Country School Kids – Karen Drury Rafson – Transitioning to the Marshall Public Schools
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We have been learning about Karen (Drury) Rafson, who was born to Bertha (Weidauer) and Edwin A. Drury as the youngest of five children. She attended country schools in Stanley and Clifton townships east of Marshall for her elementary education before transitioning to the Marshall Public Schools.
"I enjoyed going to country school, but I didn't know any different. (Karen laughed) I was at District 28 (Clifton Township) just through the 5th and 6th grades and then I went into 7th grade in Marshall High School, in public school. There, I was in the old school, the one on Lyon Street they later tore down."
She remembered some of the physical attributes of that old school building, like the gymnasium on the top floor, and how the building's many stairways once contributed to a bad experience.
"I never got up (to the gym). I was always disappointed by that. We were on the 2nd floor. I remember all the steps. (Karen laughed) There were so many steps going up to classes. One time I lost my glasses. They found them and I had to go to the office. I was hurrying and all those steps were cement. I was rushing and fell. I smashed my mouth and my face. Oh, it was awful!"
Karen recalled some of her junior high teachers.
"I had a lot of old teachers. I had Miss Gray, but I can't think of all of their names. They were OK. (Karen chuckled) I liked the music director. I think it was Mr. Lee. I was in music and chorus all my years. There was Mr. Welch. I can't remember what he taught, but I liked him. All my home economics teachers and all the ones for typing and shorthand were all good. Miss Drake was really good. Those classes were over in the high school.
Some of her junior high friends had grown up in the rural townships east of Marshall, like Karen.
"Marge Connell, she's a DeSchepper now, lived on the Weverka's place on the hill (East on Highway 19 in Stanley Township). It was the Connell farm then. She was my friend and in school it was Pearl Rasmussen, Jan Maronde, and then there's Judy Graffunder. She was a Warnke. There were quite a few."
Karen was glad to leave the older school building behind when she began high school.
"I wasn't in that old building that long. I think 7th and 8th grade were the only years and then (Karen laughed) we were glad to get over to the high school. Ninth grade was in what was called the Annex. It was kind of at the end of the school. And to think my own kids went to that school. Kristi had some classes in the old school building when she started middle school."
She laughed at the idea of highlights from high school, but happily shared that she continued her friendships.
"Oh, yes! I was still with those girls. In fact, I'm still really good friends with Pearl Rasmussen. They lived where the old root beer stand used to be out on the highway going to Ghent. Back of that was a house and they lived upstairs. They had three daughters. The mother and dad were deaf, but the girls weren't deaf. I think Pearl still does signing."
Karen also shared ways she and her friends got together outside of school.
"Once I was in town for school I'd get to go to some of the basketball games. Mike's Café was a place (we'd gather) near the theater. Many of them roller-skated. (The Marshall Roller Rink was located on north Highway 68.) Pearl roller-skated a lot. I was never brought in to roller skate. All my siblings roller-skated; Ed, George, and Marian (Karen laughed), but I never did."
Karen then involved her husband, Denny, a Minneota boy, in the interview.
Karen: "Didn't you go skating there, Denny?"
Denny (from the next room): "We hitchhiked to Marshall to go skating and then we'd walk up to the Atlantic Hotel and take the bus home at night."
Karen: "He'd hitchhike to Marshall or wherever. He did a lot of things in Minneota (Karen laughed) that I didn't. He had a very different growing up from me."
Karen graduated with the Marshall High School class of 1957. She and Denny met and dated, married, and settled in Marshall where their children attended the Marshall Public Schools. She reflected on growing up on her family farms, attending country schools, and transitioning to the much larger, town school
"It was something that you just didn't think about. You did what was needed to be done on the farm. You just went to school. It was the way things were. (Country schools) wouldn't be done now, but we didn't suffer for it, that's for sure!"
©2026 William D. Palmer.