1930 Ruby (Harris) Besgrove ’30 of Kirksville, Mo., died Aug. 7, 2006. Anita (Thurman) Carr ’30 of Tucson, Ariz., died Aug. 11, 2005. Ruth (Burcham) Baskett ’31 of Cincinnati, Ohio, died Aug. 17, 2006. Elizabeth (Peery) Brittain ’31 of Atchison, Kan., died Feb. 17, 2006. Ellen (Coulter) Buie ’32 of Sweet Springs, Mo., died Sept. 11, 2006. Katherine (Field) Moore Priest ’33 of Bella Vista, Ark., died Sept. 29, 2006. Marion (Eberhard) Downing ’34 of Malden, Mo., died March 25, 2006. Elizabeth (Waltenspiel) Richard ’34 of Rolla, Mo., died July 21, 2006. Eva (Cunningham) Adams ’35 of Kansas City, Mo., died March 18, 2006. Edward Damron ’36 of Elsberry, Mo., died July 8, 2006.
Margaret (Gould) Dent ’36 of Hannibal, Mo., died June 8, 2006.
Helen (Welsh) Wells ’40 of Overland Park, Kan., died Aug. 11, 2006.
Irl Oliver ’37 of Denver, Colo., died June 24, 2005.
Billie (Baldwin) Bachman ’41 of Novelty, Mo., died March 7, 2006.
James Pierce ’37 of Sarasota, Fla., died Aug. 30, 2006.
Paul Fischer ’41 of Corvallis, Ore., died June 11, 2005.
John Kemper ’39 of Warwick, R.I., died Feb. 8, 2006.
Wilma (Hurt) Harris ’41 of Boonville, Mo., died Jan. 15, 2006.
Ralph Menees ’39 of Westlake Village, Calif., died July 1, 2006.
Charlene (Harness) Jennings ’41 of Florissant, Mo., died April 18, 2006.
Doris (Manion) Schermann ’39 of Columbia, Mo., died Sept. 7, 2006.
Lois (Myers) Bright ’42 of Shawnee Mission, Kan., died Jan. 25, 2005.
Florene (Fritts) Smith ’39 of Naperville, Ill., died Feb. 22, 2006.
Ozelle (Lawrence) Conway ’43 of Vail, Ariz., died April 15, 2006.
Billy Zillman ’39 of Leawood, Kan., died June 7, 2006.
Luther Glenn ’43 of Brunswick, Mo., died June 6, 2006.
1940
William Long ’43 of Indianapolis, Ind., died Sept. 7, 2005.
Jackie (Kelly) Mead ’40 of Chesterfield, Mo., died March 17, 2006.
Sherwood Patek ’43 of Chillicothe, Mo. died June 24, 2006.
Robert Nichols ’40 of Southwest City, Mo., died Feb. 7, 2006.
Neil Scoggin ’43 of Park Forest, Ill., died June 24, 2006.
Charles Richard Oldham x44 A key leader in the civil rights movement, Charles R. Oldham changed the world in which we live. He helped open schools, restaurants, motels, work places, neighborhoods to all, regardless of race. He had a distinguished legal career of 58 years. Fellow activist Herman Thompson observed, “Most people have heard of Martin Luther King, but in every little area there were people fighting and sacrificing, and for our area, he was one of our main leaders. Charlie was solid, sensible. He was the No. 1 person as far as civil rights in St. Louis.” Oldham, age 83, died Sept. 13, 2006, of skin cancer. Oldham grew up in Marceline, Mo. During his two Central College years, he was a distance runner on the Eagles track team and a member of Pi Kappa Delta. Oldham credited his adviser, sociologist Dr. John Paul McKinsey, with challenging his assumptions and taboos, with fomenting the questioning that fostered his pursuit of human rights. “The things I learned at Central College bore fruit after the war,” Oldham said. “Central was the formulator for my beliefs in equality.” An Army Air Corps airplane gunner in the Pacific during World War II, Oldham earned numerous medals. After the war, as a Washington University law student, he began working for change: first, seeking equal medical treatment for all veterans, black and white; then, working to open Washington University to all. Oldham helped organize the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality (CORE) to change race relations through Gandhi’s teachings and actions of passive resistance. In 1947 CORE sought meetings with St. Louis businesses to discuss ending segregation of lunch counters, cafeterias, and tea rooms. Then it conducted sit ins. By the early 1950s, many public eating facilities in St. Louis were integrated, a decade before other cities in the South, and without violence. By 1961, with the help of labor, CORE achieved enactment of a public accommodations ordinance. Then Oldham and others turned to discrimination in hiring practices. The Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. became a symbol of companies that employed African-Americans only for menial jobs. In 1963, during a protest Oldham, his wife, and 373 other demonstrators were arrested, jailed, and fined. Oldham recalled that watershed incident “represented a change in the attitude of the employers, and it changed the attitude of the public, and I think it changed the attitude of the courts, at least in the local area.” In 1951, Oldham married Marian Clarke O’Fallon, an African-American teacher whom he met at a CORE protest. They pioneered racially integrated housing in their four-family flat. Mrs. Oldham died in 1994, following a career in education and service on the boards of schools and community organizations, including the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri, which had rejected her application for admission because of race. Charles Oldham was the national chairman of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), 1957-1963. He defended freedom riders when guns and dogs, fire hoses and tear gas, angry mobs and southern jails assailed the courageous people who ventured south on buses, nonviolently challenging segregation laws and customs. As a labor and civil rights attorney who often worked for free and was later widely honored, he argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Missouri Courts of Appeals that strengthened and expanded the rights of all citizens. Retired U.S. Representative William L. Clay Sr. said Oldham “put his life on the line. Back in those days, it was very dangerous - St. Louis was no better than Birmingham or Montgomery. We should remember him as a hero in the struggle for equality.” Central Methodist University honored Oldham with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001. His wife, his parents, a brother, and a sister, Jo Anne (Oldham) Campbell ’46, preceded Oldham in death. Among survivors are a son, John C. Oldham of Kansas City; a daughter, Lisa Oldham-Anderson, M.D. of Chicago; five grandchildren; a niece, Marie (Oldham) Scheiter ’67; and a cousin, James M. Berger ’53. He donated his body to Washington University for scientific research. A memorial service was held at the University of Missouri-St. Louis Oct. 22.
Fall 2006
The Magazine of Central Methodist University
The Talon
35