Long-overdue book finally returns to library

TULSA, Okla. — A library book checked out from a Tulsa high school in 1947 has been returned — with a $250 check to cover overdue fees.

Holland Hall School librarian Betty Niver says the book “New Word Analysis: Or School Etymology of English Derivative Words” was mailed to the school by Martha McCabe Jarrett.

Jarrett, of Venice, Fla., was Martha McCabe, a sophomore, when she signed out the book 61 years ago at what was then Holland Hall School for Girls. She recently found it while cleaning out her other home in Rome, Ohio.

“It was just there, with the things I enjoy and my kids don’t,” she said Friday.

In a note sent with the book, she included the check to pay any fines. But she wasn’t sure how she wound up with the book. “I don’t know if it was something the library was getting rid of, or my Latin teacher had given me, or if I just kept it,” she said.

“I sent it back just because I value the education I got at that school,” she said.

School officials said they were not sure what they will do with the $250 because there is no specific overdue book fund. It might be put toward student scholarships.