Teacher the Toast of 6th-Grade Class of ’37

Sixty years ago, the sixth-grade class of Virginia Road Elementary School in the West Adams section of Los Angeles posed for a graduation picture with their beloved teacher, the late Vera Edwards.

On Sunday, a graying, slowing and, in some cases, slightly hard of hearing Class of 1937 shared school memories as they celebrated their 60th anniversary reunion at the Rive Gauche Cafe in Sherman Oaks.

As they arrived for the luncheon, class members snapped cameras, clasped hands and struggled to match the young faces in the faded black-and-white picture propped up on a table.

Before lunch, Ileen Jonas, who located and invited 10 members of the 25-member class, tapped a water glass and stood before the 70-some people in attendance.

“I would like to propose a toast to the fact that we had such a wonderful teacher,” Jonas said, as she raised a champagne glass. “And, that we’re all here today.”

Although Edwards is deceased, it was clear she was very much alive in the minds and hearts of the students she inspired.

“She spent so much time bringing out a student’s creative qualities,” Jonas said. “It seemed like we never did any work in that class because we were always painting, drawing and composing.”

Classmate Stanley Kiesel, a children’s books author and former kindergarten teacher, agreed. “She had the ability to assess each child and do for that child what he or she needed the most,” Kiesel said. “I was taught in a course to adapt curricula to the individual child. She was already doing this on an intuitive level.”

Dorothy Cohen, another classmate, said Edwards nurtured individuality yet helped them forge an identity as a group.

“She created a family connecting all of us,” Cohen said. “She stays with me, very much a part of my life.”