‘Senior’ Prom: Assisted Living Center Hosts Dance for Residents

With the curling iron heating up and eyeshadow palettes displayed by a mirror on the table, Doris White got ready for her prom. The last one she attended was in 1938.

“It’s been so long ago that I don’t remember all the things that we did,” White said. “Of course, I was quite bashful at that time and I kind of held back.”

On Thursday, the “senior” prom at Chehalis West Assisted Living Center was a full-day event that started at 10 a.m. with hair and makeup for the women. The dance started at 2 p.m. with music from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s, with selections from Roy Godby, who was the DJ for the event.

“We have a lot of people who have lived in the area all their life,” said Denise Mecartea, who is the administrator and organized the event. “It’s very community minded. We interviewed some of (the residents) who talked about their senior prom memories. It’s stirred up a lot of memories.”

A representative for Mary Kay joined with Centralia Beauty College to do the seniors’ hair and makeup for the prom. The center accepted donations 

from the community for prom dresses, which Mecartea distributed among the women. In addition, Casey Taylor, who owns Casey Taylor Studio 198 photographed attendees in front of an arbor Benny’s Florist loaned to the center.

For better or worse, high school prom is a rite of passage in American culture. Whether residents attended their own high school senior proms or not, they all had a memory surrounding it.

White, who has lived in Chehalis most of her life, graduated from high school in 1938. She wore a light lavender dress with a belt to her first prom. She remembered her date to the high school prom as well.

“It was a gentleman by the name of Jim Junkins,” White said. “He was a delightful young man. He was raised by his mother and he has done well since then. We don’t keep in touch, but he comes back to Chehalis on occasion and then he calls me.”

White said what she remembers most about her prom is how much she and her date danced. 

“I liked to dance,” White said. “The gentleman that took me to the dance, he was a good dancer and he taught me some steps that were really fun to do. We were kind of a comical couple out on the floor.”

White told her hairstylist, Centralia Beauty College student Austin Beaber, to do whatever she wanted to her hair.

“I’m just giving her curls, because I know back in the day curls were the thing,” Beaber said of the style. “Then I’m just going to pick it out. Hopefully it turns out good. And if it doesn’t, we’ll fix it.”

White said she isn’t as shy today as she was in high school.

“I think it’s fun,” White said. “And the reason that I say that is because I’m not as bashful as I used to be. So, to me, it’s fun now.”

While Beaber curled her hair, White said she was most looking forward to having fun with the other residents.

“All of us here are friends in one way or another,” White said. “Like, I’ve known Polly ever since we were both kids, practically.”

Polly Sabin, who will turn 102 in August, didn’t attend her high school prom.

“I graduated in 1934 from Toledo,” Sabin said. “My mother didn’t believe in dancing — too close to a man back in those days. (It’s a) different world in 102 years.”

As one of the students curled Sabin’s hair that morning, Sabin said she didn’t plan to attend this prom either. When The Chronicle attended the prom though, Sabin was the first person out dancing.

Betty Jacobson, who graduated from high school in 1945, said she didn’t attend her high school prom either. She went to high school in Olympia and doesn’t remember why she decided not to go.

“It’s going to be so much fun (today),” Jacobson said. “The devil could come out in us.”

Jacobson was in the middle of hair and makeup when The Chronicle spoke with her. When asked what kind of look she was going for — a smokey eye well underway — Jacobson had a one-word answer: “gorgeous.”

The prom began at 2 p.m. that afternoon, with music blasting out of the dining room. 

Barney Mansfield, a gentleman who grew up in San Antonio and wore a sport coat with a yellow boutonniere, graduated from high school in 1947. Mansfield said he went to too many dances in high school to remember the specifics of his prom.

“I went to all the dances,” Mansfield said. “It’s hard to pick out any one dance because we had so many. I was in a fraternity, one of about four fraternities in my high school. So we all had dances. Then the girls’ sororities, they had their dances. Then, officially, the school had dances. So we were just dancing all the time.”

Mansfield said he didn’t have a favorite high school dance, but he did have a favorite date. She was a woman named Bobbie Jack Bomba, who he had known since the second grade.

He said she was a good dancer. “Better than I was,” he quipped.

“I was a musician,” Mansfield said. “I played clarinet and sax, but I never did learn much about words — I just knew the music. But Bobbie Jack was a real good dancer. She really was.”