At 11 o'clock Saturday morning, festivities at the 53rd annual reunion of Osawatomie high school alumni members were gathering momentum and the street initiation of graduates of class 1948 had been under way for an hour. Antics of the gaily costumed initiates had the crowd of alumni spectators uproariously hilarious.

Some of the alumni members however, were not among the group on Main Street. They were gathered at the graveside of a departed classmate, Miss Vida Harker, Class of 1908, at Elmdale cemetery, to pay final tribute to her memory.

There was no maudlin display of grief at the grave. Mrs. Eula Harker Lesh, class of '07, of Guthrie, Okla., who accompanied her sister's body here from Guthrie, said that Miss Harker would not have wanted that.

"Perhaps this isn't the proper way to submit an obituary," Mrs. Lesh said just before she boarded a train for the return trip to Guthrie, "but Vida would have been happy with the way her services were conducted. When I met those old girlhood friends and classmates, whom neither Vida nor myself had seen for years, I just started talking about old times with them. That's what my sister would have done, and I know she's happy about the way we've done it."

Mrs. Lesh reiterated a brief history of her sister's life.

"Vida was born right here in Osawatomie on September 9, 1890. Our dad was David C. Harker and our mother's name was Minette. When Vida was a little girl, she joined the Methodist church here and later she became a member of the Church of the Wayfarer when she lived in Carmel, California. Before she went to California, Vida worked for many years at the American State Bank.

"Several months ago, she came to live with us at Guthrie. Vida was ill at the time, and her condition steadily grew worse."

Mrs. Lesh said that her sister died Thursday afternoon, May 20, and brief services were held in Guthrie before entraining for Osawatomie.

Rev. Max Barnes, pastor of the Osawatomie Methodist church, officiated at the services and the classmate-pallbearers were Keith Clevenger, Tulsa, Okla.; Karl Shawver, Sr., Paola; Tommy Summers, Battle Creek, Mich.; Henry Kolbohm, Wichita; Herb Stockwell, Paola; and Richard Beeson, Kansas City, Mo. The Eddy Funeral Home was in charge.