Saturday, June 2nd, 2018
Extra innings
Softball teammates reunited decades later
By Sydney Albert
Photo by Sydney Albert/The Daily Standard
Leroy Lange, left, 89, and Bernice Backs Kaup, 91, sit together at The Gardens at St. Henry. Lange said he recognized Kaup, his old softball teammate, when he came to visit his brother, even after several decades they had spent apart.
ST. HENRY - Participating in sports is a good way for kids to stay healthy, but it can also create lifelong connections.
Leroy Lange, 89, used to play softball when he went to Home School - the one-room schoolhouse formerly between St. Henry and Fort Recovery between today's Township Line and Post roads.
He was a pitcher, and his classmate Bernice Backs Kaup, 91, was a catcher. The two continued to see each other as they went through school and occasionally after - Kaup was best friends with Lange's sister - but the pair's lives slowly drifted apart, and for about the past 50 years, Lange said the two hadn't seen each other.
Even after all the years apart, however, Lange was still able to recognize Kaup when he saw her at The Gardens at St. Henry. He'd originally gone to visit his brother, Clete, when he noticed an older lady in a wheelchair and thought she looked familiar. Kaup now struggles with Alzheimer's disease, and her memories come and go. However, 76 years after the two had played ball together and decades apart, Lange was still able to recognize his old teammate.
Reminiscing about the old schoolhouse, Lange said it wasn't uncommon for kids to walk a mile and a half to school each day. He remembers that when the school board thought the schoolhouse was too small, the state wouldn't pay for an expansion.
Lange said the community effectively cut the schoolhouse in half, moved one half away from the other and then built in the empty space.
Things have certainly changed since then, he said, laughing.
According to Lange, the Home School building is still standing but is now used as a home.
