Second-graders in Kathy Kier’s class at Meadow Ridge Elementary School in Kent got a living history lesson on Monday when two World War II veteran’s paid them a visit.
Ninety-two-year-old twin sisters Irene Bartley and Jean Lotter, who both served in the Army Medical Corps from 1945-1948, surprised students with the visit after Irene received a handwritten letter from one of Kier’s students.
For the past five years, Kier’s students and others at the school have written letters thanking veterans for their service, which Kier, her grandchildren or friends’ children deliver to participants in the Auburn Veterans Day Parade.
“It is really amazing to see the look on the veterans faces when you hand them a letter,” Kier said.
Irene sent her own two-page handwritten letter to Kier’s class, sharing her memories of the war and growing up in Kent. Irene and Jean marched in the parade with the American Legion Service Girls Post 204 in Seattle.
“I thought I should write and thank them,” Irene said.
Kier said she usually receives a few responses each year and tries to arrange a visit from one of the letter recipients.
“I actually contacted her (Irene) because it was so interesting,” Kier said. “We don’t have that many WWII veterans.”
The students did not know the sisters would be coming for a visit. When they arrived, Irene greeted Sydney Taylor, the author of the letter Irene received, with a hug.
Sydney enjoyed meeting Irene.
“I got so excited from her letter,” she said. “My mom and dad were proud.”
Irene and Jean shared stories with the captive audience of second-graders, while Sydney sat up front next to her new friend.
Irene brought her old Army uniform jacket to show to the students.
The sisters joined the Army after hearing on the radio that the military needed medics and were shipped to basic training in Des Moines, Iowa.
“We all slept in bunk beds,” Jean told the students. “Being twins we had the same last name. They seemed to keep us by the alphabet so my sister and I were always together, always had beds side by side. We were so shy when we went in the service, we would fall apart if we got separated.”
After training, the sisters were stationed at Madigan General Hospital in Tacoma, where they worked with wounded service members returning from the war.
“We had to do something for other people and to serve our country,” Irene said of joining the Army. “We have to go out and live our lives helping other people and not just being self centered.”
Irene told the students about living through the Great Depression while growing up in Kent.
“We lost our farm because our customers could not afford to pay us for the milk we delivered to them,” she said. “Eventually after we lost our farm, we opened an ice cream parlor, The Dairy Store. We made the first soft ice cream cone in Kent.”
Irene said her father took the motor off their washing machine and put it on the ice cream maker to make the soft serve.
Irene shared old pictures, including one of the family’s restaurant, Grungstad’s Cafe on Meeker Street.
“We had that restaurant there for 30 years,” she said.
After hearing the sisters’ story, the students personally thanked Irene, Jean and Jacqueline Goo, commander of the American Legion Post 204 who served in the Gulf War and accompanied the sisters to the school, for their service.
Kier and her students enjoyed the visit.
“I think the kids really get it because we have really talked about it and talked about freedoms and what people have to do to keep their freedoms,” she said.
Writing the letters gives students a way to apply a skill they are required to learn, Kier said.
“What better way then to make it real,” she said.
Kier, who is retiring at the end of the school year, hopes the letter-writing campaign will continue.
“I am really hoping some one will pick this up and keep it going,” she said.
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BELOW: Sydney Taylor, 8, left, hugs Irene Bartley, 92, on Monday during a visit to Kathy Kier’s second-grade class atMeadow Ridge Elementary in Kent. The visit came after Irene, a World War II veteran, received a letter writtenby Sydney at the Auburn Veterans Day Parade. HEIDI SANDERS, Kent Reporter
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