During WWII Miami Springs Elementary students, teachers, staff and PTA answered the call to duty behind the lines by being the location of a Red Cross surgical dressing room where volunteers made surgical dressings for our military, earning war stamps to buy war bonds, collection of salvage, establishing a victory garden, acting as a meeting & training site for air raid wardens and serving as Casualty Station 9, Division 5.
The 1943 photo is of the principal and officers of the Miami Springs Elementary School PTA, top row left to right, Mary Kniffen, school principal Mrs. Era May Furr, Mrs. James and Mrs. Elizabeth Madeira, bottom row Mrs Hearh, Peggy Filer, Mrs. Madeleine Robinson, Mrs. Gus Halwardson. Mary Kniffen’s husband Walter Kniffen served as Miami Springs Chief of Police before the war and was killed in action Feb 23, 1945 in the battle of Iwo Jima.
