Mt. Lebanon resident, sisters reminisce about Dormont High in 1930s, ’40s
Getting together at the Dormont Historical Society’s annual dinner are, from left, Eunice Mayleben, Charlie Christen and Connie Brown.
The 1935 cast of “Daddy Long Legs” included Connie Christen.
Connie Christen’s Class of 1935 photograph is the fourth on the right in the column just to the left of the spine in that year’s Dormont High School yearbook.
You have to hand it to the Christens: They were athletic.
“She could do a back bend and pick up a handkerchief in her mouth,” Charlie Christen of Mt. Lebanon said about his sister Eunice Mayleben.
As for Charlie, himself:
“I was on the tumbling team, and that’s how I became a cheerleader at the University of Notre Dame, because I could do flips.”
Perhaps they and another sister, Connie Brown, aren’t quite as limber these days, but their propensity for physical fitness just may have contributed to their longevity.
At 88, Charlie is the youngster of the family. Eunice is 97, and Connie is just one birthday away from becoming a centenarian.
They all had the Christen surname when they attended Dormont High School before and, in Charlie’s case, during and just after World War II. And the siblings had a rare reunion – Connie lives in California, and Eunice in Florida – during the May 18 annual dinner of the Dormont Historical Society.
For the occasion, Charlie wore a commemorative Dormont High T-shirt under his tie and jacket.
“When I told my sisters here about what was happening tonight and the possibility of them going, they were just feeling wonderful,” he said. “They feel wonderful that they could come tonight and be a part of Dormont’s history.”
Dormont High School’s history starts in 1922, and just 13 years later, Constance Carolyn Catherine Calista Christen was in the June graduating class.
“Five C’s,” her brother said about her name, “and she had to marry a guy named Brown.”
“An Irishman, at that,” Connie chimed in from across the table.
She and Art Brown were married for 53 years, starting in 1941, the same year Eunice married William Mayleben of Mt. Lebanon. In January, they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary, a little more than a month before William died at age 99.
“We had a great time during high school,” Eunice, Dormont Class of ’37, said. “I remember all the variety shows they had. Every year, it was a big thing.”
She was a participant – picture that back-bend feat! – as was Charlie, whose athleticism came in handy at Notre Dame. By the way, the Fighting Irish team for which he cheered was cited by Sports Illustrated as the second-best dynasty in college football history, and two Western Pennsylvania natives on the squad, quarterback John Lujack and lineman Leon Hart, won the Heisman Trophy.
As for Connie, she was delighted during the dinner to see her smiling face among the cast members of the 1935 senior play, “Daddy Long Legs.”
“I feel very fortunate to be here and be able to remember so much of this,” she said, also reminiscing about Dormont in general: “I remember Dormont Park pavilion. We’d all congregate at Saturday evening in the park, and dancing. It was nice, clean fun.”
Her boyfriend at the time, she revealed, was a football player who graduated in January, a semester ahead of her.
“Dormont was very good in athletics,” Charlie said about the high school, which closed in 1964. “In my class, we were Class AA champions in football three out of four years.”
The Bulldogs, for whom he served as manager, captured the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League crown in 1942, ’43 and ’45. They also won the title in 1939, the year that another sibling, the late Joe Christen, graduated, and his sister Faith was a sophomore.
A Whitehall resident, Faith Christen Ritman died April 27 at age 92.
Charlie and his late wife, Frances Ritman, were married for 54 years. Their son Chuck, a Hazelwood resident, attended the historical society dinner, as did
Eunice’s daughter Carol Finnigan of Grove City, Fla.; and Connie’s daughters Arlene Giordano of Delaware and Polly Biggs of San Diego, who brought her husband, also named Charlie.
For more information about the Dormont Historical Society, visit dormont-history.webs.com.