| Graduation Year | Class of 1936 |
| Date of Passing | Dec 31, 2014 |
| About | My mother, Bettye Marie Sawyer, graduated from John Marshall High School in 1936. Her husband, Beverley Roy Dudley, IIII, attended but stopped just short of graduating, probably due to his untreated bipolar disorder. Mom dated Johnny Schools for a while in high school and I have a photo of the two of them on a bike if the family members want a digital copy of it. She was very fond of him - and later of his wife. Mom grew up in the tourist home called The Virginian on 4832 Chamberlayne Avenue. Before Mom died, she left me a memory scrapbook of her life in which she mentions John Marshall High School and how she met her husband Roy here: During my high school years, I had wanted so much to go to the public schools in Richmond rather than the county schools. However, the tuiton was $100,000 a semester and we could not afford that. Finally, Mom was determined to fulfill my wish and we went down to John Marshall High School to pay the tuition, only to learn that there was no room for me there and I could only go to Thomas Jefferson in the western part of Richmond. That's where I went for the next 2-1/2 years, all the time still yearing for John Marshall. After all, that's where the cadet corp was. Besides it took me over an hour to reach TJ each day - a bus, then a streetcar, and then another bus. Finally, the last semester I was at TJ to pay my tuition I ran into a friend of my brother who inquired what I was doing there. I told him I had just paid my tuition for TJ (but wanted to go to John Marshall). He said, "Go back and see it they'll change it this time." I did, they did, and I was graduated from John Marshall high school that June. This conversation took place with my husband-to-be. His name was Roy Dudley, III, and he lived two blocks from us on Seminary Avenue. He and my brother George had played touch football and tennis together over the past years. The next time our paths crossed was when he had charge of a talent show being put on by his church. Someone had told him that I played the piano, so he called to ask if I would do it. He picked me up that evening and everything was going fine until the sing-along took place. They were calling out songs and I would immediately play the song as they began singing. Suddenly I realized that something was wrong. I was playing one song and they were singing another. I quickly switched to the song they were singing and realized both began with the same tune but changed soon. I was mortified, but Roy had everybody laughing, so it turned out all right. From then on, Roy and I were inseparable. I stopped going with Johnny (Schools), the boy I had dated for the past two years. I was in love. After my mother died, I put all of her memories about growing up in a tourist home on Chamberlayne Avenue, marrying my dad (also of Richmond) and his service in the war, and leaving abuse and finding happiness in Florida again. The book is called Lost But Not Forfotten: My Mother's Life and can be found on Amazon. But Mom truly enjoyed her time at John Marshall High School. I hope that anybody who knew her back then will leave a note about her for me. |
