Oak Ridge Class of 1939

 

 

Class Pages:

In these pages I have collected information, photos and memorabelia from the classes that I have been able to secure from students and social media. If you have materials from your class, please contact me. I will happily add items to the page. My email is oakes@physics.utexas.edu.

Class of 1939: L to R
Front Row: Isabel Cole (McCleod)
Middle Row: Rebecca McDuff, ?, ?, ?. ?
Back Row: ?, ?, Earl Brasefild,?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At left:
Isabel Cole (McCleod),
Graduation Key as locket?
At right:
Catherine Cole Bufkin, ’37, Bessie Cole King, ’22, Isabel Cole McCleod ’39,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oak Ridge Obituaries of deceased members of Class of 1939

Gone But Not Forgotton

 


 

"Rebecca “Becky” Lee McDuff Quanrud, May 24, 1923-November 11, 2010 Rebecca McDuff Quanrud died Nov. 11, 2015, at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck. Services will be held at 11 a.m., Monday, Dec. 7, at St. George’s Episcopal Memorial Church with the Rev. Canon James Zotalis and the Rev. Canon Zanne Ness officiating. Interment will be in the church columbarium. Rebecca Lee McDuff was born May 24, 1923, in Vicksburg, MS, to William Fair (1900-) and Laura Evelyn (Roberts) (1899-1934) McDuff. William was a switchman on the railroad. Laura Evelyn’s graduation picture (ca. 1915-16) is at right. Another picture of Laura Evelyn is below left.

Rebecca siblings included Laura “Nip” (Graham) (1922-2006), Barbara (Guttery) and William Fair “Bill” (1932-2000). Her parents died and the four children were raised by their widowed grandmother, Mrs. William Edwards “Rebecca” Roberts (1870-). Mrs. Roberts and her husband had run a grocery store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At right, we see Rebecca and her sister Laura. Rebecca is on the left. The photo is from about 1925. Becky attended Oak Ridge High School, a small rural high school in Warren County just north of Vicksburg, MS. Following her graduation from Oak Ridge in 1939, she attended and graduated from a private school in New Orleans. She was an excellent student as the entry below from the Oak Ridge Yearbook confirms. She was recognized in history and bookkeeping.

She married 1st Lt. William Leroy Pilgrim on Aug. 24, 1942 at Camp Stoneman, CA. William was born March 24, 1922, to William A and Marie Etta Pilgrim, in Anderson, South Carolina. His father was a mill foreman and later ran a grocery store. He was inducted into the US Army in South Carolina. He served in the 151st Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division. The division was reactivated in 1941 in preparation for World War II. They trained at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, which is when Becky likely met William. The unit shipped out from Hawaii, however, they would have been processed at Camp Stoneman, a procedure that took only 3 to 5 days. In the South Pacific, the 151st Regiment earned three battle streamers (New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon) helping the 38th Division win the nickname "Avengers of Bataan." Lt. Pilgrim died in the Pacific Theater in WWII after the New Guinea combat. The insert below describes events associated with his death. There is a marker in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Anderson, South Carolina, in remembrance of him. A marker also stands in Ft. William McKinley American Cemetery in Manila, Philippines.

Left: Marker in Anderson, South Carolina. Right Ft. McKinley American Cemetery, Manilla, Philippines.

After Williams death in 1944, Becky returned to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

 

At a friend’s invitation, she moved to Bismarck, ND in 1945, where she worked for the Association of Commerce before marrying Theodore S. Quanrud in 1947. Below is the announcement of their engagement from the August 29, 1947, “The Bismarck Tribune.” The picture at left is of Becky and brother Bill on the occasion of her wedding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theodore Sather Quanrud was son of Theodore O. Quanrud. He attended Bismarck High School and the University of Wisconsin. He enlisted on August 22, 1942 and became an aviation cadet in the Army Air Force. His preflight training was done at Maxwell Field near Montgomery, AL. He died in 1989. A picture of Ted in the University of Wisconsin 1940 yearbook, Badger, is below. He is in the back row, 6th from left end.

 

Mrs. Quanrud served as chief stenographer for the North Dakota Senate in the 1957, 1959 and 1961 sessions. A gifted parodist, she wrote many of the scripts for the “mock sessions” during that time. Some of her papers are archived in the State Historical Society of North Dakota (see entry below):

“20941 Rebecca Quanrud Papers, 1961,
Script of a humorous political presentation, titled Mock Session of the Third House.”

Her 21-year career with the North Dakota court system began in 1962, when she was secretary of Supreme Court Justice Ralph Erickstad. Later she was court reporter for the South Central Judicial District, serving District Judges W. C. Lynch, Alfred Thompson and Gerald G. Glaser.

Around 1970 the four McDuff siblings gathered in Austin at the home of Barbara and Pete Gutter. A picture from that occasion is shown below. Left to right are Barbara, Bill, Laura “Nip” and Becky.

After retiring, she volunteered for more than 20 years in the cataloging section of Veterans Memorial Library.

Her interests – embroidery, birdwatching, reading and cooking – were reflected in memberships in Monday Club, the Bismarck Audubon Society, the American Birding Association, the Nature Conservancy, the Prairie Textile Arts Guild, the Houston (TX) Embroidery Guild, the Lewis and Clark Food Explorers and Dakota Zoo. She often had comments in various birdwatcher publications. Below is a photograph of Becky, on the left, with her first Blue Ribbon Award counted cross stitch, Oct. 1991, Northern Lights Chapter Needlework Show. Some of her group had sent angel decorations for White House Christmas tree some time after this.

Becky was a 70-year member of St. George’s Episcopal Church. Memorials are preferred to St. George’s.

Becky leaves two sons: Theodore W. Quanrud, Bismarck, and Dr. John R. Quanrud of Nampa, Idaho and his wife, Audrey M. Quanrud; two granddaughters, Catherine L. Quanrud, Stuart, FL, and Julia Quanrud, Minneapolis, MN; a grandson, Sr. Airman John C. (Jack) Quanrud, Navarre, FL, and a sister and brother-in-law, Barbara and Truman (Pete) Guttery, Austin, TX. She also leaves many much-cherished friends.

Her family thanks the staff of Edgewood Vista and her medical care providers for making her last years comfortable.