Russett Reunions

Before the High School closed, each year the big event was the Junior/Senior/Alumni banquet.  It was this rural community's equivalent of the large school Prom.  Traditionally, the Juniors were host to the Seniors and the Alumni, the Sophomores served the meal and the local Home Demonstration Club cooked the meal.  A few times a band was hired to try to make the event a prom but when the band would strike up, no one would dance.  Either we were too shy to dance, didn't know how to dance or some of our strict religions didn't approve of dancing.

After the High School closed the Junior/Senior/Alumni banquet became the Alumni Reunion and the event was held in some nearby town.  Several times the event was held in Ardmore at the Holiday Inn Motel.  As there were no more High School Graduates, the number of qualified attendees began to shrink and we all missed our former student colleagues.  The event then became the Former Russett Student Reunion and if you ever attended the Russett School, you were invited.  Over time the former Russett residents were included and it is said that Holland Jester came up with the ultimate qualification.  "If you drank from the well at the school house, you were qualified to attend." The event then became the "Russett Reunion" and is held annually on the Saturday evening during the Memorial Day Weekend.

The last several years the Russett Reunion has been held at the Murray College Student Union and has been well attended as former Russett Residents  and their families attend. We all owe a great deal of gratitude to Wayne (class of '53) and Codeen (Looney) Easterwood (class of '54) who each year make the arrangements, send out the invitations, plan the program.  Wayne had taken photos of the attendees for several years and has them posted on the Internet at the following location:

http://picasaweb.google.com/RussettGrad

Click on the above link or if that does not work copy and paste or type it into your browser address line.

One event that is always on the program each year is Ora Mae (Brown) Boyer (class of '33) reading of a poem.  Because of ill health, Ora Mae wasn't able to read her poem at the 2007 Reunion.  We look forward to her being able to do so next year.  You can read her most recent poems by clicking on the Poetry Option on the left.