By
Felix Hoover
For
Your News Columbus
Much
of the music at the 50-year reunion for East High School’s Class of
1960 was “old school,” but a tour of the old school building on E.
Broad Street showed off the remixed version that students have
enjoyed the past year.
The
tour was part of a busy three-day schedule at the group’s golden
reunion.
Clarice Bias Wheatley still sounds amazed at how warmly she was
received when her family moved to Columbus from D.C. in 1957. To
hear people say “hi” to one another clashed with the culture she had
grown up with, said Wheatley, who now lives in Baltimore. She was
astonished that one of the workers at Watkins’ Market on Taylor
Avenue said he would have his daughter show her how to get to her
new school.
Wheatley took advantage of the introduction at school and eventually
dated the team’s football team’s starting quarterback and became
Homecoming Queen her senior year.
Ruth
Coleman Moss, widow of radio personality and former Columbus School
Board member Bill Moss, marveled at many of the upgrades and
additions made to the East High building during the renovation
project that was completed in 2008. She was among several class
members with one major complaint, that the portraits of prominent
Tigers no longer grace the walls.
Current Vice Principal Mary L. Gardner-Smith, who guided part of the
tour, said the pictures are being stored until enough money is
available to hang them. She also announced over the public-address
system that East is a “legacy school,” because today’s students come
from a rich tradition of families who went to East.”
That
tradition includes many athletes who distinguished themselves at
East and beyond. Bill Willis, one of four blacks credited with
breaking the color line in modern-day pro football, was an East High
grad. The Tiger’s football home, Harley Field, is named in honor of
an earlier pioneer in the sport, Charles “Chic” Harley, who was
white.
The
student body was mostly white in the school’s early history; but by
1960 was predominantly black. Some of the whites who came back for
the reunion said they had fit in well and if they had it to do over
would choose East again.
Many
classmates flew from the West Coast to be part of the festivities,
while William Russell “Russ” Kellum Jr. came in from the Atlantic
side.
He
played violin in East’s orchestra, but also played piano for the
Orlandos. Music remained his first love and gave him the opportunity
to play keyboards with Chuck Berry, Freddie King and others, but he
also established himself as a scientist and publicist with
Colgate-Palmolive.
For
Marguerite Littell Fuqua, it took nearly a day to make the drive to
Columbus from her home in Fort Worth, Texas.
“Meeting all of there people after 50 years, it is just
astonishing.. I wish the ones that passed were here. It’s absolutely
divine.”
Three
of the class’s most prominent religious leaders took part in
Saturday’s banquet at Embassy Suites.
The
Rev. H. Beecher “Henry” Hicks Jr., senior pastor of Metropolitan
Baptist Church in Washington, presented a memorial to the deceased
and tribute to the living. He led a responsive reading that wove in
words from the school’s Alma Mater and lyrics from the prom standard
Stardust.
The
Rev. Barbara Reynolds, who gained national renown as a journalist
and author, said grace before attendees filled their plates at
several buffet stations.
She
teaches prophetic ministry at the Howard University School of
Divinity and directs the Harriet's Anti-Drug Ministry at Greater Mt.
Calvary Holy Church in Washington.
The
Rev. Nathaniel “Nate” Carter of Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church on the
North Side served on the reunion committee
Charles Roberts, committee chairman, gave special works of thanks to
the recently departed Tuney Hubbard, to who the reunion was
dedicated, and to Co-Chair Diana Allen Moss.
The
classmates reminisced about teachers as well as themselves.
Elroy
Gravely remembered English teacher Sarah Searcy as “the first
teacher who could keep everybody in check with words. She could cut
you through bones with words and tone.”
Reynolds said that East’s teachers “made it their business to
develop our character.”
Some
of the teachers attended the banquet, took part in the school tour
or attended the picnic at Whitehall Park, including Betty Cupoli,
Harry McKnight, Lorraine Peery and Wilbur Oler.
On
Sunday, Peery called her daughter in Pennsylvania and told her, "I’m
still excited; I got so many hugs and kisses. So many students
thanked me for keeping them on the straight and narrow. Many of them
went on to get master’s degrees.”
A
certain Linden-McKinley grad who holds a doctorate and serves as
superintendent of Columbus City Schools joined line dancers at the
banquet following a demonstration by Class of ‘60 diva Barbara
Blackwell and company.
One of
Blackwell's comments spoke to the moment and summed up her
classmates’ gratitude for being together after 50 years and
uncertainty about making it 60: “We may not be able to dance long,
but we can still dance.”
