Photo of The Month – Sep 2009
Happy Days
Picture contributor: Sarah Huss Mayse

Near the end of the school year in the Spring of 1954, Mr. and Mrs. Huss invited several Junior Class girls to an outing on a sliver of sandy beach on Broad River at the old Crooked Iron Bridge. The Husses brought along their young daughters Sarah (left) and Margaret. In the back row (l-r): Ruth Jones, Harolyn Sparks, Hannah Miller, Marolyn Whitaker, Shirley Jolley, Carolyn Whitaker.
This was Dorus Huss’ final year at Cliffside High.
Sarah, who now lives in Kings Mountain, writes,
Mom and Dad met while teaching at Ellenboro. They moved to Cliffside after they married in 1938. Mom remained in Cliffside while dad was in the service from July 1943 to March 1946.
Dad always said he went in with his football players! Ha! I even found some old letters that Beatty and Tarleton wrote to try to get him discharged because they badly needed a math and science teacher.
My mom, Mary Miller Huss, mainly taught 4th grade and moved from Cliffside to Harris Elementary after they bought a farm near her mother in Harris around 1952. Dad switched to Harris in the fall of 1954 and later moved to Chase High School when it was built to teach math and coach.
They always referred to their years in Cliffside as the ‘best of their life.’
My sister Margaret is married to Tony Jackson and they live in Newton. She followed the family tradition and taught elementary school for a while before she and her husband started a successful management consulting firm in Hickory. They have three children and four grandkids.
As for me, I live in Kings Mountain. My husband Scott Mayse is a physician with Carolina Healthcare Systems and I retired last year from working in his office as an RN. We have three children and six grandkids. I never fully caught the teaching bug although I did teach nursing in Charleston and spent time coaching the Kings Mountain High School swim team.
A couple more snaps from that day:

