Miss Mary Hess, Latin Teacher
- by Marilyn Davis Claney

I don't know what ever made me take Latin. I think I thought it would be easier than learning the words from another language. I was sorely mistaken. That was the beginning of my two-and-a-half year journey with Latin and Mary Hess.

She somehow pulled me in. She had a soft-spoken, no nonsense manner. I always did my Latin homework first and would never show up in her class unprepared. I was able to make my way through my others classes on a wing and a prayer, but you couldn't fake it in her class. She never let any student hog the limelight; the limelight was spread around. I would be sitting there, dreading that she would make me read. I did fine reading and understanding but not in front of class. She was always patient. I was a good girl in those days. Latin has helped me more than any class I took in high school, other than maybe algebra. Latin helped with sentence structure and has helped me figure out many foreign words over the years. My years as a nurse were made much easier because the field of medicine is deeply entrenched with Latin words and parts of Latin words.

Back during my time at MHS, my brother had gone to Greece and had brought home amazing pictures. I really wasn't trying to be a kiss-*ss, but my dad had a couple of the photographs blown up and framed. Miss Hess hung them in her class room.

I met her at a store after I graduated. We started to talk, and I told her I had a six-week old son. She asked me if I would like to come to her house so that she could meet him. We set a date and time. When I got there, she took him and so enjoyed holding and baby-talking with him. The most amazing thing that still makes me emotional is that she had her table set up for tea and cookies. It has always made me feel very special.

Marilyn Davis Claney, Nurse
MHS 1965

Miss Mary Hess
1915-2005