Eisenhower Elementary School, 1212 Garfield St., is planning a special day on Jan. 28 celebrating the 125th birthday of the school’s namesake, President Dwight. D. Eisenhower. The school will also observe its 62nd birthday on that day with a come-and-go celebration from 8:30-11 a.m. and 12:30-2 p.m.
Classes will rotate through seven special activities throughout the day. The following day, Jan. 29, is Kansas Day and will also be picture day at the school.
The school board will visit the school at noon on Jan. 28 for a luncheon meeting.
In preparation for the festivities, Principal Tricia Reiser is asking those who attended the school to share memorabilia of the school’s history. “Pictures, yearbooks, and things they made while they were going here to school” are some of the items she would like to see in the display. She is asking for anyone with memorabilia to contact her and notes all items will be returned.
Research Coordinator Karen Neuforth at the Barton County Historical Society has already uncovered a few news items about the school. There was a fire in 1953 during its construction, but the building was finished in February of 1954.
Dwight D. Eisenhower served as president from 1953 to 1961. The nation’s 34th president was also supreme Allied commander during World War II.
Across the nation, schools named after Eisenhower plan to celebrate his 125th birthday. He was born on Oct. 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas, to David Jacob and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower. His parents had moved from Abilene, Kansas, to Denison, Texas, before he was born. They returned to Abilene when he was 18 months old.
The Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home are located at 200 Southeast Fourth Street in Abilene. At last 80 other schools are named after Eisenhower, including one in Ecuador, a museum spokeswoman told the Associated Press earlier this month. The AP reported that a new elementary school named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower has opened in his boyhood home of Abilene, 46 years after he left office.