supposed to be turned in to the county courthouses, but fortunately not all of them were turned in and now I have some of them - as I wrote above that the courthouses have not done a very good job of saving/preserving them.

Page 88 of the Manning Schools history book

Back: Robert Brus, Mrs. Helen Adamson, Judy Schroeder, Georgia Brus, Diane Rowedder, Marsha Friedrichsen
Middle: Donna Ramsey, Joan Ranniger, Carol Ranniger, Janet Ranniger, Dennis Ohde, Robert Frahm
Front: Joyce Ranniger, Patsy Rowedder, Bill Ranniger, Darrell Ohde, Charles Mohns

1929 Back: Gilbert Rowedder, Wesley Ohde, Merlin Schroeder, Earl Ossenkop, Vinton Paulsen
Middle: Willis Brus, Willis Mahnke, Lester Ohde
Front: Wayne Ranniger

1935 Ruby Jahn, Wayne Ranniger, Dorothy Frahm, Blanche Murchland (teacher)

Wayne Ranniger was the baby of the family. The youngest child of Louis and Christine (Lorenzen) Ranniger, Wayne attended Hayes No. 7 graduating from eighth grade in 1936. His older brother Wilmer and sisters Irene and Eunice had also attended Hayes No. 7. Wayne did not enter high school as his older siblings had done. "That was the bad year, you know," Wayne said. "We had crop failure, there was hardly any corn, and my dad had all he could do to just pay interest. My dad wanted me to stay home and help on the farm. He said I could have one pig out of every three. Also most of my friends (boys) were already in the tenth grade, and I really didn't want to start out in the ninth grade 'alone.'"

Thus Wayne began his lifelong career as a farmer at the age of 14. Education, however, never really stopped for Wayne; he just assimilated it in so many different ways like others of that era who began a working life right after their country school days. Farming, raising a family of five, being active in the community, playing the accordion, drums, and the piano at dances, serving on boards, and traveling all kept Wayne learning. He did take accordion lessons from a Manning teacher after he had finished with country school.

Having served on the REC board at Denison, he recalls this conversation. "If you're going to hand out these checks to people, you'd better know how to spell," a board member teased Wayne. Wayne had a ready comeback. "I have a silver medal from the Crawford County Spelling Bee. Do you?" Wayne still has the silver medal (proof he was a good speller) from that moment in his history, even if it is showing a little tarnish.

Some of his Hayes No. 7 memories are that it was a pleasant big room with ten windows on the south side and two windows on the west side. The entrance to the building was on the east side. There were also windows in the basement and when the weather was bad, they played in the basement. The north side was covered with blackboard, and the teacher's desk sat in front of the blackboard. Big pictures of Presidents Washington and Lincoln adorned the walls.

The school had playground equipment consisting of three swings, a teeter-totter and a merry-go-round. (Lucille, Wayne's wife, who also attended a country school while growing up in Stanton, Iowa, broke in to say, "You were lucky. We didn't have any of that at our school.") Wayne continued, "We played a lot of ball and Andy Over."

"We had to go get a pail of water from across the road every day and pour it into a ceramic container with a spigot," Wayne said. He and Lucille have that ceramic water cooler in their possession. "It's still in good shape," they said and indeed it is, on display in their big farm kitchen.

Wayne remembers the teachers Blanche Murchland and also Henrietta Robinson. "Blanche Murchland sort of looked out for me. She wouldn't ring the bell until she saw me," Wayne said. "I was often about five minutes late because of doing chores." Although Miss Murchland lived in Denison, she stayed with the Rowedders and she drove a Model A.

Wayne liked spelling and arithmetic the best. He said geography and history were a little "iffy" for him, but also recalled how much he loved looking at the pictures in the geography book, and that it was a big book with great illustrations. Another educational course not learned inside a classroom came in the form of a hired hand. "Albert Opperman worked for us about eight years and he hardly spoke any English," said Wayne. "I learned a lot of German language from him and I can still speak it and understand it."

Wayne went through school with two girls (Ruby Jahn Hopman and Dorothy Frahm). There were no boys in his class, although he played mostly with Leroy Rowedder, who was a class ahead of him.

He remembers eating such things as radishes on homemade bread in the spring months. He also carried an apple most days as they had apple trees. "We had oatmeal every morning for breakfast. My mom would make that pot of oatmeal, push it to the back of the stove, and then go out to do the chores," Wayne said. He also has a memory of the teacher often making soup at school. He remembers they got to take turns stirring it.

Wayne recalled that the school was sometimes used for other purposes. Marian Lage came to their country school to teach Sunday School on Sunday afternoons.

Wayne may have been the "baby of the family," but he was hardly "babied." Many stories attest to that. When he was around 11 or 12 years old, Wayne got his first bike for five dollars from Orlo Schelldorf. He remembers being so excited as now he would be able to get to school in five to ten minutes and be able to "play ball longer." Instead his dad said, "Where are you going? Now that you've got a bike, you've got time to clean the platform before school."

Another time Wayne was harrowing and a horse stepped on his toe. It took off the nail. His dad said, "Just wrap it up. You won’t even notice it after a while." Wayne said it hurt like crazy.

All was not work. He remembers that his parents went to dances at the Five Mile House and in Manning and Manilla. "They took us along," he said. "We had a phonograph at home and Irene and Eunice taught me to dance. They made sure I could dance. I remember them teaching me to dance by the time I was ten years old. One time we were coming home from a dance and we ran out of gas and my dad had to go for gas. I remember him pouring the gas into the car's tank and Mom yelled out the window, "Louie! Take the cigar out of your mouth!"

Reflecting on the many changes they have witnessed, Wayne recalled with a wry smile, "I remember my dad commenting about the closing of many country schools and all the buses hauling all the children into the town schools. 'This country will go broke!' his dad said." Wayne is still watching all the changes that take place with keen interest.

1935 Wayne Ranniger visits Iowa No. 1

1965 former students: Toni Apicelli, Judy Beck, James Becker, Patsy Beese, Karen Borkowski, Donald Callender, Mark Curl, Vincent Curl, Terry DeBoth, Douglas Domayer, Gary Eischeid, Rebecca Eschenbacher, Craig Farnham, George Ford, Larry Galvin, Ernest Golwitzer, Jan Hamers, Cathie Hartman, Steve Joens, Gloria Jurgensen, James Keat, Donald Kingsbury, Sherri Loucks, Mary Martens, Gary McKinney, Linda Meaike, Wanda Mersman, Susan Muhlbauer, Ronnie O'Lear, Michael Patrick, Jack Plahn, Richard Poley, Marlene Schiltz, Michael Sebern, Karen Simcoke, Joan Tauber, Rolla TenEyck, Candace Waterbury, Jackie Wiese

1963 play Back: Joan Ranniger, Jeff Musfeldt, JoAnn Peters, Karen Brady, Bill Ohde, Larry Ehlers
Middle: Carol Ranniger, Angela Kusel, Gene Ehlers, Steve Rutz, Sandra McGrath, Barb Vollstedt, Annemarie Schwartz
Front: Hilbert Hoffman, Dave Pfoltner, Larry Fischer, Kent Weible, Nate Dappen

Future Teachers of America December 1963

Vicki McGrath, Carolyn Wiese, Sharon Grimm, Angela Kusel, Joan Ranniger, Della Miller, Kay Kuhn, Bonnie Pfannkuch, Peggy Puck, Joyce Ranniger, Miss Shirley Henney
Seated: Laurel Musfeldt, Carol Ranniger, Dian Tank, Patsy Rowedder

1965 prom Carol Ranniger, Joan Ranniger, Janet Ranniger, Bette Kruse, Donna Ramsey, Marilyn Jansen

Spotlite staff: Diane Dammann, Sharon Grimm, Jeanne Lamp, Carol Ranniger, Kathy Olsen, Janet Ranniger, Angela Kusel (editor), last 2 Linda Spack & Donna Ramsey
JoAnn Peters, Janet Ranniger, Gretchen Tank, Karen Reinke, Kay Kuhn, Linda Struve, Carol Ranniger, Joan Ranniger

Jump ball Gaylin Ranniger - #24 Vern Hansen - December 2, 1967 home game

Gaylin & Royce October 1965

William Ranniger MHS 1968