Lois N. Shuck taught generations of students in one-room schools during a career that spanned five decades--from the Great Depression to the turbulence of the Watergate era. She was the sole teacher for all eight grades, the secretary, the master organizer, the soft-spoken but firm disciplinarian, the pianist, the custodian, and the diplomatically unflappable and tactful liaison between the school, its board and parents.
Her work days followed the same routine when she was in her 60s as they did when she was in her 20s. She would get in her car at 6:30 a.m., and drive to her one-room school. After a full day of teaching, listening, challenging, encouraging, comforting, and, when the students left, cleaning, she would get back in her car and drive into her garage by 6 o'clock. She would then fix dinner and, at the conclusion of the meal, grade papers and prepare for classes the next day. Day-after-day, she was a model of professionalism, whether feeling healthy or trying to ward off a migraine headache. One-room-school teachers couldn't afford to have bad days--or at least to never let it show. And Lois Shuck never did.
Through the years, she dealt with and overcame heartaches and challenges. She lost her first husband, Ralph Willett, in World War II. She and her second husband of 55 years, Carol Shuck, spent two decades unselfishly caring for aging parents and helping to raise the son of her sister, who was widowed at age 44, and who otherwise would have been left to nurture an 11-year-old on her own.
Early on, she taught in one-room Nuckolls County schools in Cadams and Hardy--but spent the vast majority of her teaching at Portland Heights School, west of Superior. For much of her tenure teaching in one-room schools, Lois Shuck, like many country-school teachers of her era, also was a student--toiling, summer after summer, to earn a baccalaureate degree. In August 1960, she crossed the stage to receive her degree from Kearney State Teachers College.
As she approached age 65, Lois decided to spend her final two years of teaching at a "town school" in Ruskin. She still drove to school each day, fully prepared. But for the first time in her long career, she was responsible for students in only two grades: the first and second. And she no longer had to stoke the fire on chilly mornings, answer the telephone, or sweep the floors at the end of the day.
It is with admiration, respect and love that we honor our aunt, Lois Shuck.
Douglas and Claudia Anderson
Her work days followed the same routine when she was in her 60s as they did when she was in her 20s. She would get in her car at 6:30 a.m., and drive to her one-room school. After a full day of teaching, listening, challenging, encouraging, comforting, and, when the students left, cleaning, she would get back in her car and drive into her garage by 6 o'clock. She would then fix dinner and, at the conclusion of the meal, grade papers and prepare for classes the next day. Day-after-day, she was a model of professionalism, whether feeling healthy or trying to ward off a migraine headache. One-room-school teachers couldn't afford to have bad days--or at least to never let it show. And Lois Shuck never did.
Through the years, she dealt with and overcame heartaches and challenges. She lost her first husband, Ralph Willett, in World War II. She and her second husband of 55 years, Carol Shuck, spent two decades unselfishly caring for aging parents and helping to raise the son of her sister, who was widowed at age 44, and who otherwise would have been left to nurture an 11-year-old on her own.
Early on, she taught in one-room Nuckolls County schools in Cadams and Hardy--but spent the vast majority of her teaching at Portland Heights School, west of Superior. For much of her tenure teaching in one-room schools, Lois Shuck, like many country-school teachers of her era, also was a student--toiling, summer after summer, to earn a baccalaureate degree. In August 1960, she crossed the stage to receive her degree from Kearney State Teachers College.
As she approached age 65, Lois decided to spend her final two years of teaching at a "town school" in Ruskin. She still drove to school each day, fully prepared. But for the first time in her long career, she was responsible for students in only two grades: the first and second. And she no longer had to stoke the fire on chilly mornings, answer the telephone, or sweep the floors at the end of the day.
It is with admiration, respect and love that we honor our aunt, Lois Shuck.
Douglas and Claudia Anderson