On April 22, 2009, fellow Friends of Wakelon Inc. board member Ann Liles and I were treated to one of the most delightful afternoons in recent memory.

We were the guests of Meta Phillips Monteleon, Abbotwood resident and Valedictorian of the Wakelon High School Class of 1931. Ninety-five years young and a brilliant conversationalist, she was absolutely captivating.

Mrs. Monteleon, one of seven children, grew up in the Pleasant Hill community near Rolesville, where she attended school in a two-room school house through fifth grade. In sixth grade, she was the first in her family to ride the bus to Wakelon, which was a consolidated school for grades six through eleven.

We were told of the year when busloads of students arrived at Wakelon on the first day of school, only to find that the school had burned. Classes were held in Wakelon's Teacherage that year.Meta, as she preferred to be called, described herself as a "timid" student who was filled with trepidation when she scored so high on a statewide achievement test that she was made to skip a year of school and join a high school physics class in its second semester.

She exceeded expectations. In addition to biology and physics, at Wakelon, Meta excelled in chemistry, at a time when many schools did not offer science courses to their female populations. Her grasp and love of science would serve her well following graduation when she pursued a career in nursing.

Meta's principal was Early Moser, a well known Zebulon educator, and one of her teachers was Mrs. Falc (Annabelle) Bunn who also taught my father and me. Among her classmates were Clifton Daniel who went on to edit the New York Times, and whose father was one of the original owners of Zebulon Drug Company; A. C. Dawson, another noted North Carolina educator; Rom and Earl Moser, the principal's sons; and my own uncle, Ted Davis.

Because she was shy, Meta really didn't want to have to make the speech that goes along with the honor of being ranked at the top of a graduating class. Mr. Moser declined her offer of stepping aside, and Friends of Wakelon, Inc. is honored to have first dibs on her speech, to be included with our memorabilia at Town Hall.

After earning a degree from the Rex Hospital School of Nursing, Meta joined the military and was a first lieutenant during World War II. After the war, she became a psychiatric nurse at a New York hospital, and later received advanced training at Yale University's medical school where she had access to all varieties of medical books in their medical library.

One day, after several hours of tedious work in the stacks, she was getting mentally fatigued and decided to take a break and walk around a bit before returning to her studies. Meta found herself eye level with a book whose title was quite suggestive, and wrestled with herself over whether to open that book or not. Finally, her curiosity won out. Only then did Meta learn that Those Amazing American Virgins was about the Virgin Islands.

The Friends of Wakelon willl formally dedicate the Centennial Plaza in front of Zebulon Town Hall Friday at 2 p.m. The event is open to the public.