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Saturday’s Webster School reunion to host generations
By Emily Elders
When you think of your high school reunion, do you ever picture yourself attending when you’re 103?
The Webster School reunion, which will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, will welcome alumni from several generations, including six graduates 92 years and older.
The reunion, which is planned for the old Webster School (now the SCC Child Development Center), has been in the works for more than a year, and will feature recognition ceremonies, dinner and lots of historical reminiscing.
Centenarian sisters Edna Davis Lewis, 103, left in both photos, and Thelma Davis Sutton, 102, above during their school days and below in a recent photo, will be among the Webster School alumni at this Saturday’s reunion, according to organizer Joe Rhinehart.
“We’re incredibly lucky to have an opportunity like this,” said Webster graduate Joe Rhinehart, president of the Webster Historical Society. “It’s unusual these days to find so many graduates of such an old school still living and able to attend a reunion.”
The six oldest graduates, all from Jackson County, are sisters Edna Davis Lewis, 103, and Thelma Davis Sutton, 102; sisters Ila Bumgarner Henson, 102, and Love Louise Bumgarner Owens, 98; Major Allison, 92; and William Caler Collins, 92.
The reunion, headed by the Webster School Alumni Committee, is a wonderful opportunity for graduates, faculty and staff, and family members to remember and honor the school that was a fixture in their community, said Rhinehart. He encourages anyone in the community to attend, whether or not they were affiliated with the school.
In addition to the planned festivities, the record book that the committee has put together is a detailed source of local history.
Titled “At The Foot of Old Kings’ Mountain,” the book is named for a poem that Western Carolina University founder and Webster’s first principal Robert Lee Madison wrote about the school. It features a list of all known alumni and staff, as well as recollections from several students and teachers, photographs of the school in all its stages, and reprints of school publications and songs.
Students at Webster were mostly local children from Webster, Savannah and parts of Sylva and Dillsboro.
Members of Webster High’s class of 1956 gathered in front of their school for a photo. These graduates and all others who attended the school are invited to join this Saturday’s reunion, which will begin at 4 p.m. at the former school (now a day care center). Historical booklets featuring photos and recollections of former students will be available. The rock building, which housed Webster students from 1938 until Fairview School opened in 1970, was built by the Works Progress Administration. For information on the reunion, call Joe Rhinehart at 586-0921.
The first graduates, in 1913, included only two students – Professor Madison’s son, James Madison, and Jessie Stillwell. However, more than 2,000 students, faculty and staff have been located and added to the records, with more hopefully on the way, said Rhinehart. Webster’s last graduating class, in 1960, included 40 students.
In addition to studying state-mandated subjects, students also participated in arts programs and sports, especially basketball, throughout the school’s 47-year history. Choral concerts, plays, student publications and athletic events are frequently mentioned in the recollections of its alumni.
The school itself has had almost as many reincarnations as generations. The current building was built in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration of rocks hauled up from the nearby Tuckaseigee River. The first building, which opened in 1869 as the Webster Academy, burned in 1895. At one time classes were held in Lucy Hedden’s house above Webster Baptist Church, Rhinehart said. Students attended school from 1905 until 1938 in a wooden structure that was called the “new school,” Rhinehart said.
The school newspaper, the Ridge Runner, was begun in 1933 and was important to the community and students in more ways than one, according to Janice Monteith Blanton’s statement in the reunion book. In addition to news and events, the paper also published a gossip column, “Gossiping Gertie,” in which the rumored romances between students and teachers alike were published each week. To this day, no one knows for sure who the anonymous author of the column was, said Blanton, although many suspect the paper’s advisor, Louise Davis.
Despite the traditionally small population of the school, a large number of its graduates served in World War II, and 11 of the 146 graduates who fought overseas died in combat. A monument was erected in their honor in 1951 by the school’s PTA, and the school’s veterans will be honored again during this Saturday’s ceremonies.
Copies of the historical book will be available at the reunion. For more information, contact Rhinehart at 586-0921.
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