Sunday, March 2, 2025
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Scott Spahr, CEO of the Shelby County Boys and Girls Club, celebrates his organization receiving the Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit Champion award on Thursday. Additional nominees for the award were Shelbyville Central Schools Education Foundation and the Shelby County Active Aging Coalition. | photo by JACK BOYCE
Shelbyville Schools Timeline: School No. 4
by GEORGE YOUNG
School No. 4 was built in 1881 at 115 Colescott Street, just two blocks from School No. 2, the Free Colored School. In 1893, the school board approved a contract to plant shade trees around the No. 2 building and connected the school to the gas lines.
In 1912, Lora Pearson was appointed principal of School No. 4. By 1914, the school served 350 students. In 1923, due to severe overcrowding - with 54 students in a single classroom, exceeding the state limit of 45 - the school board purchased adjoining property on Tompkins Street with plans to expand that were never executed.
School No. 4 was demolished in 1939 and replaced by a larger, modern facility named the Colescott School. A one-story frame building that sat on the northeast corner of the lot, known as the kindergarten, was also dismantled. The neighboring Negro Public School, condemned 25 years earlier, was left unchanged. The new Colescott School, a three-story Art Deco-style building, was constructed with reinforced concrete and faced with brick and limestone, funded by the Public Works Administration. It remained in operation until its closure in 2000, after which it was converted into 35 senior apartments known as Pearson Place.
Lora Pearson graduated from Shelbyville High School in 1890 before continuing her education at Indiana State Normal College. She later pursued graduate studies at Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University. She began her teaching career in Shelbyville’s primary schools in 1896.
In February 1958, the Colescott School was renamed Lora B. Pearson School in honor of its longtime principal. Pearson, who retired in 1941 after a 45-year teaching career, led the school for 32 years and organized its first Parent-Teacher Association. She worked under six superintendents and played a pivotal role in the city's education system. The Shelbyville Board of Education officially renamed the school in her memory following her passing in 1953.
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NOTEBOOK:
Shelby County has 1,321 youth enrolled in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the Blue River Community Foundation reported. Years ago, with the help of local community members in the Morristown area, the Waldron area, and the Southwestern area, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library was made available to children in these parts of the county. In 2019, the Shelby County Council recognized the importance of making books accessible to young children and contributing nearly $40,000 of their Progress Grant funds to open the program to the entire county. This act of generosity allowed the Shelby County Imagination Library Fund, held at BRCF, the financial means to administer the program and support the annual cost. During the 2020 Progress grant cycle, the City of Shelbyville Common Council committed $5,000 to help support the growing number of children who had joined the program after the expansion. In 2023, the State of Indiana began providing funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program in communities that had a local champion that could administer the program and help raise additional funding. With the State’s support, local champions, like BRCF, only needed to fundraise for half of the cost of the program and the State supplemented the remainder. The current version of the proposed budget for the State of Indiana includes eliminating this support. Although the program is currently self-sustaining in Shelby County, donations are still needed to help BRCF support additional children who wish to enroll in the future. If you would like to contribute to the Shelby County Imagination Library and Reading Enrichment Fund to ensure that all children who are eligible to enroll are able to do so, please go to this link.
HOOSIER NEWS: Nearly 7 million chickens, turkeys and ducks at commercial farms across Indiana have contracted the highly contagious bird flu this year and concerns are rising with the disease now affecting wild birds, including waterfowl and at least one Bald Eagle. Avian influenza, more commonly known as bird flu, has been identified in 20 commercial poultry facilities in Indiana since Jan. 1, according to state data, marking a significant increase in cases over recent years. So far in 2025, officials have identified 6.9 million affected birds compared to about 13,100 in 2024 and less than two dozen in 2023. The bulk of cases this year are concentrated in Jay and Jackson counties, with totals of roughly 4 million and 2.5 million reported, respectively. (IndyStar)
NATIONAL NEWS: Inflation has not hit reality show pay-outs. The prize for winning “Survivor” has remained at $1 million after 25 years. In context, the buying power of this $1 million would have amounted to $534,850 in the 2000s when the show originally aired. Naturally, people don’t play “Survivor” for the money, they play it for the love of the game and the thrill of victory, nevertheless, it’s hard to look at the state of reality television and see a prize pool keeping up with the times. “American Idol” cut its cash prize down from $1 million in its early seasons to just $250,000 now. “Top Chef” is an exception, increasing its purse from $100,000 in 2006 to $250,000 today. This stagnation has made things ripe for disruption and is one reason impresarios like Mr. Beast can buy appeal by offering an impressive $10 million prize pool for “Beast Games”. (Hollywood Reporter/Numlock)
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SHS Courier Archive Highlights
May 17, 1940
Staff member Marilyn Weimer had stumbled upon Squib editions from 1916 and 1917. One student’s letter to Santa had asked for the invention of a “wireless” device so he could send “notes to Goldie in the assembly.”
Students reflected on upcoming graduation. “Silly, imagine working 12 years for a thin piece of paper,” David Snapp said.
The 130 members of the class of 1940, the largest in school history, would graduate at 8 p.m. at Paul Cross Gym. The class of 1941 had 150 members. “How many will drop out we know not.”
A few students listed their summer plans: Jack Linder - “Work on bicycles”; Bill Trees - “Finish school.”; Harold Soshnick - “Buy junk.”
Thomas Sadler had set a new shot-put school record. Paul Gutting had set new records in the high and low hurdles. Wally Page set the school record in the high jump.
G.A.A. members receiving letters were Anna Worland, Betty Miller, Katherine Lewis, Virginia Taylor, Mavern Smith, Louise Smith and Marilyn Weimer.
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This Day in Shelby County History
News around Shelbyville and the surrounding area as reported on or about this date in history. Selections are curated by The Addison Times from Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department materials.
2005: MainStreet Shelbyville discussed ideas for moving forward with renovating The Strand Theatre. Ratio Architect had performed a feasibility study at no charge to examine the 1917-era structure. David Finkel was coordinating the donation of a historic pipe organ to the theater. Jeff Sponsel, Chris Nolley and Terry Smith also took part in discussions centered on stage and audience needs at the facility.
1995: Carol and J.R. Showers donated money to the Blue River Foundation to create a scholarship in the name of Carol’s father, Dr. Norman Willey. The scholarship would go to a local aspiring teacher. Willey and his wife Miriam matched the donation. Willey had worked 13 years as a speech and hearing therapist and the director of special education at Shelbyville Central Schools before becoming a professor of education at the University of Indianapolis. (Editor’s note: The fund established by the Willeys was later opened to students pursuing a nursing degree to honor Mrs. Willey’s profession and thus renamed the Norman R. Willey Educational/Nursing Scholarship Fund. Upon the passing of Dr. Willey, his wife Miriam, and later their son-in-law J.R., memorial donations were made by donors that further grew the fund. Today, this scholarship resource has a healthy balance that has allowed 51 individual scholarships to be awarded to local students pursuing teaching and nursing degrees at the University of Indianapolis. These scholarship awards total over $190,000.)
Mr. and Mrs. Willey’s legacies will carry on as scholarships are awarded from the fund year after year, forever, through this endowed scholarship fund.
Susah Musgrave and Shawn Stubbe were queen and king of the Southwestern High School Sweetheart Dance.
1985: Basketball referee Al Smith had the unpleasant task of overruling a game-tying North Central sectional free throw with six seconds left because the shooter had stepped across the line. “It might have been nice if Smith’s teaching colleagues at Shelbyville High School had offered him compassion when he returned to work Friday morning. But no-o-o…,” The Shelbyville News reported. When Smith unlocked his classroom, he found a four-foot, yellow simulated free-throw line painted across the floor in front of his desk and the losing coach’s critical comments, which had appeared in an Indianapolis newspaper, scrawled in big letters from one end of his blackboard to the other. Smith, who took the joke in good spirit, claimed other teachers in the school’s 400 wing were responsible, but contended that “investigations will trace guilt to the upper echelon of the administration, just as in Watergate,” the paper said. “They all say they’re innocent,” Smith laughed, “but let’s see, there’s (teachers) Steve Drake, Justin Rehm, Bill Murphy, Gary Hamner; (chief custodian) Don Baumgartner; (athletic director Blake) Ress, too; and I think Mr. (principal Jamie) Orem probably was very supportive of it.”
1975: In an Indiana State Hospital Invitational basketball tourney, a BRVTC special education team took second-place while Shelbyville team member M.J. Morrison received the Indiana Pacers Award plaque for best attitude. Other team members were Mark Foxx, Larry Aulby, Doug Thompson and Robert Wickliff.
1965: Shelbyville defeated previously unbeaten Triton Central, 63-61, in a disputed overtime sectional classic. Triton had taken a timeout with five seconds left. The clock started when star guard Mike Wells dribbled three times, jumped for an 18-footer, which hit the back of the rim, bounced about two feet high, then started down and was tipped up and in by Ken Dickman. But the basket wasn’t allowed, with officials ruling that time had expired before the tip was in the air. The officials said the buzzer sounded at least a second before the shot, but it wasn’t heard “over the screams of nearly 7,000 fans,” The Shelbyville News reported. Wells finished with 28 points. Shelbyville’s Gerry Elkins had 23.
Early work was underway to build a 35,700-square foot Penney’s department store in Belaire Shopping Center. The two-story building would be much larger than the company’s downtown store.
1955: Fire Chief Russell Klare received the Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Citizen Award. Fred Cramer was toastmaster at the dinner, and W.O. Scott provided a community update.
1945: Marion McFadden of Shelbyville, the daughter of Dr. Walter and Margaret McFadden, was named head librarian of the Indianapolis Public Library. She was the second woman to head the large institution and one of the youngest in the country to oversee a major city system. She had graduated from Tudor Hall boarding school and Columbia University.
1935: An automobile clock was stolen from Mrs. Wilbur Pell’s car as it was parked in front of The Strand Theatre.
1925: The Indiana inaugural special train, taking people to Washington to be present for President Coolidge’s inauguration, passed through Shelbyville at 9:30 a.m. More than 100 people were on the train.
The blacksmith and tent and awning shop at 8 West Polk St., belonging to Cyrus Lemon, was damaged when fire caught from a defective stove in the Minon Furnace Shop at 15 West Hendricks St. practically destroyed both buildings. “The building which was destroyed is what is known as the old market house and had been considered a fire-trap for a number of years,” The Republican said. There was no insurance on either property. Firefighters saved the frame office building of Dr. J.W. Parrish.
1915: Nelson Demus and an unnamed person engaged in a gun fight at 12:30 p.m. on South Pike Street. “The street resembled the battle front in Russia for a time,” the paper said. “Neither of the men were hurt. The police professed ignorance of the shooting when questioned today.”
Jesse Carlile and Anna Herron, Waldron, secured a marriage permit at the Shelby County Clerk’s office. A few minutes after they left, the Decatur County Clerk called Shelby County Clerk Collins to advise him not to issue a license to Carlile, “as he had a bad habit of failing to support his wife after being married a few months.” Carlile’s first wife had filed for divorce in Decatur County charging failure to provide.
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