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The day Marcia Riegel Thomas walked into the museum it became forever richer. She brought her son Drew with his Jesi, and, on video chat – her sister Shirley … and between all of us talking and sharing stories we managed to show her the town where she grew up. Enjoy the photo history below!
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Marcia moved to Alaska with her family before she entered high school so didn’t graduate from La Center, but she did have a significate story to tell. You see she was one of Mettie Sheldon’s babies. She said “So the story my mom told me was that Dr. Lasater knew that she was close to having me. But he wanted to go fishing on the weekend and would be back on Monday. He told her not to cough, sneeze or laugh until he returned on Monday. However, she went into labor and went to Mettie’s house. On Sunday morning, she got up to go to the bathroom and while sitting on the toilet, my head popped out. She said she yelled for Mettie to come and catch me so I didn’t fall into the toilet. She said someone went down to Dr. Lasater’s and put a note on his door that read, “Mary Sneezed!” … It was his name on her birth certificate – not Mettie’s. When Dr. Lasater died, he left the lamp on his desk to my mother.
The La Center Café ~
Marcia told us that their parents Francis and Mary Rigel, had owned and ran the Café in the mid 1940s and it was the only place to eat in La Center at the time. Our mom was the cook and they lived in a one room shack behind the café. Shirley said there was only enough room in it for a full-size bed and a small bed for her to sleep in – she waited tables as a young girl. There are many photos of people getting their pictures taken on the steps of the Café. That was apparently “a thing” to do. There’s one of Shirley’s birthday photos taken in 1946 on those very steps.
Wheel Club Queen 1952
Princess Glennie Rhodes
Princess Carolyn Toenjes
Princess Doreen Seeley
Queen Shirley Riegel
Mayor John Mentch
1954 Senior Yearbook
La Center Historical Museum 