Lexington, Kentucky, 1933: The Baby of the Salyers Family Achieves Stardom at Henry Clay High

David H. Salyers II, 9th-Grader

In the fall of 1929, the family of Will and Sarah Howe Salyers was getting settled in Lexington, Ky., after moving there from Richmond. The baby of the family, David Hillis Salyers II, enrolled in the 9th grade at Morton Junior High School. Tidbits in his mother's scrapbooks show that he was an above-average student, making As, Bs, and the occasional C. However, he excelled in basketball and in all things musical.



As during his younger years in his home town of Carrollton, he was an active Boy Scout. I'm not sure when this troop photo (below) was taken, but I believe David stayed in scouting through at least part of high school.

David (seated, second from left) with his Boy Scout troop, circa 1929

In January 1930, he graduated from Morton. I don't understand the timing, graduating in January instead of the traditional May or June, but maybe junior high schools, like colleges, offered that option. Whatever the case, I'm touched by the congratulations he received from his oldest brother Bob, who was working in Joliet, Illinois, and his father, who was still a regional salesman and away from home most of the time. In a telegram sent the day before graduation ceremonies, Bob teased his little brother (they were eight years apart in age) and called him by his nickname, "Herbs." I have no idea of the source of that nickname, but David was known in the family as "Little Herbs" and his dad "Big Herbs." Note the two newspaper clippings pasted over the heading of the telegram. The one on the right tells us that David was one of 60 students to graduate from Morton Junior High in ceremonies held on Jan. 17 (1930). The one on the left refers to a trip David made to Richmond to spend a weekend with friends he had made during two years at Madison Junior High.

In a letter (below) dated three days after commencement, Will Salyers tells his son that he learned the news of his graduation via an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal. I struggle with that. Surely Will knew his son was about to complete junior high! Surely Will, like Bob, was teasing. How like a typical dad he was, advising his son to study hard in high school and go out for the basketball team.

David H. Salyers II, 10th-Grader, 1931

I haven't been able to determine if David enrolled at Henry Clay High in January 1930 or not until the following fall. Either way, he apparently did well in his school work. The scrapbooks show a few report cards, basketball schedules, and other memorabilia. His 10th-grade school photo is a family favorite.




By his senior year, 1932-33, he is well known for his work in Scouting, his writing in the student newspaper (a Salyers family tradition), and his baritone singing voice. He had performed in leading rolls in several church, community, and school concerts and operettas when, in February 1933, he tackled his most challenging role, the lead in Henry Clay High School's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe." To say the family was proud of him understates the case. I've found copies of the operetta photos, programs, and publicity articles in at least four scrapbooks!

David H. Salyers II (center, in a long, curled wig) starring in a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.

Cast of characters, Henry Clay High School production of "Iolanthe," February 1933

Before the performance, the Lexington Herald-Leader carried two articles about the production and it's star. This one (on right) features the student in the lead role.

Other articles from the same issue (see below) give us insight into the times. At first I thought the "Iolanthe" article was on the front page of the newspaper. After another look, I realized that someone (probably David's mother Sarah Eva Howe Salyers) clipped articles and designed a front page to feature her youngest son. Misleading – but clever!

In the spring of 1933, David received a diploma from Henry Clay High. His senior picture (left) shows him as a serious young man, ready to move on to the University of Kentucky. Based on the posts about his older siblings, you can probably guess some of his activities on campus. We'll take a look at specifics in a future post.

And yes, I think I see sadness in those eyes. Some of us who knew him wonder if that could be a sign of the "twinless twin" factor discussed in a previous post. There's no way of knowing now, but I long to go back in time and talk with him about it.

In the next post we'll follow David as he follows his siblings' footsteps to become a student at the University of Kentucky. David (or his mother; it's unclear who was doing the scrapbooking at that point) saved many pieces of memorabilia about life as a freshman.

After that, we may take a little break and then shift gears, returning to hometown Carrollton and Sarah's childhood. I've just returned from visiting Howe-Salyers descendant Al Hays (son of Sarah's daughter Mary Alice), who blessed me with two stacks of 12x12 pages filled with childhood memories as Sarah recalled them and wrote about them circa 1940. This is the equivalent of two more scrapbooks of family and Carrollton history! Just glancing at a few of the pages, I can advise readers that if they had ancestors in Carrollton as early as 1890, those ancestors' names just might be in this manuscript. Stay tuned!