This information is excerpts from a program about Miss Sara Lindemuth, the first Supervisor of Music in the Susquehanna Township School District.  Please tell me if any of the information that I guessed is inaccurate.

With three years' teaching experience, Miss Sara Lindemuth was hired to be the first Supervisor of Music for the Susquehanna Township School District.  She would be responsible for the creation of a brand new music curriculum to be taught in grades 1 through 12 in the district.

The 1928-29 school year proved to be a very busy one in the Susquehanna Township School District.  Miss Lindemuth organized her program in six buildings within the district -- both elementary and secondary.  Sara organized a mixed chorus of singers known as the High School Glee Club.  Composed of 30 members, this group sang at field day and commencement.  One of the group's very first performances was to sing at the dedication of the new Herbert Hoover School.

She worked out of the high school building at Progress, but on different days she visited the elementary buildings to conduct music lessons for all the students.  On a weekly basis, Sara went to these schools: Rockville on North Front Street, B.J. Crouse School on Edgemont Road , Glenwood School on Locust Lane (former home of WITF), Progress Grade School on South Progress Avenue (now the Anna Carter Kindergarten Center), Coxestown on Greenawalt Lane (present home of American Legion Post 1001), and the new Herbert Hoover School on Linglestown Road (now the Thomas W. Holtzman Jr. Elementary School).

During the summer of 1929, Sara Lindemuth decided to learn how to drive -- no more walking between buildings! On May 25, 1929, Sara bought a new 1929 Dodge Deluxe sedan from Middletown Motor Company for $1220.00.  With this purchase she got her learner's permit and a few driving lessons.  She never again had to walk between buildings and after-school choral rehearsals became a reality.  The first of many high school operettas was held for the Susquehanna Township High School in the spring of 1929.  It was held at the Chestnut Street Auditorium in Harrisburg because there was no room large enough for such performances in Progress until the building was once again expanded.

Charles Eslinger and Jospehine Favinger (Class of 1929) had lead roles in the first STHS operetta, The Maid and the Middy.  Curtiss Demmy and Thelma Packer Hummer had the leads in the 1930 operetta, The Lucky Jade.  Dorthy Keiter Straw (Class of 1934) would set a record by playing a lead role in four consecutive operettas.  The list could go on and on.  For the next twenty-two years, Sara Lindemuth spent countless hours each year producing and directing an annual musical production at Susquehanna Township High School.

Miss Lindemuth was busy with other endeavors within the school.  She taught music in all the elementary schools as well as to the junior and senior high students.  She formed and directed a number of music groups including choir, girls' ensemble, boys' and girls' trios, and select chorus.  Sara also directed the high school orchestra from 1932 to 1943.  Sara lived to teach and every year, beginning in 1944, directed a Christmas Candlelight Concert, a Spring Concert and took her music groups all over the Harrisburg area to perform.  In December of 1944, Miss Lindemuth was asked to have her 33-member chorus perform at the Rockville United Brethren Church, but the group had no gowns.  Fitted with the church choir gowns, the singers performed.  The first annual Candlelight Service was held at Progress High School in 1944, with the group performing in the Rockville church gowns.  During the next year the Susquehanna Township School Board purchased gowns for the entire choir.  The membership in the chorus increased from the 33 original members to a large 136 members in the early 1950's.  Miss Lindemuth and her groups were busy every Sunday at church functions.  Between October 15, 1950 and May 27, 1951, Miss Lindemuth and her groups performed 52 times- a busy schedule by any standards.

Sara's great and growing career carried her name over the national news on many occasions, but one event was a near-tragedy.  On the afternoon of December 19, 1950, the State Champion Choir, in gown, holly and tinsel, took two hours to mount a 35-foot scaffold to form a Human Singing Christmas Tree for the National Wire service.  The last member of the 80-voice choir was in place and a perfect Christmas tree was formed.  As Sara Lindemuth raised her baton to sound the "a" for the cameraman, a primary leg of the scaffold caved through the flooring.  With an eerie crunch, the "human tree" collapsed.  Girls screamed and boys strained, in vain, to hold the tiers in place.  The huge "tree" crashed into a mass of boulders and bodies.  It made the international wire with pictures.

Sara Lindemuth prayed and helped with rescue operations.  Mr. Speg, high school principal, helped to hold the scaffolding to prevent further injuries.  Doctors and ambulances raced to the school and twenty-five singers were taken to the hospital.  Others were treated on the scene.  But Miss Lindemuth's prayers were answered.  No one was critically injured.

That night, the choir, many of the members with arms in slings, two on crutches, and almost everyone with bandaged cuts and bruises, refused to cancel the annual Candlelight Service.  But for the first time, the choir did not march onto the stage.  The limping singers were all in their places when the curtains opened.  Miss Lindemuth, in tears, raised her baton, and they sang like they had never sung before.

In 1952, Sara Lindemuth moved to a much larger choral room and auditorium.  It was such a grand improvement for concerts and programs over the tight space at Progress High School!

The population explosion continued during the 1950's.  The schools grew and Miss Lindemuth's fame continued as her singing groups won awards and competitions throughout the area and across the state.

During Miss Lindemuth's thirty-third year of teaching and after thirty years at Susquehanna Township, the present high school was built on Elmerton Avenue.  In April 1960, Miss Lindemuth moved into a new choral suite in the new senior high school.  For the first time ever, she would be responsible for the senior high choral program only.  Her students continued to admire and love her as she continued to give of herself to the students and the school.  Awards from all levels continued to pour in to the music department.  Hardly a year went by without Susquehanna Township receiving state recognition for its music program.

Miss Lindemuth retired at the end of the 1966-67 school term, having completed thirty-nine years in the Susquehanna Township School District -- 42 total years of teaching -- at that time a record number of years for anyone at Susquehanna Township.