Margaret Hendrichs (Teacher)

Miss Margaret Hendrichs

by Robert Bluman (CW Class of ’73)
Miss Hendricks was my math teacher in 1969 and I was never the same after being in her class. She was already in her late 70s, a spinster who owned her own home in Riverdale off Cherry Drive near Parkwood Drive for at least 50 years. Though one can't actually say that a kid who is 14 or 15 finds an old lady absolutely beautiful, I have to admit that Margaret Hendricks must have been a ravishing beauty in her 20s through possibly her 50s. I’ve always wondered what she must have looked like when she was young. She had incredible steel-gray violet eyes, silver flowing hair, high cheek bones, was tall, noble, and elegant. She was a brilliant woman with an incredible mind. She was also a mathematical genius. She was beyond being just a "math teacher." The rumor was that she had the highest IQ of anyone in Ohio and was a subject of many studies at Wright Patterson AFB.

I remember her math class with such clarity. I was horrible in math! While taking a statistics class, no one could answer the last and hardest question in a final series of most difficult questions! No one could get the answer. Something told me that the question was a tease, that the answer was in plain sight, and that it was actually the easiest question on that page. She placed the easy question where the most difficult question should have been! Miss Hendricks told the entire class that anyone who could answer that question correctly would be rewarded with her singing in front of the class and dancing the "Jig.” What the heck is the Jig?

So there was a woman nearly 80 years old. I looked at the question and after ten minutes, I raised my hand. She looked at me and asked, "Yes, what is it, Robert? Do you have a problem?" (She must have also been thinking, “Here is that idiot again!”). I said, “Ms. Hendricks, I have the answer!” She looked at me through her thick glasses, and those beautiful eyes smiled at me and she said, "Well go ahead, Robert, I am an old lady and don't have years to wait!" I answered, " Miss Hendricks, the answer is 1 (one).” She looked at me and the entire class burst out laughing! Like, "the town's idiot has just tried to break a secret code and let’s all laugh at him!" She looked at me and started dancing and singing in front of the class…I was right! The correct answer! OMG! I think I turned RED. There she was dancing The Jig ( some bizarre version of Swan Lake?). Ruth Romero was sitting next to me, and behind her were the twin cheerleader girls who lived on Mt. Vernon (not identical—I loved those girls!) along with Nikki Zavakos…they and I laughed so hard that the class turned into mass hysteria! I had to get up and explain how it was answered and she said, "Y,es Robert, you are 100% correct". I was never the same again. God bless Mrs. Hendricks; she was both beautiful and awesome. (I would have given anything to know why she never married.) God rest her soul.

When Colonel White School was Dedicated on Feb. 14th, 1930, Margaret Hendricks was in Attendance ~ She was The Music Teacher (Phil Clarke)

To see Mrs. Hendrich’s obituary, click on the following link:

https://cwhs1964.wixsite.com/in-memoriam/set/154fe812-ae1f-46cf-a3e6-8e666550ab18?pgid=keymtvj9-8c6dee06-a971-4078-bedb-72933e52c010