“The Girls of Union High School” by Linda Cohernour
During the last several years since I started working on the Union High School website I have contacted and have been contacted by many people. From this, I have heard many stories about Monroe County and the people living there and I will share with you this one story. This may be of interest to all of you girls out there from Union High School in Monroe County.
In talking with a gentleman who lived in Monroe County, he was telling me that he had never gone to school at Union High School but rather another school in the county and during the years while he was growing up and going to high school (during the fifties) he had longed to date a girl from Union High School or maybe just talk to one. Most of the boys from his school thought the girls from Union High School were beyond their reach, and never tried to approach any of them for fear of rejection…. so they had to find girls in other schools to date. At the end of our conversation the gentleman said “You know what! ….now, after all these years, I can say that I have talked to a girl from Union High School.”
So… to the girls of Union High School, I will dedicate this poem to you…. as the Girls of Old Monroe!
The Girls of Old Monroe
There’s a garden ‘mid the mountains
Where the brightest flowers bloom,
Where the balmy southern zephyr
Fills the air with sweet perfume:
But the fairest of the flowers
Where the balmy breezes blow
Are earth’s rarest, fairest maidens—
The Girls of Old Monroe
France may claim with pride her lilies,
England boast her queenly rose,
Travelers tell of tropic splendor
Where the fragrant orchid blows:
But the rugged Alleghanies
Where the gentlest breezes blow
Hold the brightest and the fairest—
The girls of old Monroe
You may see the bright stars gleaming
On a balmy summer night
But a sudden misty shadow
Seems to dim their brilliant light
When bright eyes are turned upon you,
Lit by beauty’s radiant glow,
Given alone in matchless splendor
To the Girls of Old Monroe
There are dreams of rarest beauty
Hidden in the artist’s mind,
That for ways to give expression
He may search but may not find,
If he would fulfill his dreaming,
Of that rare and radiant glow,
He may find that matchless beauty
‘Mong the Girls of Old Monroe
This poem was written by Roland Ballard
Published in Morton’s “History of Monroe County” in 1916.
Submitted by: Linda Elmore Cohernour
Class of 1961