| Classmate Connections! |
| Springfield Senior High School Kilties Celebrate 80 Years! |
The following story is by Hank Billings, Springfield News-Leader Columnist.
Kiltie concert honors corps beginnings
After a performance on the public square, the group will visit the grave of its founder.
It was 1926. The Gillioz Theatre was being built. The Shrine Mosque was 3 years old. The Benton Avenue (now
Martin Luther King Bridge) and Grant Avenue viaducts were a year in the future.
Springfield Senior (now Central) High School was 33 years old.
And the SHS Kilties drum and bugle corps gave its first concert on the Public Square (which then had a concrete pie
surrounded by street car tracks).
The date was April 5, 1926. On Wednesday, 80 years later, today's 20 Kilties will give a 2:30 p.m. Concert on Park
Central Square.
After the concert, the Kilties will place a memorial spray on the Greenlawn cemetery graveside of R. Ritchie
Robertson, who died in 1939. Robertson was the founder of both the Kilties and the Boy Scout Band.
Both gained national renown. The Kilties were the first all-female drum and bugle corps in the country. Robertson, a
native of Scotland, selected the tartan for the group.
The Boy Scout band, founded in 1920, grew to 440 members, the largest Scout band in the world.
I remember Robertson, ramrod straight in a military uniform, visiting Boyd grade school in the 1930s as Springfield
schools music supervisor.
I believe he used a Walter Damrosch national radio program to teach us music appreciation. He may have been
scouting — pun intended — for future Boy Scout band members.
Mercifully, he never heard me play the sticks in the Boyd rhythm band. I yearned to play the triangle.
Ironically, my future wife, Anne, got to play the triangle at Greenwood Lab School, but she wanted to play the tom
tom. To each his or her own frustration.
My older brother, Bill, however played the trumpet in the Boy Scout beginner band.
He recalls that one time, by pre-arrangement, when Robertson lifted his baton, the band struck up an instrumental
rendition of "Shave and a haircut, two bits." The serious-minded music man was not amused.
But, getting back to the Kilties ... On Saturday, alumni, families and friends are invited to a reception in the commons
area of the new high school building.
Present Kilties and the Kilties Parents Club are hosting the reception from 3 to 5 p.m.
Following that event, current Kilties will give a concert in Central's gym. There is no charge, but donations will be
accepted.
This school year, the Kilties have performed for a dozen parades, about 10 football or basketball games and some
assemblies, according to Carla Stepp, president of the Kilties Parents Club.
Springfield's five public high schools all had girls' drum and bugle corps at one time. Today, only the Kilties and the
Hillcrest Highlanders remain.
About 300 attended the 75th reunion of the Kilties, according to a May 6, 2001, column by Sarah Overstreet in the
News-Leader.
According to the column, the consensus of teary-eyed veterans was "Once a Kiltie, Always a Kiltie."
Kiltie concert honors corps beginnings
After a performance on the public square, the group will visit the grave of its founder.
It was 1926. The Gillioz Theatre was being built. The Shrine Mosque was 3 years old. The Benton Avenue (now
Martin Luther King Bridge) and Grant Avenue viaducts were a year in the future.
Springfield Senior (now Central) High School was 33 years old.
And the SHS Kilties drum and bugle corps gave its first concert on the Public Square (which then had a concrete pie
surrounded by street car tracks).
The date was April 5, 1926. On Wednesday, 80 years later, today's 20 Kilties will give a 2:30 p.m. Concert on Park
Central Square.
After the concert, the Kilties will place a memorial spray on the Greenlawn cemetery graveside of R. Ritchie
Robertson, who died in 1939. Robertson was the founder of both the Kilties and the Boy Scout Band.
Both gained national renown. The Kilties were the first all-female drum and bugle corps in the country. Robertson, a
native of Scotland, selected the tartan for the group.
The Boy Scout band, founded in 1920, grew to 440 members, the largest Scout band in the world.
I remember Robertson, ramrod straight in a military uniform, visiting Boyd grade school in the 1930s as Springfield
schools music supervisor.
I believe he used a Walter Damrosch national radio program to teach us music appreciation. He may have been
scouting — pun intended — for future Boy Scout band members.
Mercifully, he never heard me play the sticks in the Boyd rhythm band. I yearned to play the triangle.
Ironically, my future wife, Anne, got to play the triangle at Greenwood Lab School, but she wanted to play the tom
tom. To each his or her own frustration.
My older brother, Bill, however played the trumpet in the Boy Scout beginner band.
He recalls that one time, by pre-arrangement, when Robertson lifted his baton, the band struck up an instrumental
rendition of "Shave and a haircut, two bits." The serious-minded music man was not amused.
But, getting back to the Kilties ... On Saturday, alumni, families and friends are invited to a reception in the commons
area of the new high school building.
Present Kilties and the Kilties Parents Club are hosting the reception from 3 to 5 p.m.
Following that event, current Kilties will give a concert in Central's gym. There is no charge, but donations will be
accepted.
This school year, the Kilties have performed for a dozen parades, about 10 football or basketball games and some
assemblies, according to Carla Stepp, president of the Kilties Parents Club.
Springfield's five public high schools all had girls' drum and bugle corps at one time. Today, only the Kilties and the
Hillcrest Highlanders remain.
About 300 attended the 75th reunion of the Kilties, according to a May 6, 2001, column by Sarah Overstreet in the
News-Leader.
According to the column, the consensus of teary-eyed veterans was "Once a Kiltie, Always a Kiltie."
| SHS Class of 53 Picture Album |
 | |  | |  |
This page
requires
JavaScript to
display
properly.
requires
JavaScript to
display
properly.