‘Movement is medicine’ for former school teacher

Before retiring in 1975, Connelly spent 27 of her 36 years teaching physical education to students at Middletown’s Roosevelt Junior High, which later became a middle school.

Connelly took the job — the only job she ever had — upon graduating from Miami University in 1939 with a bachelor of science degree in education.

Today, Connelly, who had previously broken both hips, stays fit by working out three times a week in an exercise class in her independent living building at Mount Pleasant Retirement Village in Monroe.

“That’s what keeps me going ... the exercises I do here. You have to keep moving. Movement is medicine,” she said.

During her tenure with Middletown City Schools, Connelly said she also served nine years as dean of girls, responsible for discipline and absences for 600 girls at Roosevelt. After retiring, she and her husband, Arthur, who had been operating Woodshed Antiques on Union Road in Middletown, moved to Florida for about 34 years.

But when Arthur died, the Chillicothe native returned to the area and moved to Mount Pleasant, where she said one of her biggest thrills is running into some of her former students.

Some come to Mount Pleasant to visit family, while others come to stay. In fact, Connelly said she recently ran into one of her former students — Wilma Gade — who lives in her same building.

“When I graduated and had my first class, she was in it. See, I remembered her name after all those years,” she said.

Gade, 84, said it was a nice surprise to see her former teacher on the first day she moved into Mount Pleasant.

“Of course we’ve visited since and shared experiences and asked about mutual friends, and just have become reacquainted. It’s been a nice experience for me and I hope for her,” she said.

Gade said her former teacher hasn’t changed a bit.

“Once a teacher, always a teacher. She’s always teaching or helping someone. I’d say she’s very much the same,” said Gade, who also participates in the same exercise class.

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ontact this reporter at (513) 483-5219 or dewilson@coxohio.com.