Follow Up to Memorial Board Work

Bill:

Please place the below information on the blog as a follow-up to our memorial board work.
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Working on the memorial boards for the 45th reunion of the 1961 Graduating Class of Fair Park High School was a work of love and remembrance. Now that we are all basking in the afterglow of such a memorable evening, we would like to bring everyone up to date on some things we did not bring up during the memorial presentation.

For those of you that haven't heard, Ronnie Middleton is alive and well living on the island of Guam. We literally found the needle in the haystack. He is overwhelmed to have reconnected with high school friends after 45 years. I told him he has a date with the class for the 50th reunion and to put it on his calendar now.

Other good news is that we found Craig Deck, Kenneth Bush, and Pat Wilkerson all alive and well. They had been listed as deceased on the list we were given. Finding four classmates alive was wonderful news.

Unfortunately, we still have three classmates for whom we were unable to get any information. If anyone has any information about Janie Ruth McGrew, Paula Jones or Andrea Solis, please send it to us. You never know when the smallest bit of information might be just the lead we need. Also, we have mixed information regarding Bobby James McClendon. We have been unable to find any information to substantiate his death. We will only include pictures on the memorial board after getting definite confirmation that the individual is deceased including date-of-death.

Memorial Board - We have 70 pictures of deceased classmates. We have three for whom no pictures were available. We have three we are still trying to confirm. The biggest shock we had was finding out that we lost 23 classmates between the 40th and 45th reunions.

After the reunion, Gerry Tisdale's wife called us and told us about his death. He was James Tisdale's brother and died several months after James died. Unfortunately we did not know before the reunion so his picture could be on the board. We now have a picture and it will be added to the memorial board.

The memorial board will be an ongoing project, so feel free to send us any information you might see or hear.

Thanks,

Betty

Betty L. Molcany Barber, M.Ed.
barber2@xanadoo.com
806-698-0348
Lubbock, TX