David Corless

Went to UMSL for 3 years, but quit to go to work for a railroad. Worked for 1 year as a switchman in the Baden rail yard, then for the next 27.5 years as a locomotive engineer for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad.

I met my wife, Cecilia Weber (aka Ceil) in 1975 and got married in May of '76. We lived in a 23 foot travel trailer for 9 months, then several different houses between St. Louis and New Franklin, MO. Our daughters were born in 1978 and 1979, 16 months apart.

We now live in Conway, AR which is where my job brought us in 1989. We both have loved camping and gardening together since we first got married. Ceil is an RN with her BSN and works at the VA CBOC in Conway. I spend a lot of time making sure that all of the little stuff gets done, since I can't do any physical labor.

In 2001 I was running a train from Dexter, MO, to Pine Bluff, AR. While approaching Brinkley, AR, the seat on which I was sitting suddenly collapsed, dropping straight down with a sudden stop. This ruptured a disk in my neck. Over the course of the next several months nerve pain became excruciating and I was losing the function of both arms and legs. So on July 1, 2002 I had surgery at Anthony's hospital in St. Louis. Dr. Schedinger removed the ruptured disk and fused the C-5 and C-6 vertebrae. This mostly fixed the loss of function, but only did a little bit of good with the pain. In the years since then the pain has increased.

Ceil and I travel periodically to Farmington, Missouri, to visit with my parents. They have lived there since 1994 in a place called the Presbyterian Manor. They lived in independent living until about a year ago, when they moved into assisted living. My sister Susan and her husband Timm Fair now are able to visit more frequently than Ceil and I are, since they are both retired and live about three hours away in Paducah, Kentucky; whereas Ceil and I are about six hours away. Also, Ceil is five years younger than me and is still working.

The best part of school at Riverview was band, stage band and orchestra! I would be remiss if I did not say that Coach Ernest Elgert played a huge roll in making this possible!!

Marching band was an experience that I will never forget because there were so many interesting parts to it. Marching in the rain, snow and mud added to the memories. Perhaps the best part was learning the formations and playing our instruments was quite a challenge. Mr. Elgert (aka - Coach) was stern, yet got us to perform well by gametime.

Actually music was so much of my life from elementary school, through high shcool and college as well. There was even summer band to which I rode my bicycle to Glasgow Elementary, later East Jr. High, then finally to the high school.

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