SEALY GRADUATES

FROM THE VAULT

Elsie Ripple and Presley Ward Hahn were lifelong friends, both graduating from Sealy High School in 1923. Both women died in 2005 at the age of 99 years.

Presley’s family home, built in 1893, is located at 613 Ward Street in Sealy. A couple of years after their deaths, Presley’s home was sold. The new owners later purchased and moved Elsie’s family home to a vacant lot next door to Presley’s home. Elsie’s home, built in 1914, was originally located on Meyer Street (State Hwy 36) where the Sealy Physical Rehab is currently located.

Throughout Elsie’s life, she was an artist and often shared her drawings and paintings with her friends, including Presley. Presley became a school teacher and later operated a private kindergarten in her home on Ward Street. Many who grew up in Sealy during the 1960s and 1970s attended Ms. Hahn’s kindergarten.

It seems quite fitting that the family homes of two lifelong friends are now standing side by side, hopefully for a very long time.