Tombstone Thursday - Bruce (Ambrose)

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I was born in Evansville, Indiana...
and attended first & second grade at Highland Grade School. We moved to the country after Servel had moved out of town to St. Louis. There, I attended the school in Selvin, IN from the third grade to my Freshman year of high school in 1962. Indiana had a massive school consolidation that year, closing many of the smaller, rural high schools with Selvin being one. We would become part of the Class of 1965, but graduating from at least 4 or 5 different high schools. There were only 15 of us "Baby Boomers" in that Selvin Freshman Class in 1962. In 2000, this class decided to start having a class reunion for that freshman Selvin High School Class on Sunday during Memorial Day weekend. This past Sunday we held our 11th. reunion. Of the 15, two had died before we started meeting. With 13 remaining only one has not been able to make any of the reunions. For today's "Tombstone Thursday" I wanted to honor the two of our Freshman Class that died before the reunions began.

Above is the grave of Mike Ambrose who discovered that his birth father was a "Bruce" and he changed his name to his father's name. We knew him as Mike Ambrose in school. I placed a single blue flower at the base of his marker for our class. He was buried in the Selvin Cemetery next to his younger brother Gregory Ambrose.

Arnold Bruce came to Selvin School when we were in the 5th. grade; and, from the first day of school that year, we became best of friends... which lasted until Selvin High School was closed. Arnold is buried in a cemetery in Degonia Springs, Indiana (about halfway between Tennyson & Boonville). I left two blue flowers at his grave... one for our class and the other for being an important friend as we were growing up.

Two others did not live to our Freshman year: Bobby King & Johnnie McNeely. The Selvin High School Freshman Class of 1962 miss all four very much. Rest in peace classmates!

- Photos taken & submitted by JGWest (30 May 2010).

[Tombstone Thursday is dedicated in memory of Donald G. West 1952-2000]