... appreciate your friends.
Grace Katzenmeyer
In January 1936, Grace Katzenmeyer started kindergarten at Longfellow Elementary School.
She made a lot of new friends, but she became especially close with three other girls in her kindergarten class.
More than 70 years later, nothing has changed. Katzenmeyer and her three former kindergarten classmates - Barb Feeney, Mary Elaine (Poggenpohl) Oxford and Lois (Dunlap) Beasley - still live in or near Iowa City and are as close as ever.
They also added a fifth friend to their group when they met Betty (Brenneman) Raher in the seventh grade.
"We included her even though she didn't start kindergarten with us," Katzenmeyer said.
The group still meets regularly to celebrate each other's birthdays. And rarely does a day go by when they don't talk to each other on the telephone.
Their friendships have withstood the test of time and distance. Katzenmeyer moved away from Iowa City from 1959 to 1980, but she never lost touch with her friends.
She learned early in life that few things are more precious than having friends. Her advice to the younger generation is to appreciate your friends because life is much better with them.
"Especially (because) women end up alone a lot," said Katzenmeyer, who has been married before, but is now single. "We really care about one another as friends."
That was apparent after Katzenmeyer was diagnosed with cancer in 2000. Barb Feeney and her late husband, Richard, did all they could to help out.
"The first surgery I had, Barb and her husband drove me there at 5 in the morning over to the university hospital and Burlington Street was a sheet of ice," Katzenmeyer said. "And they stayed with me.
"And then I had a second cancer surgery and Barb was there. She was the first one I saw when I woke up."
Katzenmeyer said the group often reminisces about their childhood days growing up in Iowa City. Many of the things they talk about happened more than 70 years ago.
"Oh my goodness, we still talk about some of the things that happened in kindergarten," Grace said. "I can remember Mary-Elaine, when I was crying in kindergarten, she put her arm around me. And I can remember her telling the other kids, 'Grace doesn't like the way her hair looks.'
"My mom had braided my hair that morning and the braids were too tight."
— Pat Harty
