Betty, Until Now: The Life of Betty Buchheit (1934 Biography)

by Connie L. Fleissner

[A note from the Administrator: Betty, Until Now appears to have been a school assignment for Conrad Fleissner in 1934.]

Her days started back in December 28, 1917, in Chicago. Her mother was of pure Yankee blood from way back when and her father was of German descent. Her parents called her Elizabeth Perkins Buchheit, Perkins her [grand]mother’s maiden name, but now she is known just as “Betty.”

During her very young days her chief trait was getting into trouble. At the age of five she ran away at every opportunity and her mother or her grandmother, who resided with her, would have to go blocks to find her. Finally her mother [decided to tie her] to a rope to keep her in the yard. Then Mrs. Buchheit went into the house to finish making some strawberry jam. A few moments later the telephone rang. It was the neighbor across the street. Betty had just fallen on her steps and had cut herself badly. Mrs. Buchheit rushed across the street to find her loosed daughter covered with strawberry jam that had been set out to cool. That was the so-called “blood”.

During the same year while visiting some relatives she met her second cousin for the first time. Betty being somewhat boyish was not liked as well by her relatives as her dainty cousin. Betty’s mother was in suspense most of the day, fearing her daughter would get into some trouble. Her thoughts were not incorrect, for as Betty and her mother were leaving, little Betty yanked her cousin’s long curls very hard and actually pulled out a handful of hair! She had won the complete disrespect of her relatives.

A number of months later Mrs. Buchheit baked a cake for a church supper. She frosted it and went upstairs to get dressed. When she returned, she found the cake cleaned of frosting around the side. She asked Betty if she had done it, but she firmly denied it. Then she asked Betty what the Lord would say about it; The answer was she had looked all around and hadn’t seen the Lord yet!

When she was about eight years old, she developed a liking for playing circus with the Wilkinson boys who lived across the street. They dwelled on the jumping acts and Betty [decided] to be a real jumper. She climbed to the top of an apple tree adjoining the house about twenty feet above the ground. Down she went but luckily the branches broke her fall and her parents didn’t hear about this act until years later.

Grammar school days started with bang – of trouble! A girl took Betty’s primer and tore a number of pages out of it. Betty waited after school for her, seized her book and made a huge rip in it.

While she was in third grade, she received a dog that gave her many amusing experiences. He would always dash after the fire engine as it would roared by. One day the engine had to stop to prevent running over “Spot”, another time he came riding home on the engine! A number of times her dog followed her to school, as did Mary’s famous lamb, and actually came in the building amusing both the teachers and the pupils.

Her grades in Grammar school ranged from good to very good. She always got along quite well with all the teachers and the pupils.

In eighth grade in the old Grant Place School she had a rather unusual experience. The social science teacher, Mrs. Hausen, became very anger and hurled a heavy desk pad and calendar at her!

Betty, light complected, reserved, and a bit boyish, entered high school in the summer of 1932. Her frosh year went by very smoothly. Now she is in her sophomore year and getting along very nicely. Biology is the subject she likes the most, though she finds geometry interesting and plans to take two more years of mathematics; she detests algebra.

One day in public speaking she forgot to prepare for a debate. She told Bob Randolph of her sad plight; he quickly [gave] her half of his material and they both got along fine. She terms this one of her most nervous moments.

She likes to play and watch the sports at school. She especially likes to watch football games and to play hockey. Her ability in sports is not very high, she claims. But, she made the hockey team as there were no other goalies is her story.

Betty seems to have no special fear or fears – other than of the teachers now and then.

She likes all types of music, especially baud and classical, her favorite selection being “Poet and Prince Overture.” Nature poems by Longfellow and Whittier appeal to her. She reads many biographies and other non-fiction books, though her favorite book, “Within this Presence” by Barnes is fiction. Ever since she was in fifth grade, her hero in history has been Alexander the Great. For some reason she took a liking to him when she saw a picture of him with curls.

Once Betty saw Helen Wills Moody, the great tennis star. Her dominant appearance made quite an impression on Betty. She also likes Will Rogers and George Arliss of the screen very much.

If she could change places with any at the moment, she said she would like to be Katherine Rawls, the low board diving star. Betty likes the water very much. In fact she liked it so much when she was two she almost drowned when she wandered out over her head.

It seems she likes all food, even spinach! Nothing suits her better than to eat outdoors under a sparkling blue sky, her favorite color.

Betty likes sculpturing and would like to dig up ruins of old cities for museums and [it?] would bring her in contact with this work. She will see other work through, especially if [it?] has money connected with it! School work can wait until the last night. It makes her very angry to be told to do a thing twice.

Betty in her decade and a half of life has had her full share of pets. Dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, and a horse have all been hers. She likes to keep them for the pleasure and amusement they afford. Another hobby of hers is carving and sculpturing at which she is talented, though her mother complains now and then because of the disappearance of her soap. Betty is a good artist, especially at drawing landscapes. Besides these hobbies, she has studied piano but practicing doesn’t appeal to her. She also took tap dancing for a while.

Every summer for the past eight years or so [the] Buchheits have been spending their vacation at a lake in northern Wisconsin. Once while going there they stopped at a hotel. A rabbit Betty was taking escaped, providing a really embarrassing situation. Another time, her dog “Spot” killed a skunk. The dog lived outside for two weeks afterward.

While horseback riding with Helen Everhard, they were chased by a hermit in the lonely North Woods. She relates this as one of her most lovely moments.

Betty has visited most of the states nearby Illinois; of all the places she has been, she believes she likes the little town of Pioneer, Ohio best. It’s but a crossroads town which lives up to its name in style.

Her father has told her much of his visits to Germany; she has a longing to go there someday, perhaps in a sailing vessel of one of the many sea books she has read.

And what does the future hold???

This of course cannot be called “The end” for her life holds more.