Retabess Ling was recently honored for her 70 years as a member of Alpha Delta Kappa, a national organization that promotes women in education.
Recognition of Ling’s milestone was postponed from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now vaccinated, Ling, age 90, said she felt safe to celebrate the occasion and invited a group of Kansas Sisters to her home on June 12.
At the gathering, Ling shared memories of her teaching career.
At her initiation 71 years ago, 16 Eta Chapter charter members gathered at Iola’s Hotel Kelley.
“It was a very special event,” Ling said. “I was so proud to have been selected as a member. It was a very formal event. The hotel was the nicest in our town.”
After Retabess graduated from Iola High School, she earned eight hours of college credit during the summer which made her eligible to teach. Because it was on the heels of World War II there was a shortage of teachers.
Her first assignment in 1947 was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Waverly.
“My first year I had seven students. The schoolhouse had no electricity or running water. It was heated with a coal stove.
“Not only was I expected to teach, but also to be the janitor which included cleaning the outdoor privies, stoking the stove, carrying in the coal and drinking water every day.
I was 16, and had an eighth-grade boy who was 14. I roomed with his mother in their farm home about three-fourths of a mile from the school. I walked every day regardless of the weather. My salary for the year was $1,000.”
Retabess taught in one-room schoolhouses for five years and in three other schools which included assignments teaching third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders and 10 years as an art teacher.
She taught for 44 years, retiring in 1991.
She furthered her education at Emporia State University, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degrees with 30 hours of post-graduate work. Like most teachers, the hours were earned during the summer, on Saturdays or evening classes.
Ling recalled the sorority as being “a great way to meet and be with teachers from all over my county. Before becoming members, city and rural teachers had no opportunity to meet one another and share ideas.”
Barb Corder is immediate past president of the Kansas chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa.
