I attended first grade in 1954 and my teacher was Miss Rella Wells. According to the newspaper clipping I found in my mom’s attic, she retired in 1955 after teaching for fifty years.

Miss Rella J. Wells was honored for her more than 54,000 classroom hours in the Kennett public schools Friday noon by the Kennett Lions Club. The Kennett teacher this year observes her 50th year in the Kennett school system.

Miss Wells, who started teaching the second grade in the Kennett grade school in 1905, is the first person ever to be signally honored by the service club, according to club officers. Presentation of a special certificate of appreciation to Miss Wells was made by Elmo Blakemore, Kennett Lions club member and a former student of the veteran local teacher.

Altogether the first grade instructor in the South school has been teaching for 52 years, starting her long professional career in 1903 in the old Thomas school, which is long known as the Hazel Grove school, located south of Kennett.

In 1905 she moved to Kennett and has been teaching in the elementary division ever since. Miss Wells estimates that she has missed less than a month of school because of sickness during the past 52 years.

Born at Marble Hill, she moved to Kennett when she was seven years old. Her parents were Jacob T. and Miriam Bullinger, whose family gave Bollinger county its name. Miss Wells attended Kennett grade school and was graduated from Kennett high school in 1903, the same year she started teaching.

In the early years of the 20th century, only two years of high school were offered here, but the Kennett teacher worked during the summer months on her bachelor of science degree. She attended both Southeast and Southwest State college, receiving her degree from the latter college in 1936.

Earlier today my friend John found the photo below in a 1920 Kennett High School yearbook. (Miss Wells is fourth from the left)