Jessieville teachers, community make lasting impact
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 10th in a series of articles spotlighting alumni of local high schools, colleges and universities as they prepare for this month’s commencement ceremonies.
JESSIEVILLE — Many alumni of Jessieville High School echo a common sentiment of appreciation for the small town support and educational prowess of the faculty.
This year’s graduates will participate in commencement today at Bank of the Ozarks Arena. The class of 2017 is scheduled to graduate at 3 p.m.
“I love Jessieville,” said Brandy Cox, a 1995 graduate and former Miss Arkansas. “I brag about it to everyone who will listen. I loved my experience at Jessieville and I loved playing basketball there.”
Cox said many of her best memories from Jessieville were on the basketball court with a group of friends who have remained close since elementary school.
“Jessieville had a great curriculum,” Cox said. “It continues to excel. I thought so much of George Foshee and Steve Wright when I was there. I think we did a great job of balancing our academics and our extracurricular activities.”
Cox graduated from the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville in 1999, when she served as Miss Arkansas. She returned to graduate school for journalism at the University of Arkansas, where she is now the associate vice chancellor for alumni and executive director of the Arkansas Alumni Association.
Her mother, a former teacher, passed away in 2000. She praised the support in school and after from the Jessieville faculty and staff.
“They weren’t just teachers, they were family,”
Cox said. “I think it wasn’t just for me, but it was for so many of my classmates and the students who continue to come through there. It is wonderful to see my classmates who are giving back to the school today.”
Cox’s career includes seven years in television and film and professional experience in advertising, politics, and nonprofit management. She returned to the University of the Ozarks as director of alumni relations and director of development.
The Oklahoma State University Foundation in Stillwater hired Cox as senior director of university programs before she returned to Fayetteville in 2014. Cox said she remains close to friends and the community and is proud of her classmates for continuing to give back to the community.
“It just makes me really proud of the families, so that we can go on and we can go to lots of other places, but we can still come home and see those people who shaped our lives,” Cox said. “
Christopher Hanke, a member of the 1994 graduating class, made his debut on Broadway in New York City as the lead character, J.T., in the 2005 musical, “In My Life.” His career has included roles as Mark Cohen in “Rent,” Claude in “Hair,” Baldwin in “Cry-Baby” and Bud Frump in the revival of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” opposite Daniel Radcliffe, star of the “Harry Potter” movie franchise.
Hanke was a series regular on CBS’ “Three Rivers” and has made appearances on “Big Love” on HBO, “Devious Maids” and “The Client List” on Lifetime, “Major Crimes” on TNT and “Odd Mom Out” on Bravo.” He most recently featured on “Kevin Can Wait” on CBS with Kevin James.
Alex Wright, a 2009 alum, served in the U.S. Navy and was aboard the MV Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009. The tale of the ship’s rescue was made into the 2013 Hollywood film “Captain Phillips,” starring Tom Hanks.
Robinette Fox, a 1993 graduate, became the first female angler to win the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza in 2015. She topped 1,693 other participants to win the $50,000 grand prize. She credited her coaches at Jessieville with giving her direction in life.
“I think that’s also why I love to fish,” Fox said. “That is why I am so competitive. I think if I would not have had the coaches I had, I probably would not have been so into athletics.”
Fox has deep family roots in the Jessieville schools. She said most of her family has graduated from Jessieville, including her son and her mother, who was a valedictorian.
“It is a small town school and the teachers are very caring,” Fox said. “It is just a more one-on-one situation that I enjoy.”
Fox said she is proud she and her family members graduated from Jessieville. She fished for four years on the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society female Bassmaster tour and now works for CHI St. Vincent.
“I will always remember the teachers and the impact they had on education,” Fox said. “They wanted you to learn and you weren’t just another student. They wanted each and everybody to learn and I still, to this day, think about some of the teachers I had.”
Jessieville graduate Shannon Butler is now an assistant professor of Spanish, Latin American and Chicano literature in the Modern Languages Department at Marshall University in Huntington, W.V. She earned a doctorate from Ohio State University.
Butler has studied and worked in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and other countries. Her poetry has been included in works of contemporary poetry and she has presented papers at national conferences throughout the country. Her book, “Travel Narratives in Dialogue: Contesting Representations of Nineteenth-Century Peru” was published in 2008.
Former Lions baseball star Mark Reyes was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 22nd round of the 2014 MLB June Amateur Draft from Southern Mississippi, where he transferred from Crowder College in Neosho, Mo. Reyes spent his freshman season with the Arkansas Razorbacks and missed the following season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Reyes has pitched for the past two seasons with the Giants’ minor league affiliates.
Audrey Bennett, a 1984 graduate, was a longtime chemist for the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco company. She retired to Hawaii, where she owns a macadamia brittle candy company.