Page 10 - BSF2019

Page 6

Simply grand

Peggy Curtis chosen as Grand Marshal of festival

When it was time to choose the Grand Marshal of the
National Strawberry Festival this year, members of the
festival committee were unanimous in their choice.
Who better than a woman who has already had a
'grand' impact on the community and local residents
through her four decades of work with local students?
The Grand Marshal this year is Peggy Curtis, who
brought back-to back state championships to Belleville
High School during her 39-year teaching and coaching
career.
Curtis is a life-long resident of Belleville and graduat-
ed from Belleville High School in 1965. She now has
grandchildren attending school in the district.
After college, she began her teaching career in the Van
Buren Schools in 1969 and she retired in 2002. She taught
at North Junior High School and at Belleville High
School where she was a revered softball coach who
brought the only back-to-back state championships to the
school. She also coached gymnastics and Women's Cross
Country at the high school.
During her career, Curtis coached 14 league champi-
onship softball teams, 17 district championship teams,
three regional championship teams and the only two
state championships in the history of Belleville High
School, in 1983 and 1984.
The varsity softball field at the high school is named
for her, an honor unanimously bestowed on her in 2016
by members of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of
Education. No other facility in the district is named for a
former graduate or staff member. Curtis was a member of
the teaching staff that began the softball program in the
school district and she built the program to one of the
Peggy Curtis in her high school softball uniform. most successful in the state.