Kay Horner (Gabel) is a Potosi alumnus who graduated in 1959 and is still living a happy life in Potosi. After Kay graduated from Potosi, she married her high school sweetheart, Orrin Horner, in 1961. Together, they had three children - Beth, Julie, and Jason - who also all went to Potosi. Now Kay gets to watch her grandchildren and great-grandchildren attend the same school as her.
After Kay graduated from Potosi, she worked as a waitress at the Highway Cafe. While she worked at the restaurant, she was only paid 50 cents per hour. The cafe was the only job that Kay ever quit. After she was done at the cafe she worked as a clerk at a dime store in Dubuque.
When Kay was 20, she started working at an eggplant, where she would crack and separate eggs. Every day Kay would have to separate 45 buckets of eggs and each bucket would have 15 dozen eggs in it. Kay didn't just separate the eggs at the egg plant, she would also work in the kitchen washing the dishes. “That was stinky,” said Kay.
During the seven years that she worked at the egg plant, she had two daughters. Once Kay was done with the egg plant, she decided to be a stay-at-home mom to raise her daughters. After a couple of years, Kay started working at the Adams Company in the fireplace division. Kay worked at the Adams Company for ten years until the jobs were transported overseas. Before the jobs were sent overseas, Kay had to take a leave of absence for about a year when she had her son.
After Kay's job at the Adams Company was eliminated, she took another couple of years off from working. Kay then decided to take a job as a part-time janitor at the school. “When everybody was gone, I went there and worked,” explained Kay. While Kay was working as a janitor, she also started to work as a learning disability aide at the school. Kay retired from the school at the age of 71 after 25 years.
Since Kay graduated from Potosi, she has watched her three children graduate from Potosi, along with six of her grandchildren. She is now watching her youngest granddaughter, myself, go through high school and her four great-grandchildren start school. Kay expressed that she has a lot of pride in seeing her family attend the same school as she did. Kay says that she is amazed that her family has been extended so far and is all still around her. Kay is also happy that her family has been able to attend Potosi because she knew that it was a safe school.