She came to Valley Springs in the second grade

Margie Baker Miersma was one of 15 to graduate from Valley Springs School in 1959, and was the class Salutatorian. 

“I could learn well at that time, I cold memorize well,” she recalled.

After attending first and most of second grade at nearby Beaver Creek, Minn., her family moved to Valley Springs at the end of her second-grade year. It’s where the family would remain, allowing her to graduate here as well.

At the Valley Springs Elementary Farewell celebration, Miersma remembers teacher Francis Scott.

“She was a single lady who taught my mother, she was strict about penmanship,” she said. “She was perfect and could write beautifully, and penmanship is not respected today.”

With not female sports offered, Miersma opted for choir.