Connect with us

Star Tribune

Did Amelia Earhart play basketball at St. Paul Central High School?

Avatar

Published

on


Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

Long before she became the first woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean, Amelia Earhart was Millie, a 16-year-old junior at St. Paul Central High School.

Minnesota’s capital city was a brief stop for the Earhart family, who spent the winter of 1913-1914 living in a house at 825 Fairmount Avenue.

After reading a biography that mentioned Earhart’s time in St. Paul, a reader contacted Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune’s reader-powered reporting project, wanting to know whether it’s true that she played basketball at Central.

The answer? Probably.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kan., in 1897. She had a tumultuous childhood, shadowed by her father Edwin’s alcoholism, and the family moved frequently as he struggled to hold down jobs. This included stints in Des Moines, St. Paul and then Chicago, where Amelia graduated from high school in June 1915.

During her time at Central, Earhart earned high grades — 80s and 90s in English, physics, math and German — and was “busy and popular,” according to information the school supplied to writer Jack Pitman in the 1950s. The correspondence with Pitman, who was writing a book on Earhart, accounts for the bulk of the Minnesota Historical Society’s records on Earhart’s time at Central.

“I remember hearing Miss Dickson and others say that she was an attractive, friendly, red-haired teen-ager — not at all unlike her friends,” school librarian Laurie Johnson wrote of Earhart. Johnson added that Earhart may have been interested in theater since she had signed the school stage curtain.

The Pitman correspondence doesn’t mention basketball. But author Susan Butler wrote that Earhart made the basketball team at Central in her 1997 biography “East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart.”

“She played basketball, making the basketball team, which she enjoyed, writing her Atchison school chum Virginia Park, ‘You miss much by not having gym,'” wrote Butler, who had no further details to share when contacted by the Star Tribune.

The 1914 Central yearbook offered no additional clues — or even mention of the girls basketball team. The team won the city championship a year after Earhart departed, according to news accounts.

Local media claimed Earhart as a hometown darling after she achieved fame in the late 1920s. “Records at Central High reveal flier was above average as pupil” read a May 1932 headline.

The story described the young Earhart as “a slim, fair girl who was quietly studious back in 1913.”

“She was a good student, and did some good work in my classes,” her former physics instructor, W.M. McClintock, was quoted as saying.

As an adult and international celebrity, Earhart returned to St. Paul multiple times. She visited the St. Paul airport in 1933 and likely returned to her old Fairmount Avenue house in 1935, based on news reports.

In 1937, Earhart embarked from Miami on an attempted flight around the world. She and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the southwestern Pacific Ocean and were never found.

If you’d like to submit a Curious Minnesota question, fill out the form below:

This form requires JavaScript to complete.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Star Tribune

How Minnesota is recruiting poll workers in a divisive presidential election

Avatar

Published

on


“The basic rule in Minnesota is you cannot preemptively post law enforcement at a polling place,” he said. “A city can’t say, ‘Wow, Precinct Two, there’s a lot of intensity there, let’s just put a cop at the door.’”

Simon doesn’t go deep into the details on security, though. “I don’t want to give a total road map to the bad guys,” he said.

But testimony at the Capitol last year on behalf of the new law bolstering protections for election and polling place workers indicated there’s room for concern. One election worker was followed to her car by an angry voter; the head of elections in another county was called repeatedly on her home phone during off hours, and an official was lunged at by an aggrieved voter, forcing her to call the local sheriff.

Those who violate the law could now face civil damages and penalties of up to $1,000 for each violation.

The Brennan Center survey indicated more than four in 10 election leaders were concerned about recruiting enough poll workers due to threats of harassment and intimidation. This includes doxing — publishing a person’s personal information online in a threatening manner — and swatting, fake emergency calls that result in an armed response being sent to someone’s home.

“Election officials are working to prepare for everything right now,” said Liz Howard, director of partnership engagement at the Brennan Center. “More than 90% of election officials have made improvements to election security since 2020.”



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Star Tribune

Daylight saving time ends next weekend. This is how to prepare for the potential health effects

Avatar

Published

on


The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark as a pocket by late afternoon for the next few months in the U.S.

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time next Sunday, Nov. 3, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9 when we will again ”spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time.

That spring time change can be tougher on your body. Darker mornings and lighter evenings can knock your internal body clock out of whack, making it harder to fall asleep on time for weeks or longer. Studies have even found an uptick in heart attacks and strokes right after the March time change.

”Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too.

Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.

Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do — mostly in Europe and North America — the date that clocks are changed varies.

Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time.

Here’s what to know about the twice yearly ritual.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Star Tribune

Harris and Walz will visit all the battleground states in the campaign’s closing stretch

Avatar

Published

on


WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will crisscross the United States to visit all seven battleground states in the coming days, part of a final blitz before the Nov. 5 election.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, will spend Sunday in Philadelphia, attending church services in the morning and visiting a barbershop. The vice president also plans to stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant and a youth basketball facility.

On Monday, Walz, the Minnesota’s governor who is Harris’ running mate, will campaign in Manitowoc and Waukesha, Wisconsin, before a joining Harris for a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the singer Maggie Rogers is scheduled to perform.

Harris will be in the nation’s capital on Tuesday to deliver what her campaign calls her ”closing argument” in a speech from the Ellipse, a grassy space adjacent to the National Mall. It’s the same place where then-President Donald Trump spoke on Jan. 6, 2021, when the Republican called on his supporters to march on the Capitol.

Walz is scheduled to campaign Tuesday in Savannah and Columbus in Georgia.

Harris plans to visit North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Wednesday. The event in Madison, Wisconsin, is expected to feature musical performances by Mumford & Sons and others.

Walz willbe in Charlotte and Asheville, North Carolina, that day.

On Thursday, Harris will be in Nevada for rallies in Reno and Las Vegas, and in Phoenix. The band Maná will perform in Las Vegas and Los Tigres del Norte will perform in Phoenix.



Read the original article

Leave your vote

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024 Breaking MN

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.