DECATUR - As a child, Jaya Lawary would have kept going to Decatur Day Care Center after school if her family hadn't moved to Argenta when she was 9.

"I had so much fun there," she said. "I remember my teacher more than anything. She had lots of personality and a really good rapport with kids."

Two decades later, Tonya Bond, or "Miss Tonya" as she is known, still works there, having moved to the office a year or so ago, these days greeting Lawary as she drops her children by the center in the morning.

Her daughter Jaylei's teacher, Linda Lee, has taught 3-year-olds at the center ever since "Miss Linda's" senior year at Eisenhower High School in 1967-68.

"I know the staff," Lawary said, "and they're always on top of things."

A kindergarten teacher at Muffley School, Lawary is in a better position than most parents to know how well the center prepares children for school.

So is York Powers, the Decatur area's kindergarten readiness coordinator.

"The Decatur Day Care family has a wealth of knowledge about early childhood education in Decatur and is very forward-thinking," Powers said. "Working with them is like listening to your wise old grandmother."

The Decatur School District also recognized the center and its executive director, Diane Friend, on April 10 as a community getting younger students off to a good start and giving older ones paid internships through Decatur Area Technical Academy.

As the center celebrates 90 years of service this year, continuity is a major theme.

Besides being one of the oldest child care services in Decatur, the center retains staff members more than eight times longer than the national average: 12½ years versus 18 months. That means the 35 staff members have more than 300 years of service among them.

"It's not a fluke," said Friend, a 24-year veteran at the center. "Once people get here, they don't want to leave."

Families also have a habit of coming back, with Lawary and several others trusting a second generation of children to the center's care and at least one maintaining an association spanning four generations.

Retired teacher Edna Allen followed her parents in working there - her father did maintenance, and her mother was a cook and teacher - and brought her two young daughters. One of them, Judy Kelm, works as a cook at the center to this day, after bringing her two daughters there during the years she was substitute teacher.

"The staff stays because they know they're making a difference," assistant administrator Janice Baldwin said.

Decatur Day Care got its start in 1917 as St. John's Day Nursery in the parish hall of St. John's Episcopal Church, 130 W. Eldorado St. The nursery provided crisis child care for mothers who had to work for a living, largely because their husbands had died for their country or were serving during World War I.

The Decatur Day Nursery Association was formed the following year to give the service a corporate identity separate from the church, and the nursery moved in 1920 into an eight-room house a block away at 259 W. Eldorado St.

A brochure from the nursery's 20th anniversary celebration in 1937 states that its purpose was "to assure an educational and health program for children from 2 years to 10 years whose mothers are providers."

Tellingly, having been printed during the Great Depression, the brochure goes on to say the nursery was "also for children who, from conditions existing in their homes incident to current economic and social difficulties, need care and guidance to restore or maintain their mental and physical health."

The nursery moved to 364 W. William St. in 1943 and remained there for 51 years before moving to its present location at 2075 E. Lake Shore Drive in 1994 as part of a $2.3 million intergenerational complex that incorporates the Life Enrichment Center of St. Mary's Hospital for older adults.

"Our relationships with our 'grandpas' and 'grandmas' have flourished with joint activities three times a week," Friend said.

The nursery's name was changed to Decatur Day Care Center in 1967. By then, Friend said the transition from giving temporary "crisis care" to providing a continuing and vital service for single parents and two-income families was well under way.

"Center leaders had the vision early on that children needed more than socialization and custodial care," she said. "They needed academic preparation, and that has turned out to be huge."

An enrollment that started out at 25 children and peaked at more than 200 little baby boomers in 1950, today stands at 146 children ranging in age from 6 weeks to 12 years.

A United Way agency since 1954, Decatur Day Care Center bases its charges to families on a sliding scale, with 90 percent of its enrollment assisted in paying tuition either by the state or the United Way of Decatur and Mid-Illinois.

Friend hopes to draw many former students and staff members to a 90th anniversary open house on Saturday. "Those who come will see several familiar faces," she said.

Among them is Linda Lee, who was a vocational student when she started teaching at the center, and after staying more than 40 years, cannot imagine working anywhere else.

"This place is home to me," she said. "I felt like I belonged the minute I walked in the front door, and I've seen so many in my room grow up and come back with their children."

Judy Kelm, who went to the center from age 2 until she completed sixth grade at the former Gastman School, started working there soon after Lee, while she was a student at the former Lakeview High School.

She met her husband, Robert, the son of a teacher at the school, and was a substitute teacher for many years before becoming a full-time cook in 1990.

"People who've had a good relationship with the center have recommended it to others, and it just snowballed," Kelm said. "That's why this day care has been around for 90 years."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: 90th anniversary celebration open house at Decatur Day Care

WHEN: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 26

WHERE: Decatur Day Care, 2075 E. Lake Shore Drive

NOTABLE: Performances by preschool classes, with refreshments provided by Decatur Area Technical Academy

FOR MORE: Call 422-2044.

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.