The town of Arundel, Maine is justly proud of its large attractive
elementary school and of the lady for which it is named, Miss Mildred
L. Day.
Born in Kennebunkport, December 14, 1885 to John F. and Arvella Smith Day. Mildred Leona Day graduated from Kennebunk High School in 1903. She specialized in English at Rochester Business College and later took summer courses at Gorham Normal School. She always lived with various members of her family at a farm on the Mountain Road in Arundel. At one time she kept two thoroughbred horses.
Mildred studied music and was an accomplished pianist. She was active in the in local Community Club, the Fire Department Auxiliary, and in many teachers' organizations.
Miss Day taught one year in Lyman and forty-eight years in the "Old Durrell School", which she herself had attended until she entered high school.
The little Durrell School was a typical one-room building that some times housed nine grades. (Today it has been converted to the Arundel firehouse). Mildred walked three miles to school and later said, "I was janitor, too. Our only heat came from a wood-burning stove and I had to keep it stoked. I shoveled snow until snow ploughs came into use."
Tall and erect, Miss Day was a commanding presence in the classroom. Former pupils remember her with awe and affection. They recall that discipline was never a problem. She had a ruler which, on rare occasions, came down on the knuckles of misbehaviors. Usually, though, a good tongue lashing was sufficient.
Relatives, friends, and many former students gathered to honor Miss Day at a testimonial banquet given when she retired in 1956. One special guest was Miss Fannie Durrell, who had been Mildred Day's teacher many years ago and for whom the Durrell School was named.
She died in her eighty-second year on February 19, 1967 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Biddeford.
A year later, the Arundel Consolidated School, built ten years before, was renamed the Mildred L. Day School to honor an outstanding teacher.
Born in Kennebunkport, December 14, 1885 to John F. and Arvella Smith Day. Mildred Leona Day graduated from Kennebunk High School in 1903. She specialized in English at Rochester Business College and later took summer courses at Gorham Normal School. She always lived with various members of her family at a farm on the Mountain Road in Arundel. At one time she kept two thoroughbred horses.
Mildred studied music and was an accomplished pianist. She was active in the in local Community Club, the Fire Department Auxiliary, and in many teachers' organizations.
Miss Day taught one year in Lyman and forty-eight years in the "Old Durrell School", which she herself had attended until she entered high school.
The little Durrell School was a typical one-room building that some times housed nine grades. (Today it has been converted to the Arundel firehouse). Mildred walked three miles to school and later said, "I was janitor, too. Our only heat came from a wood-burning stove and I had to keep it stoked. I shoveled snow until snow ploughs came into use."
Tall and erect, Miss Day was a commanding presence in the classroom. Former pupils remember her with awe and affection. They recall that discipline was never a problem. She had a ruler which, on rare occasions, came down on the knuckles of misbehaviors. Usually, though, a good tongue lashing was sufficient.
Relatives, friends, and many former students gathered to honor Miss Day at a testimonial banquet given when she retired in 1956. One special guest was Miss Fannie Durrell, who had been Mildred Day's teacher many years ago and for whom the Durrell School was named.
She died in her eighty-second year on February 19, 1967 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Biddeford.
A year later, the Arundel Consolidated School, built ten years before, was renamed the Mildred L. Day School to honor an outstanding teacher.