Dorothy Isabelle (Durfey) “Heath” Coates

Dorothy Isabelle (Durfey) “Heath” Coates

Dorothy’s foster mother was “Mame” Heath.

In 1989, I exchanged several letters with Dorothy Coates. Dorothy had lived next door to the Longcore School when a child and had gone to school there. She lived with foster parents. Following is a letter I received from her.

Dorothy first shows up as a three-year-old living with Charles and “Mame” Heath in the 1920 Census. Dorothy was born in 1916 and died in 2007.

Following is one of her letters:

My (foster) mother’s name was Mary Louise Smith Heath, (1874-1945) but everyone called her “Mame.” I cannot remember her parents first names. She married my dad, (Charles Heath 1868-1951) in New York when she was 16. He was her families hired hand and helped in their apple orchards. They came to Michigan shortly after being married, bringing along with them their wedding presents from her parents: namely, 10 chickens, 2 pigs and one cow. Dad worked for a while up north in the logging camps and then started farming at the farm immediately adjoining the Longcore School from the time he was around 17 to 19 years of age. After that she was often hired by the board of education and/or the teaches to open the school in the morning and start the fire in the stove and do other duties. Mom and dad often boarded the schoolteachers in their home.

Each fall grandpa would ship us a wooden barrel of apples from near Albion, Orleans County, New York and every other year Mom and I would travel by train to New York to visit.

I remember one Halloween, my dad got wind of a rumor that the bigger boys in the neighborhood were going out at night to see how may “two holers” they could tip over; so……… he simply moved ours ahead about two feet and covered the exposed pit with a few branches and a bushel of leaves. When a couple of boys stepped up behind the toilet to push it over….. well…..I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to where they ended up! Dad was not the most popular man in the neighborhood for a while.

I have a large group picture of the whole school while Miss Valborg Jensen was teacher. It was taken in 1932. I remember Miss Jensen always begged for a ride on the big sleds we had. So, one day the boys invited her to come to the top of the big hill and ride down. They got her on the sled, but instead of someone getting on with her to steer, they simply gave her a shove! You can imagine what happened. She rolled part of the way down the hill with her skirt flying and never asked to go sledding again.

Even though Muskegon has been home to my husband, Lloyd, and I for many years now, the memories I have of the old neighborhood and the Longcore School are very dear to me.

Tyrone Gleanings. Vol. #2. Issue #10. November-December 1989. Page 8.