85-year-old is first Knoxville High grad to live in old school
KNOXVILLE — The last time Jo Ann Humphrey spent her days at Knoxville High School, she was shy, introverted, easily embarrassed.
“I didn’t belong to any clubs, or anything like that,” Humphrey said. “I didn’t want anybody to look at me.”
Fortunately, Humphrey, 85, has had time to outgrow some of that.
Now the Knoxville native, a 1950 graduate of Knoxville High, has returned to her alma mater — to live. And this time around, she’s looking to be more involved.
On Monday afternoon, with her children, grandchildren and great-grandson assisting, Humphrey moved into a one-bedroom apartment, a former classroom, at the Knoxville High Independent Senior Living, which was a high school from 19101951.
Staff welcomed her with much fanfare: “Go Trojans” blue-and-white decorations, a cake bearing her senior class photo, John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back” playing in the background as family celebrated and television cameras rolled.
Being “the center of attention,” draped in a blue feather boa, gave Humphrey a little flashback to that shy girl. But, mostly, she’s looking forward to meeting new friends for card games, puzzles and conversations, and playing the piano in the common area.
She’ll also be able to take trips downtown for certain activities; the facility provides transportation for such outings as Mighty Musical Mondays at the Tennessee Theatre and group trips to the weekend farmers’ market.
Humphrey, who still drives, wasn’t really looking to leave the Inskip duplex where she lived alone, though she lamented that it was difficult having no friends nearby. When her granddaughter, visiting from Florida, and daughter, who lives in Seymour, took her on a tour of the Knoxville High building last week, she “realized all of a sudden that I was moving in there.”
But she said she was happy to do so.
Humphrey said though the building’s beautiful, very little of it looks familiar to her. She doesn’t remember the courtyard, now covered, or the cafeteria, now a stylish dining hall. Most of her memories center around teachers and classmates.
But she immediately recognized the original embossed tin tiles that still line the high ceilings — including in the former classroom that’s now her new home. The original windows and doors, preserved by developer Rick Dover, were also familiar.
She’s looking forward to starting an exercise class to improve her balance — and glad she won’t have to wear the gym uniform that was required in the 1940s. An example is in a glass case on the school’s second floor, part of an extensive display of Knoxville High School photos and objects put together by the school’s Alumni Association.
Kim Olen, community relations director for Senior Solutions Management Group, which will oversee the property, said though Humphrey is the first alum to move in, she doesn’t expect her to be the last. Olen sent 1,300 invites for an “alumni tour,” during which she said more than 120 alumni gathered in the former cafeteria and “started singing the fight song and literally cheering.”
Olen said about 25 of the 80 apartments already are spoken for. The majority — around 80 percent — are one-bedrooms, with a few studio and two-bedroom units. Each has a kitchen and a washer-dryer.
Humphrey doesn’t expect to use her kitchen much. Rent — which ranges from about $1,700 a month for a small studio to a little less than $3,900 a month for a large two-bedroom — includes three daily meals, apartment cleaning, utilities and wireless internet, exercise room, valet parking and transportation to appointments and activities.
The complex, which opened in April, is targeting people 55 and older who move in with that “retirement living, I-just-want-tohave-fun mentality,” Olen said. “Somebody said it’s like a cruise ship on land.”