Perry High School class of ‘73 celebrates 50-year reunion

The class will attend the Perry Council Meeting at the new City Hall at 6 p.m. to receive a proclamation from Mayor Randall Walker. The class will meet again on Sept. 7 at 4 p.m. to have a tour of Perry High School and walk through the hallways once again. The following day they invite the community to a Meet and Greet Fish Fry at Rozier Park starting at 5 p.m. The next day on Saturday Sept.9, the class will have a banquet starting at 6 p.m. at the Perry Events Center.

According to member of the class Olla Hill, many members from the community will speak at the banquet including Mayor Walker, former Assistant Superintendent of the Houston County School System James Kitchen, Founder and Operator of Perry Historical Society Ellie Loudermilk and current Principal of Perry High School. To end the weeklong celebration, the class will meet on Sept. 10 at New Hope Church where they will worship starting at 11 a.m. and donate money to the church.

Hill shares one of the events she is most excited about is the proclamation they will be given during Tuesday night’s council meeting. Hill said the proclamation will be in the Perry Area Historical Museum, and she thinks it’s impressive that the proclamation will be there for many years. Community members will witness Mayor Walker reading the proclamation during the meeting, which Hill thinks is outstanding.

Hill also shares she is excited about the banquet because it will be a culmination of the class of 1973. She said the banquet will also have a memorial table for all the members of their class who have sadly passed away and will light candles in their memory.

“We are all over the United States and so it’s a lot of them and they’re coming back and we’re going to have a grand celebration. We have a great lineup of speakers who can do the history,” said Hill.

She shares that Loudermilk was one of the teachers who taught at the school while they were there, and Kitchens was one of her former teachers. She said the banquet will be like the old and the new coming together.

Hill said the group started planning their reunion last year in August. They started meeting every month since then at Rozier Park in the Senior Citizen room.

“To see everybody, I mean we share tears, we share smiles, we share information about our grandkids and our careers. So, it’s been a very loving experience to see our former classmates,” said Hill.

Hill is very surprised to see the changes of the school since the last time she walked through those doors fifty years ago. She shared that she visited the school last Oct. and noticed how much the building structure has changed and another change she mentioned was the panther in front of the school. She also said that when she attended the school, they didn’t have an auditorium, which is another change she noticed during her visit.

Hill would like to thank the city of Perry and everyone who has supported the class to help make the events happen and reunite once again.

Make sure to celebrate with the Perry High School class of 1973 starting on Sept. 5.