Retired teacher to host party

Luetta Bowen wants to see how some of her students turned out.
“When they’re six or seven years old, you see the potential in them,” she said this week. “I’d like to see them as adults.”
Bowen, who retired from teaching kindergarten and first grade 20 years ago, is hosting a Winnie the Pooh-themed party Saturday afternoon at the General Shanks Elementary School cafeteria for those who had her as a teacher.
“This is Pooh’s birthday, not mine,” said Bowen, who will turn 85 later this month.
Pooh has been a favorite of hers since she was working on her master’s degree. For many years while she was teaching first grade at General Shanks, it became a tradition for Bowen to read Winnie the Pooh to her class each May. When she completed the chapter about Pooh’s birthday party, she would surprise the kids with a Pooh birthday cake.
The party for her former students has been on Bowen’s to-do list for some time. “I wanted to do it for my 80th, and that didn’t work out,” she said.
In addition to teaching first grade at General Shanks from 1964 to 1993, she taught kindergarten for Penn and Knox townships from 1960 to 1964 and taught kindergarten in Portland from 1950 to 1952.
Pooh’s party for Bowen’s now-grown-up kids will be from 2 to 4 p.m., with shared reminiscences beginning at 2:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]