Senior Prom

Evan Schnur, 17, stands along the sidelines of the gymnasium floor at Washington High School as the band plays Moonglow. Seeing a prospective dance partner, he takes a deep breath and confidently heads in her direction.

"Would you like to dance?" Schnur asks Antonia "Sis" Hayes.

Her smile says it all as the 95-year-old woman takes Schnur’s hand. Hayes attended her own first prom as a sophomore at Washington High School 79 years ago.

"The jitterbug was just coming in," she recalls.

Come April, teenagers aren’t the only ones who catch prom fever in Washington, Mo. (pop. 13,243). So do senior citizens, and together, they dance the night away.

At Senior Citizens Prom 2004, the elders arrived at Washington High School, and students whisked them in a fleet of golf-cart "limos" to the gymnasium door and a night that dazzles. Inside, 60 feet of festive food is arrayed on tables lining both sides of the hallway. The gym shimmers with silver star-shaped balloons, blue ribbons and an archway flanked with columns wrapped with white lights.

Three best friends, all widows, arrive at 5:30 p.m., an hour before the gala starts, to stake out a prime table near the dance floor. They plant their purses on the table behind them to reserve seats for seven other widows and watch as Sonny Lefholz, 80, and members of his jazz band set up their equipment.

"I danced to his band 50 years ago when he was Sonny and the Moonlight Serenaders," says Eleanor Hellebusch, 71, nodding toward the bandleader.

Hellebusch, Millie Chisholm, 77, and Jean Kluesner, 72, are dolled up in fancy dresses. Kluesner is freshly permed. Chisholm wears pearls. The women can’t wait to fill all 20 spots on the dance cards in front of them.

"This gets all of us out here," Chisholm says of the annual event organized by student council members and funded through community donations.

Nothing is spared for the glitzy evening, which includes prom mementos of an engraved light-up pen for each guest. Students keep cameras flashing all evening. Later, the photos will be pasted in scrapbooks alongside dozens of thank-you notes and on the bulletin board in the classroom of teacher Karen Dawson, student council adviser, who can’t contain her pride for her students.

"I believe in this project with all my heart," Dawson says. "When we started I had no idea of the feel-good ramifications. When you leave at night you feel like you’re walking on air."

"I love it," says senior Amber Boland, who co-chairs the dance with fellow student Mallory Stowe. Boland wrestles with last-minute decorations—a 3-foot bolt of gossamer—in her glittery backless black gown. "The first year I went home and couldn’t stop talking about it."

Prom preparations

Students kick off preparations in December, organizing committees to work on decorations, designing and distributing fliers to nursing homes, doctors’ offices and businesses, and planning the menu. Everyone age 50 or older is invited.

The big night keeps getting bigger. Seventy attended the first prom in 2002 and 325 in 2004. Seniors come from nursing homes, assisted-living centers and the neighboring towns of Union (pop. 7,757) and New Haven (1,867) by bus, retirement-center vans and their own vehicles. Some dancers use walkers, canes or wheelchairs.

The gala costs about $4,500, most of which is donated by local businesses and organizations. Teachers contribute desserts, and home-economics students whip up raspberry-peach trifle and other goodies. Joy Chartrau, food-service coordinator, supervises trays of meatballs and ravioli, and students help prepare fruit and cheese trays. The all-out effort won a first-place national award for community-service projects in 2003 from the National Association of Student Councils.

The high school jazz band warms up the crowd, then Lefholz and his band kick off the dance and play the song Sentimental Journey. The dance floor fills slowly at first, but soon it’s an all-out jam-packed party as students and seniors sway to the tunes of yesteryear.

Some students have taken a crash course in the Big Band tunes and jitterbug and fox trot steps from their grandparents. Others, such as Josh Wehmeyer, 18, wing it with a smile and flair.

"I’m having a blast," he says. "I don’t know what you call it, but it’s one step forward and two steps back . . . I signed one dance card and six women started waving their cards."

Lydia Gerhart, 16, freckle-faced with long blonde hair and wearing a cream-colored gown, awkwardly waltzes with Al Leary, 72.

"I didn’t step on her toes once," he teases.

Throughout the evening, the elders reminisce about their own high school years and proms. Gowns were equally showy in their day, the older women say, though they were more modest. Genevieve Kell, 88, still owns and treasures her formal.

"It was black lace and ruffled from the waist down with a red taffeta cape," she says dreamily. "And I wore red shoes." She remembers paying $7 for the gown from the Three Sisters Dress Shop in Waterloo, Iowa.

Golden memories

At another table, Louise and Don Brune, who now live in Collinsville, Ill. (pop. 24,707), share what may be the evening’s best prom story. As juniors at Washington High School in 1952, they attended prom together on their first and only date.

"Did I say two words to you that night?" Don asks.

Louise agrees conversation was skimpy. "We were so self-conscious."

They may have been too shy to talk, but they sure made an impression on each other. Louise remembers that he drove a blue 1949 Plymouth. Don remembers that she wore a burgundy gown.

Both went their separate ways after graduation, married other people and didn’t see each other for 51 years. Widowed, they happened to meet again at a church social where both had been invited.

Oddly enough, Louise had just thrown away or sold many of her belongings during a move to a new house. One holdout was her 1952 prom photo with Don.

After a whirlwind courtship, the couple married in October 2003. They didn’t have any trouble talking to each other on their second prom date last year.

"We’re having a much better time at this prom," Don says with a laugh. Louise, her eyes shining, agrees that this prom couldn’t be sweeter.

A highlight of the evening was the crowning of the Senior Citizens Prom Queen and King from names picked at random.

It’s a sparkling memory revisited for Cynthia Kell Esterly, 66, who was crowned prom queen at Washington High School in 1956. And for Delwin Juedeman, 80, of nearby Berger, Mo. (pop. 206), it’s "a first time around for me," he declares.

The band plays It Had to Be You during their honorary dance while a cluster of teenage photographers captures the moment.

At 9:15 p.m. and oh-too-soon, the band breaks into God Bless America. As if choreographed, the crowd stands and moves onto the dance floor. Old and young, they all hold hands or loop arms around each other and sing.

Far from danced out, everyone seems to step a little lighter as the evening ends. On the way out of the gymnasium, some seniors select a slice of coconut cream pie or strawberry cake to go. Some carry shiny helium balloons. They all carry their dance cards and make promises to return again for another enchanted evening.

Marti Attoun is a frequent American Profile contributor.

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