A Tale of Two Miss Duskeys

Yesterday I mentioned how I instantly recognized my first grade teacher in the collection of photos of Lorain City School teachers and administrators. In the caption, she was identified as Miss Anita Duskey, but I knew her as Mrs. Pierce.

Mrs. Pierce’s family was well-known to many Lorainites. Her father was Walter Duskey, who with his brother Ed ran the Duskey Brothers service station at 19th & Broadway.

One of Ed’s daughters was an elementary school teacher too: Miss Delores Duskey.

Here’s a 1948 Lorain High School Scimitar yearbook photo of Anita and Delores when they were both juniors.

And here they are a year later as seniors.

Mrs. Pierce started her teaching career at Larkmoor in the mid-1950s, moving over to Jane Lindsay by 1960 and then Masson a few years later. Dolores Duskey ended up at Masson at the same time as well. It's nice that the two cousins could work together.

I ended up at Masson because my family moved from W. 30th Street to Skyline Drive in December 1965. It was right in the middle of first grade for me, so it was fairly traumatic to leave Charleston Elementary (and Miss Reiber) behind.

But Mrs. Pierce was very kind. She helped me adjust to my new school and classmates, and soon I felt right at home at Masson. So I have pleasant memories of her as my teacher.

Here’s my class picture.

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Mrs. Pierce enjoyed a long career as a teacher in the Lorain City Schools system, retiring in 1998 after 42 years of service.

She passed away in May 2002 at the age of 70. You can read more about her and her family in her obituary here.