Principal: Mrs. Emma W. Shuey
Teachers work hard, stay late, and often correct assignments on weekends and holidays. This is true even today. For the amount of time spent on educating their students, they are certainly underpaid!
It was reported in the Rosemead Review, May 1, 1958: “The new salary change makes the minimum for certificated teachers with a bachelor’s degree $4,400 a year and the maximum for teachers with a master’s degree and 60 units beyond a BA $6,750. Provisional teacher without a degree will have a salary range from $3,900 to $4,400.
Here is a list of teachers who taught at Wells Elementary School from 1953 to around 1965.
Mrs. Adams taught 4th grade circa 1954.
Pearl Bacon taught 2nd grade circa 1964.
Noel Baldwin taught kindergarten circa 1963.
Rosemary Barker taught 1st grade circa 1964.
Jean Bay taught 4th grade when school opened in 1953.
Marjorie Browy taught a special class at Wells School for neurologically handicapped students between the ages of nine and twelve. Previously, she taught at Muscatel Jr.High School.
Ramona Cantwell taught 1st grade circa 1964.
LaVerne Carroll taught 1st grade circa 1963.
Cynthia Cora Coughran (1905 - 1989) All of her students remembered her as "Mrs. Corn" because her name sounded exactly like "corn!" She taught 2nd and 3rd grades at Wells. She had a distinctive Southern accent. Cynthia Cora Rushing was born on April 11, 1905 in Texas. Mrs. Coughran came to Wells School when it first opened in 1953. She was teaching 2nd grade when she retired in 1965. She and her husband Giles "Bill" Coughran lived in San Gabriel during the 1940s. She passed away on March 9, 1989 in West Covina, CA; her husband passed away just 3 weeks prior, and he is buried to the left of her at Rose Hills Cemetery. They had no children.
Winifred Exelby
Joan S. Field taught kindergarten circa 1957. Joan was born in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Wisconsin near Milwaukee. Joan was a wonderful and gifted piano teacher and school teacher. She enjoyed teaching piano lessons to children in Orange County, CA for thirty-seven years. She also taught preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school in Wisconsin and California. As a director of children's musicals and bell choir at her church, she blessed many others with her musical giftings. Joan passed away in October 2016 in Orange County.
Carol Fisher taught 5th grade circa 1959.
Ervin O. Florance Jr.(1930 - 2012) Mr. Florance was born in St.Paul, Minnesota on November 10, 1930. He had a long and distinguished career in the Rosemead School District. After Wells School, he taught science at Muscatel Jr. High, then became principal of Encinita School.He was a loving family man with a wife and 5 children. Mr. Florence passed away in Alta Loma, CA on March 23, 2012. He is interned at Rose Hills Cemetery.
Mrs. Fosnaugh taught 3rd grade circa 1954.
Albert Frigone taught 6th grade circa 1965
Edna George (1912 - 1986) Mrs. George was born in New York in 1912. She worked as a music teacher before WWII. In 1940, she and her family lived in El Monte on Rosemead Blvd. right before the Pomona Freeway where there is now a large park (Whittier Narrows Recreation Area).She had two children (boy and a girl). Her daughter Daryl Jean attended Rosemead High School, Class of 1954.She taught 1st and 2nd graders at Wells School. Mrs. George retired from teaching and first moved to Carefree, Arizona, then to Cave Creek to be with her grandchildren. She passed away there on August 13, 1986, and she is now buried at Rose Hills in Whittier next to her husband, James Boyington George (1897 - 1967).
James Herman taught 5th grade circa 1962.
Carol Holmquist taught 1st grade circa 1959.She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BS degree and came out to California in 1959 where she landed a teaching job at Wells School.She spent one year at Marshall School circa 1962 or 1963; in order to advance her career, she needed to be evaluated by two different principals. She returned to Wells School and married in 1965. When she became pregnant, she left Wells in 1967. Carol was born Christmas Day 1934 and was one of the two youngest teachers at Wells, the other being her good friend, kindergarten teacher Joan Field. Carol is lively and sharp as a tack, and credits her excellent health to Yoga.She resides with her husband in San Marino.
Mary Husman, taught 1st grade when school opened in 1953.
Greg Johnson taught 6th grade when Lestor Pink left abruptly in 1965.
Carl Lindgren (1924 - 2015) He was born in Warren, MN in 1924 and he and his brother, Donald, grew up in Grand Forks, N.D. He proudly served in the US Army in North Africa and Europe during WWII. He was injured near Strasbourg, Germany and received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. After the war, Warren married Marie Nelson and finished his education at the University of North Dakota. He taught instrumental music for one year in Astoria, OR, and then 37 years for the Rosemead School District where he directed the Muscatel Band.
Rosalie Little taught kindergarten circa 1964.
Ramona "Mona" Althea Monteleone (1915 - 2004) taught 1st grade circa 1957. She received her Masters from Marquette University and taught in Wisconsin before coming out to California. She was a tall, well dressed woman with sharp features. She was married but had no children.In 1965, she was a recipient of the PTA's Honorary Life Membership for outstanding service to children and youth. She retired in 1980; she lived in Huntington Harbor in Orange County. She is buried at Rose Hills in Whittier.
Miss Morton taught 5th grade circa 1956.
Jean Murley was born in 1921 in Indiana (born Roberta Jean Scott) and became the first in her family to graduat from college. Her father Robert was railroad engineer and her mother Lillian was a teacher and church organist. During World War II, Jean was a real "Rosie the Riverter," running a drill press in an aircraft factory. She married before the war to George Murley (deceased 1962).They had two sons and a daughter. Jean taught 5th grade from 1962 until she left the school circa 1966 and went to teach in the San Marino School District.She remarried and she and her husband Vern, a Luthern pastor, did church work in their retirement.They were married for 36 years until he passed away in 2008. Jean Murley Frazier passed away on February 24, 2017 at age 96.
Barbara Nelson taught 2nd grade circa 1967.
AGNES NEWCOMER (1901 - 1990) Mrs. Newcomer was born in Illinois on March 18, 1901 as Agnes Haworth. She taught grades 2, 3, and 4.She passed away on December 27, 1990 at age 89. She is buried in LaVerne Cemetery, LA County.
Carol Jo Nelson taught kindergarten circa 1961.
Robert Parker taught 4th grade circa 1954.
Miss Paton
Carol Perry taught circa 1963.
Marilyn Peters taught 2nd grade circa 1954.
Lester Pink taught 6th grade for half a year in 1965.He was replaced by Greg Johnson, a young 20-something guy in his first teaching job.
Della W. Prince (1906 - 2000) Mrs. Della Prince taught in the early 1960s. She was born in Nishnabotny Township, Iowa on New Years Day in 1906.During the time she was teaching, she and her husband Paul lived in San Gabriel.She passed away at age 94 on June 8, 2000 and is interned at Rose Hills Cemetery.
Diane L. Puls (1930 - 2009) taught 2nd grade circa 1960.
Mrs. Riddell taught 5th grade circa 1961. She transferred to Muscatel Jr. High circa 1964 where she taught the 7th grade as Mrs. Curtorillo.
Lois Robinson, taught 5th grade when school opened in 1953.
Cornelia J. Rushmore (1904 - 1993) Mrs. Rushmore taught 3rd and 4th graders at Wells School. She was born Cornelia J. Lorentz in Illinois on March 8, 1904. Her father was an American and her mother was from Holland.Her husband Clare died in 1950 and she never remarried. Mrs. Rushmore passed away in Alhambra on July 7, 1993. She is buried at Forest Lawn in Glendale.Mrs. Rushmore right, circa 1963-67, with her daughter-in-law left.
Shirley Santiago taught 1st grade circa 1954.
Joseph Stephens taught 5th grade when school opened in 1953.
Mrs. Thurman taught taught 6th grade circa 1954.