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Former Sylva High students to gather Saturday
By Lynn Hotaling
They may be at the Ramsey Center in Cullowhee instead of at Mark Watson Park, but there will be so many familiar faces on hand that Sylva Central High School alumni are bound to feel right at home on Saturday.
That’s the day everyone who ever attended the two-story, red brick home of the Golden Hurricanes is invited to gather for the first-ever schoolwide reunion.
Longtime Asheville Citizen-Times columnist (and former Sylva Herald staff writer) Bob Terrell (Class of 1945) has signed on as featured speaker and master of ceremonies, and the Rev. Robert Blanton (Class of 1951) will deliver both the invocation and benediction. Clyde Bumgarner (Class of 1947) will offer a memorial tribute, while Jack Morris Jr. (Class of 1950) will recite “In Flanders Fields.” Kimberly Shuler, who is too young to have attended SCHS but is the daughter of 1956 valedictorian Ruth (Crawford) Shuler, will sing the national anthem.
Of the almost 600 who have confirmed their planned attendance, the oldest is expected to be 99-year-old Rose (Garrett) Hair, Class of 1927, and every class from 1931 through 1960 will be represented, said Ruth Shuler, chairman of the committee that planned Saturday’s event.
Shuler, however, said she doesn’t deserve any credit but wants it all to go to Rachel (Brown) Phillips, Class of 1937.
“Rachel had the idea and said it was time to stop talking and take action,” Shuler said last week. “She’s been the driving force, so make sure she gets all the credit.”
Sylva Central High School at the beginning brickwork stage of construction. The two-story, 12-classroom, red-brick school was built at a cost of $65,000.
Sylva Central High School opened in 1924 and closed in 1960. The structure was torn down in 1990.
The school’s 1948 band officers included, from left, (bottom row) Master Sergeant Neil Wilson; Second Lieutenant Tommy Queen; (top row) Second Lieutenants Benny Reece, Jimmy Bales and Mary Cole Stillwell; First Lieutenant Jacqueline Holden; Top Sergeant Joan Dillard; Captain Charles Stillwell; and Director N.R. Beacham.
Sylva High’s Class of 1960 was the school’s final graduating class and included 72 students: 28 boys and 44 girls. Graduates include, from left, (first row) Rebecca Blanton, Mary Sutton, Joy Nell Sellers, Le Nora Sauter, Katherine Ward, Jennie Sutton, Doris Brooks, Jackie Sue Ledbetter, Patricia Russell, Janet Cagle, Donna Hennessee, Kate Buchanan, Marilee Allison, Brittie Mae Moore, (second row) Carolyn Revis, Vernell Queen, Jane Long, Brenda Pannell, Joan Sams Jones, Danna Sue Phillips, Nancy Sorrells, Yvonne Crawford, Joanne Carnes, Donna Monteith Ashe, Shelbia Buchanan Davis, Mary Thompson, Barbara Bryson, Maxine Greene, Rosa Nell Beasley Keener, (third row) Nancy Swink, Joyce Sauter, Patsy Nations, Carolyn Deitz Johnson, Brenda Henson Norton, Louise Parks, Patricia McDonald, Hazel Ridley, Peggy Bradley, Lula Mae Greene, Glee Blanton, Sarah Belle Fisher, Doris Gunter, Shirley Hughes Henson, Wilma Dillard Cooper, (fourth row) Amos Gillespie, Larry Hyatt, Charles Pannell, Tom Murray, Roy Lee Whitaker, Roy Tucker, John David Stovall, Johnny Childers, Bill Holder, Mike Moore, Charles Queen, Brent Barnes, (fifth row) Kenny Ray Holderman, Gary Cook, Henry Lee Walker, Harry Moses, Herbert Schulman, Kenneth Cope, Scroop Lewis, Harry Bumgarner, Gene Settlemyre, Virgil Blanton, Bill Freeman, Giles Mathis, Joe Sutton, (sixth row) Raymond Grant, Henry Allison, D.H. Queen. Mascots, from left, (front) Melissa Cowan and Jay Coward.
Sylva Central High’s Class of 1925 was the school’s first graduating class and included, from left (first row) Lucy Belle Fisher, Lazelle Henson, Willa Parris, Elizabeth Moody, Peggy Shealy (mascot) Sara Sue Sherrill, Harriet Wilson, Annie Jo Hooper, (second row) Richard “Dick” Potts, Annie Parris, Leah Nichols, Azalie Harris, Lyda Moody, unidentified, Grady Crawford, (third row) John Henson, Hicks Wilson, Ralph Sutton, Sayre Moore, Lee Henson, Sue Allison and Jake Parris. Not pictured: Jessie Allison.
Both Shuler and Phillips said last week that they had plenty of help in getting things organized and pointed to the work of history committee chairman Mary Katherine (Sherrill) Lowder of Winston-Salem, who did research both in Raleigh and at Western Carolina University, and to Wilburn Ashe, who scanned most of the photos that appear in the 60-page souvenir book.
Others whose contributions were invaluable include treasurer Joyce Lovin and publicity committee members Carol Pruett, Claude Jones and Frank Crawford. Many more have pitched in and attended meetings, worked on committees and made name tags, Shuler said.
“We couldn’t have put it all together without everyone’s help,” she said. “This has been the best group I’ve ever worked with.”
Saturday’s reunion will also include awards to the former student who travels the farthest, the one longest married, the one with the most descendants and the one with the youngest child.
According to Shuler and Phillips, the enthusiasm surrounding reunion preparations has been contagious.
“I’ve been thrilled to see all these people – some in their 90s – who are planning to attend,” Shuler said.
“I just think it’s wonderful, like a dream come true,” Phillips added. “We’ve talked about it for years, and now it’s going to happen.”
The booklet prepared for the reunion includes lists of each graduating class as well as rosters for the freshmen, sophomores and juniors at the school when it closed in 1960.
SCHS had 10 principals during its 36 years: Austin Cole Lovelace, 1924-26; H.D. Browning Jr., 1926-27; Voight Earle Wessinger, 1927-30; Weston Cosby Reed, 1930-35; Frank Ingram Watson, 1935-39; J. Louis Hair, 1939-45; William Howard “Gudger” Crawford, 1945-48; Ralph Lynn Smith, 1948-52; Lee Henry Galloway, 1952-55; and W. Carr Hooper, 1955-60.
The reunion book also lists valedictorians and salutatorians and contains a detailed history and a number of reminiscences from former students.
The SCHS alumni reunion is set for this Saturday, July 28, at WCU’s Ramsey Center. For additional information, contact Ruth Shuler at 293-5227 or e-mail her at rshuler3383@verizon.net.
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