Ephrata Alumni Association

Adaline Sanders Catlow

Class of 1914

Adaline Sanders was one of the three young women who made up the Ephrata High School Class of 1914, graduating on May 14, 1914 at the Kam Theater. She was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 27, 1895. At the turn of the century she moved with her mother, father and two brothers onto a homestead near Wheeler (Moses Lake) making her a pioneer of the Big Bend area. The homestead, which was later deeded to Adaline’s mother by President Theodore Roosevelt, was in family ownership for many years.

In 1909 the family moved to Ephrata where Adaline’s father Conrad T. Sanders became one of Grant County’s first politicians, transcribing the records that separated and created Grant County from the county of Douglas. Adaline and her parents were among the first employees in Grant County’s first courthouse.

While attending Ephrata High School, Adaline was an honor student and prominent in debate. Not only was she a member of the first graduating class, she was a member of Ephrata’s first girls basketball team.

On July 21, 1919 she married her school sweetheart Richard J. Catlow at the Sanders’ home in Ephrata. The young couple moved to Seattle where they lived until her death on April 7, 1971, at the age of 76 years. She was the mother to two daughters, Helen and Mary. Adaline’s life was dedicated to her family along with Girl Scouts, Jobs Daughters, Eastern Star, and the Emma Chadwick Memorial Nursing Home. She led a life filled with service to others.

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Adaline is shown below on the left with Ray Deycous – Class of 1923 and fellow 1914 graduate Katherine Kirkpatrick Williams while attending a reunion of the first 25 classes of Ephrata High School held in June, 1968. Cameo pictures are of Adaline and Katherine taken 54 years earlier.

Alumni, along with their spouses, teachers and others closely associated with the early day school activities were present for the grand occasion. The first activity of the 1968 reunion was a Saturday night dinner/dance/program at St. Rose of Lima School gymnasium. On Sunday the reunion attendees met at “the old green school building” for a picnic. In all, over 300 people gathered in the shade of the poplar trees near the school where many of the early classes graduated. Without a doubt… a good time was had by all and a high standard of successful attendance was set for future reunions.

The 1968 reunion, including classes from 1914 through 1939, was so thoroughly enjoyed by the alumni that in 1971 another reunion including classes from 1914 through 1950 was held. Special guest and speaker was Professor B. H. Claypoole, 92 years old, who was the Ephrata Superintendent of Schools in the early 1920s.