Former Pineville Students Hold Reunion
A total of 165 people attended the Pineville All-School Reunion on Saturday at the Pineville Christian Church.
The event brought together graduates from all classes of the old Pineville High School.
James Dickey’s name tag indicated he graduated with the class of 1944. He clarified he would have graduated with his class, but he got drafted into the U.S. Army his senior year. He served in World War II and the Korean War. His diploma came out in 1949.
“Seemed like one year I got a
citizenship award. I always liked the teachers. I played a little basketball and was in track. We played touch football for fun,” he said.
Twins Gary and Larry Johnson graduated in 1962. Gary lives in Grove, Okla., while Larry lives half the year in Grove and the other half in Aransas Pass, Texas.
Larry said of the school, “It was a lot better than staying home. We had to work at home.”
They grew up on a farm about a mile outside of town, he said.
“We played basketball,” Larry added. “I was Mr. Basketball. It was a fun place to be.”
Sue Speck of Olathe, Kan., also graduated with the class of 1962.
“I loved growing up in Pineville and going to Pineville school,” she said. “I taught elementary school for 33 years in a small town in Kansas. It reminded me very much of being in Pineville.”
Darlene Stillions, of the class of 1952, said of Pineville, “Best place I ever lived and the best people in the whole wide world. We had caring, loving teachers and everybody around us loved us. Everybody looked out after us and everybody accepted us.”
Larry Bradley of Nevada said he missed graduation by two years but is still very attached to the Pineville school.
“We were small to a certain degree, but it was a great, great group of teachers, great staff. Everybody took care of each other,” he said.
Fran Billings of Warrensburg, a member of the class of 1959, said, “I went all 12 years with many of the same youngsters. I have a childhood memory book on sale at the McDonald County Historical Society.”
She met her husband at a cafe her mother owned in Anderson. He was an Anderson Redbird.
“We were arch-rivals,” she said.
Billings is a retired clinical psychologist.
“School was very different in the ’40s and ’50s. Back when I was in school we were allowed free lunch hour and we could come uptown to buy lunch,” she said.
Betty Thompson of Pineville graduated in 1954. She said there were about 15 in her class.
“Each time we have a member pass we take up a collection and put books in the Pineville Elementary School,” she said. The group has raised about $1,500, she noted.
Shirley Alps of Pineville, a member of the class of 1966 is a member of the reunion committee.
“It’s been fast and furious but we’ve accomplished what we wanted to. Committee has been great. Volunteers have been great,” she said of the reunion.
As for her school memories, she said, “We were a very close knit (class). I only had 24 in my class. We were more like brothers and sisters than friends. I tried to stay in contact over the years. Then I got on the reunion committee. It’s just nice to be from a small town and grow up the way we did.”
Janice Coberley of the class of 1966 said, “We had such a small, tight class. We enjoyed each other. We all went to the ballgames together. It was just a good time.”
David Alumbaugh of the class of 1966 said he was a counselor at McDonald County High School for many years, and there are students there that do not know each other.
“Pineville was like a big family,” he said.