SHS 1958 Graduate William Stewart

William and Jenny

Looking back, my high school experience was somewhat limited. I started working after school when I was fourteen and usually got to school in the morning just before the bell rang and was out of school as soon as the last class was over. The rest of the time, my primary goal was to work and earn enough money to buy a car. As a result school studies were entirely on a "just enough to pass" priority. In the spring of 1958, I was able to purchase a 1955 Ford Fairlane and spent nearly two years customizing it inside and out before purchasing a 1957 Oldsmobile with three carburetors.
Fortunately, in the fall of 1960 I began to lose interest in fast custom cars and decided to see what college was all about. I drove a friend to Bellarmine College so he could take the entrance exam and decided to take the test as well. I was accepted and then had to figure out how to pay tuition. I had to trade my dream car for what could only be called basic transportation in the form of a beat up 1954 Ford. I must have learned a lot at Shawnee despite my lack of effort because, to my surprise, I was able to compete successfully with the other students. Jenny and I married after my freshman year and we both worked a lot of hours to earn enough to support ourselves and pay my tuition but I was still able to graduate in four years with a BA in English.
Following graduation, I was offered a job as a teacher at the Jefferson County school system but the pay was only $4400 per year which was less than I was making at Kroger where I had been working since I was sixteen years old. I decided to stay at Kroger and enrolled at U of L to work on my Master’s degree in English. Our daughter was born during my second semester at U of L. She was born in March of 1965 and by August I had dropped out of graduate school, purchased a house, and went to work for State Farm Insurance.
I worked at State Farm for thirty-eight years until I retired in 2003. The first six years was spent in Louisville but we relocated to Chattanooga, TN for a few years and then to Lexington, KY for over twenty-five years. I never finished up at U of L, but I was constantly involved in further education at State Farm. I earned numerous professional designations such at Property and Casualty Underwriter, Life Underwriter and Financial Consultant. I even taught classes to other insurance professionals on dozens of subjects from business writing to insurance and tort law.

Jenny and I first met when I was sixteen and she was fourteen. This year we celebrated our 47^th wedding anniversary. We have been blessed with two wonderful children and four grandchildren (ages 13, 10, 9 and 3). Both our daughter and our son graduated from UK and married UK graduates. Our daughter has been married for twenty-three years and lives near Dallas, TX. Our son has been married sixteen years and lives in Prospect, KY. We actually moved back to Louisville after being away for thirty years to be closer to the three grandchildren who live here.
Since retirement, Jenny and I have spent a lot of time traveling. We especially like to rent a large house setting on the beach and take the entire family. We particularly like a house near Rosemary Beach in Florida and one in Corolla on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. One trip we enjoyed was taking an Amtrak train from Chicago to San Francisco and then traveling down to Los Angeles before flying back home. This fall, we are going to visit New York, Niagara Falls, several New England states, Maine and Canada. We, of course, make at least a couple of two-week trips to Texas each year to visit our daughter.
I still enjoy reading and Jenny still enjoys gardening and we both enjoy the time we spend with the grandchildren. I have written a number of stories for the grandchildren and the oldest grandson is writing stories himself. I am his editor and advisor. He likes to read and he reads some of the classic books I give him and I in turn read books he gives me. The ten-year-old grandson is a very good baseball player. I have rarely missed a game this great season with his team record of 35 wins and 12 losses. We also enjoy taking the grandchildren on trips to places like Gatlinburg, TN from time to time. I have even learned to enjoy riding down the Alpine Slide up on Ober Mountain with them. Our granddaughter is an angel whose first words when she sees us is, "Let’s go play." The nine-year old grandson in Texas always has a smile on his face and was voted this year by the teachers as the "friendliest" kid in his elementary school.
We sometimes go back to visit the West End. The house I grew up in at 23^rd and Congress has been torn down. The little place Jenny and I rented at 36^th and Main while I was in college is no longer standing. The first house we bought at 44^th and Jewell does not look the same. There have been so many changes that the old West End I knew does not exist anymore. In my memory, however, the West End, Shawnee High School, Fontaine Ferry Park, my friends and the experiences I had growing up are still alive and well.