The photograph shows two children in front of Liberty Corner School around 1912. The image is special because we know that the girl is Mary S. Guest (1907-2003) and the boy is her brother, Ernest M. Guest (1905-1986).
But what makes the image extraordinary is that Mary was a student at the school and went on to graduate Bernards High in 1924. She received a teaching degree from Trenton Normal School in 1926 and was then offered a teaching position at Liberty Corner. In 1953, she became acting principal and the following year was named principal at Liberty Corner where she served until her retirement in 1969. In 1992, the school media center was named in her honor.
Mary Staats Guest was born Aug. 25, 1907 in Liberty Corner, the daughter of Amos F. and Anna M. Guest. She married Thomas E. Kenney (d. 1980) at Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church on June 25, 1932. The couple resided in Basking Ridge. Mary Guest Kenney died at Morristown Memorial Hospital on November 17, 2003 at age 96.
Sources:
1910 Census, Bernards Township, Somerset Co., NJ, ED 108, Sheet 1A.
Bernards High Alumni Directory, 2008.
Church Records, Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church.
Louise Flint Scrapbook, THSSH Archives, Item 2026.18.1 .
Obituary of Mary G. Kenney, Bernardsville News, Nov. 27, 2003, p. 10.
I attended liberty corner school from 1962 till 1964 then went to ceader hill. I remember Mrs Kenny.
Roy, its always fun to read your historical notes.
Thanks for this story.
Bob Craig
I knew Mary well after she retired. In fact, I went to kindergarten the fall after she retired. She was my neighbor and I used to take care of clearing her driveway from the time I was 10 until she sold her house on Fairview Drive.
It wasn’t uncommon for me to show up to plow her driveway at some god awful early hour and she would come outside to offer me coffee or open the garage door so I could drop the blade inside the garage so she did not have to clean the edge. What a wonderful lady!