Bio - Knupp, Laurene, Eagle, Eagle County, Colorado By: Jean Winthers Laurene Knupp Printed in Vail Daily, Local's Corner, January 3, 2000 Laurene Knupp knows Eagle and Eagle schools from the inside out, as a student, a teacher and a life-long resident. She attended elementary and high school in Eagle in the days when everyone knew everyone else of the 200 or so residents. Knupp taught 25 years in the Eagle school system and before that in rural schools around Colorado. Except for a few years in Las Vegas, she has lived all her life in Eagle. Through the years Knupp has watched many changes in her hometown. "Growth was the most important change. It has brought about all the other changes," Knupp said. "It is all happening too fast. We losing the small townness of Eagle. "We knew everyone in town while I was growing up here, and we made our own fun. In summer we packed sandwiches and just wandered around the hills, hiking with good friends. Now out of my high school class of 13 there are only four of us left." Retired now, and looking much younger than her 82 years, Knupp doesn't let the oxygen she must use for her emphysema slow her down. She still maintains a keen interest in school and community affairs, serving on the building committee for the Methodist Church, as secretary-treasurer for the board of directors for Eagle Valley Medical Center, and on the board of the Retired Teachers Association. She goes to the Eagle Senior Center twice a week for lunch, and plays bridge. "And of course, I nap a lot," she said with a smile. Knupp's parents, George Washington Adams Grant and Luella, came to Eagle in 1913. Knupp's father worked in prospecting, painting, paper hanging and cement work. "He put in almost all the cement sidewalks in town but the tree roots have ruined them," Knupp said. Her mother worked taking in laundry and boarders. "Somehow we got by." Knupp's mother, from Iowa, went back to the "family doctor" when Knupp was born and she was several months old when she returned to Eagle. Later Knupp attended grade school and high school in Eagle. "The grade school and high school were in a red brick building that the county later used for offices for awhile," Knupp said. "Then they bulldozed it. The first eight grades were on the first floor, and the high school on the second floor. There were 55 kids in the high school, and 13 in my graduating class in 1935. We had three teachers in the high school." Life was simpler in those days in Eagle with few cars and no traffic. "We had two passenger trains each day. The morning train went to Glenwood, and the afternoon train went west," Knupp reminiscenced. "The train stopped in Eagle for water and you could hand the baggage man your mail, and it would get to Gypsum by the next stop." Knupp went to Junior College in Grand Junction for a year, then after working as clerk of the district court for six months, she transferred to Teacher's College, in Greeley, now the University of Northern Colorado. She majored in elementary education and after a year, she had enough hours to get a teaching certificate for one year. Each year after teaching she would have to go back and get more hours for another certificate, mostly by going to summer school. "It took me 18 years to get my degree," Knupp said with a laugh. Her first school was Soda Springs, a rural school outside of Leadville. "I had to walk a mile to school and build a fire in the stove every morning. I had only four students, all from one family. The boy would have to go to the ranch next to the school to get the drinking water in a pail, which would be frozen in the morning," Knupp said. "The family moved in in January so I taught from January to August. I got $90 a month." After attending Greeley again, Knupp taught at Berthud for two years for $75 a month, living with four other teachers in the basement of a large house. "We could get by for $25 a month," she remembered. Knupp was teaching in Oak Creek in 1941, the year World War II began. She was earning $1,000 a year, a large sum in those days. Meanwhile, the Deputy County Clerk in Eagle had been drafted, so Knupp came home and worked as county clerk. In 1943 she quit to marry Donald Knupp, who had grown up in Eagle, and the couple moved to Las Vegas, where Donald attended Army Gunnery School, a part of the Air Force. "We were there until the war ended, and then we came home. I've been here ever since," Knupp said. In the postwar years, Knupp raised three sons. The oldest now lives in Minnesota, the middle son in Massachusetts, and the youngest in Rifle. All her sons are married, and she has five grandchildren, three girls and two boys. "I quit for nine years and raised my family, and also worked as a bookkeeper at the lumberyard. When I went back to teaching, I taught for 25 years, retiring in 1981." Those years were spent in Eagle Elementary school, "mostly teaching fifth grade." Her second child was three months old when she moved into the comfortable log home her brother built for her, and where she still lives 52 years later. During those years Knupp lived through the many changes in Eagle and the county. "Our generation saw more changes than any other generation," Knupp said. "We went from the horse and buggy to airplanes to computers. I always said I wanted to see the next century come in, but I didn't think I would, because I would be so old. But I think I'll make it now." =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.