Peggy Lee Tribute

The following poem by Norma Deloris Egstrom, known today as singer Peggy Lee, was published in the May 27, 1937, issue of The Wimbledon News as her high school class poem.

SUCCESS AWAITS AT LABOR’S GATE

Norma Egstrom

There’s work to be done and a place to acquire

There’s a road to be blazed with abitions fire

There’s labor before ther’s a place in the sun

And strife in a battle before it is won.

We must look to the future for what it will bring

Whether laughter or tears, success is the thing.

Let us therefore go onward, out into the bay

And count up our fortunes at the close of each day.

For we’ve learned that the things that are truly worthwhile

Are the things that are gained where work is in style,

And the blessings for all-life’s sunshine and rain-

Are the things that not even money can gain.

Our futures are bright like new coins or new jewels

As we journey abroad to learn in life’s schools

That the fundamentals we’ve gained on the course of our way

Will determine our degree on eternity’s day.

So, Mates, should your future be darkened in hue

Count not your labors by what you can’t do

But go outward and onward, there’s a will and a way

If you count up your fortunes at the close of each day.

Let it not be said that you fell by the way

For there’s always a morrow where there’s been to-day

Strive hard till your goals reached for our motto doth state

That “Success awaits at labors gate.”

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