[Autograph Books Belonging to a High School Girl in Oklahoma]

Optima, Oklahoma, 1932. Good. Each book around 4” x 6” with 58 pages and about 65 handwritten entries. Good: boards detached from textblock but attached to each other; loss to half of each wrap; pages lightly soiled and worn.

This is a set of “Schoolday Memories” and class autographs compiled by a young woman from Optima, Oklahoma, documenting her high school years.

Zela Mae McAnarney (later McDonald) was born in 1916 and lived out her life in Optima, Oklahoma. Located in Texas County, in the Oklahoma panhandle, Optima was founded as a ranching town around 1885. The first official census in 1930 recorded 115 residents; 337 were (truncated) reported in 2020. Zela graduated from Optima High School (OHS) in 1932, helped found the local 4-H club, and married in 1934. She died in 1995.

These heartfelt autograph books provide a glimpse into high school life in small town Oklahoma, and introduce us to the young Zela Mae, who participated in the Glee, Dramatics and Debating Clubs, loved horseback riding and basketball and noted that her favorite course of study was “Oklahoma History.” Zela neatly listed the names of her classmates, separated by school year, as well as teachers and their subjects. Copious handwritten entries reveal the students' care for each other as well as their school – one had letters branching off an OHS logo, reading “Oh How Sweet.” They are filled with messages of friendship and forget-me-not, wishes for love, happiness and success. There were charming poems like “Long may you live / Long may you tarry / Love who you wish / But watch who you marry” and “Kisses give germs / So I've heard stated / But kiss me kid / I've been vaccinated.” The books also hold seven tiny cut photographs, including one of Zela inside a book's front cover.

A lively group of autograph entries revealing Oklahoma school days in the late 1920s/early '30s. (Inventory #: 7248)