John and Reatha, Russellville, and the One Room Schoolhouse

If you’ve ever asked my Dad where him and Mom met, you would have heard this story about Russellville and the one room school house. Dad moved to Russellville about half way through the 6th grade in 1952. He had moved from Philadelphia with his parents when he was 12 years old after his father got a job with Dupont in Wilmington, DE which was not far from Russellville. During that time, school happened in these one room school houses. According to Dad, there were 4 schools in the system: Penns Grove, Mount Pleasant (Pleasant View?), Villa Nova (5th–6th grades) and Oak Grove (7th–8th grades).

Dad started at Villa Nova in the 6th grade where he met Mom who was in 5th grade at the time. After that, he moved to Oak Grove in the 7th grade and Mom followed a year later. While Dad was in the 8th grade, the schools got incorporated into the Oxford school system at which point Dad said they did away with the one room school houses. That would have been ca. 1954. In 1955–56, Dad and Mom attended Oxford Area High School.