Weekend October 3-4-5, 2003 More Activities Added Do you really want to wait until 2005 to get together and party with your friends and Classmates? Well, we're also inviting you non '64-'65-'66 Classmates to join us for the fun. Haven't you loved reading and seeing the stories about your days at Lee? This is your high school's homecoming and is a homecoming for all classes. More and more plans are being made to insute that this will be "THE EVENT" of the year for alumni. Just as we have set the standard for an alumni website, we will be the start of putting "Coming Home" back into the Homecoming Football Game weekend. We can still use a few more volunteers in the Huntsville area to work with Niles Prestage, Class of '65, and others in making this event happen. As of presstime, we are working on a schedule that will include at least the following events. This week we hear that Carol Jean Carroll, Class of '65, has booked a room for us at Zesto's for after the game on Friday night. She says many of you may not know that it is also now a bar and pub. There is a room that will hold approximately 50 people that she will hold for us after the ballgame on Friday night. (Don't worry, they still have dip-dogs.) I thought it might be fun for everyone to go back to another of our old stompin' grounds. It doesn't look quite like it used to because of a fire a few years back, but still sits on the same old corner. She has also talked with a florist who will make us the old fashioned Homecoming Mums (just like in the '60s), for around $12.50 each. We wonder what the "new" Generals will say about that. We've also procured T-shirts and coffee mugs to commemorate this historic gathering and will have them for sale at the events. Friday night, October 3, 5:00pm - Tailgate party at Milton Frank Stadium. We're thinking hot dogs, chips, and drinks (more details later) Friday night, October 3, 7:00pm - Lee High School's homecoming football game. Lee HIgh takes on J.O. Johnson at Milton Frank Stadium. Buy your ticket at the gate. Friday night after the game - get-together at Zesto's at Five Points. Saturday morning, October 4, 8:00am - Breakfast at Mullins. Saturday day sometime, October 4 - Golf match Team/Best Ball/Scramble (details later). We are also looking into a get together at one of the local bowling alleys if weather is bad or for those who don't care to join in the golf tournament. Saturday evening, October 4, 6:30pm until when- ever - The First Lee Alumni Homecoming Dance will be held at Niles' place with a full program of food, music, fun and games. (details and map later, but plan on a $10 per person cost) Sunday morning October 5, 9:30am - Perhaps another get together for breakfast at Shoney's or somewhere (details later). This event is not just going to a football game. We are speading out the activites to give everyone an opportunity to enjoy something. There will be plenty of time for visitation and photo ops and memories. Details will be given as they become more defined. Please e-mail us if you are willing to work on a Homecoming Committee for the readers of Lee's Traveller. Give A Book To Lee in 2003 A few have aready sent in their checks but there is still plenty of time to join them. Remember readers, we are trying to collect money to present a check to the Lee library sometime during the homecoming event. (See story by clicking here) Please make out your check to Lee High School, in the memo section at the bottom write Lee Library Donation, and mail it to: Joy Morris Athens State University 300 North Beaty Street Athens, Alabama 35611 We'll total all the checks and make one presentation and thanks for your support in giving something back. _______________________________________ |
Est. March 31, 2000 43,260 Previous Hits August 18, 2003 Editor:Tommy Towery http://www.leealumni.com Class of 1964 Page Hits This Issue e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly , Joy Rubins Morris, Paula Spencer Kephart, Rainer Klauss, Bobby Cochran, Collins (CE) Wynn, Eddie Sykes Staff Photographers: Fred & Lynn Sanders Contributers: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 |
We Are Fami-LEE! |
Est. March 31, 2000 43,260 Previous Hits August 18, 2003 Editor:Tommy Towery http://www.leealumni.com Class of 1964 Page Hits This Issue e-mail ttowery@memphis.edu Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly , Joy Rubins Morris, Paula Spencer Kephart, Rainer Klauss, Bobby Cochran, Collins (CE) Wynn, Eddie Sykes Staff Photographers: Fred & Lynn Sanders Contributers: The Members of Lee High School Classes of 64-65-66 |
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A big thanks goes out to you Huntsville residents who have offered your help in the Homecoming 2003 activities. Also to those that have already sent in a donation to the Buy A Book For Lee in 2003 campaign. The party is brewing for October, and it is going to be one to remember. It may be the best Homecoming Lee High School has ever seen. My goal is for the alumni to outnumber the students at the football game. Keep reading for the next month to see what all is planned. Each week it's getting bigger and bigger. Also, Eddie Sykes was not joking about the cruise. Make plans to join him for the fun. T. Tommy _____________________________________ |
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Last Week's Pop Quiz submitted by Bob Cochran Class of '64 The question was, "The Lee High School Class of 1964 did something that NO other previous graduating class in Huntsville had ever done. What was it?" __________________________________ Linda Kay Taylor, Class of '64 In response to the Monday Quiz.....We had the largest graduating class that LHS has ever had!! _________________________________ Linda McAdams Johnson, Class of '65 The Class of 1964 has the distinguished honor of being the FIRST GRADUATING CLASS. And they did it like no others before them. _________________________________ Don Blaise, Class of '64 I will never forget that night when our class did something no other class in Huntsville had ever done... We held our graduation ceremonies out of doors at the new Milton-Frank football stadium. I remember being next to salley Black, a long time "Home Room" companion and friend. We both wondered if anybody there was naked under their robes. A truly great night for me! ____________________________ Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, Class of '64 Were we the first class to graduate at the new stadium? ___________________________________ Tommy Towery, Class of '64 My answer is that we were the first class to hold graduation ceremonies outside at what is now Milton Frank Stadium. _________________________________ Bobby Cochran writes "I have the article from THE HUNTSVILLE TIMES of June 3, 1964, detailing the graduation ceremonies for our class. It contains a photo of Ginger Burrus and Mike Acree with Dr. Hamilton. (In the text of the article, Ginger is referred to as "Ginger Ramsey." ha) According to the article, ours was the first class of ANY Huntsville school to hold its graduation ceremonies out-of-doors. And now you know, the rest of the answer! ______________________________________ |
Last Week's Mystery Building We were surprised at how many of our Classmates correctly identified last week's building. By the way, did you note the $1785 price tag in the window? __________________________________________ Linda McAdams Johnson, Class of '65 It's the Hill's Chevrolet Building, downtown. It was across the street from the Hill's Grocery, which was purchased by Winn Dixie when Mr. Hill died. Marking it as the first Winn Dixie in Huntsville. Nearby businesses were Stockton Buick on the North and I remember Safeway? on the south, with the A&P across from the Health Department. __________________________________________ Rick Edmonds, Class of '65 I'm sure the mystery building is the Chevrolet dealership - I think it was Hill's Chevrolet, but I' wouldn't swear to the name. _______________________________ Mary Pat Hanson Riley, Class of '70 I believe the "mystery building" is the Firestone station downtown. _______________________________________________ J.R. Brooks, Class of '64 I believe it is the original Hill Chevrolet building. ________________________________________ David Mullins, Class of '64 Building in the picture is the former Hill Chevrolet building. It is located on Green Street across from Seniors' apartments. I believe that it is currently occupied by Monroe Office Equipment, and is only a few hundred feet from intersection of Walker and Meridian Sts.It was in this location prior to the move to the corner of Washington and Pratt. Good to see it again in this old photo! ____________________________________ Jimmy Preston Hill Chevrolet - Later home of Monroe Business Equipment. _________________________________________________ Randy Goodpasture, Class of '66 Gosh, I think I'm on a roll. First the Dallas Street Armory and now the Hill Chevrolet Building. I worked there a couple of summers delivering parts. The only real rule my boss had was we could not drink cokes in the delivery truck. That was back when they came in real glass bottles. He was afraid we would put the empty bottle in the floorboard and it might roll under the brake pedal and make us wreck the truck. I'm not sure whether his concern was more for us or the truck. _________________________________________ Jim Bannister, Class of '66 The mystery location looks like Hill Chevrolet. Randy Goodpasture worked there as a parts runner and I hung out around the parts department some. ______________________________ Barbara Wilkerson Donnelly, Class of '64 This is probably an off-the-wall guess, but my first thought was that the mystery building looked like Sonny Stockton's Buick Showroom (on Meridian Street? across from the old Hill's Supermarket). My dad would drive nothing except a Buick, and I bought my first new car, an Austin Healy, from Sonny in 1967. Maybe it's another showroom. Whatever, this picture brought back some very pleasant memories of a great day spent with my dad. I'll never forget him saying, "This car looks just like it was made for you, Pete." I don't know why, but he just sometimes called me Pete for some reason! Those were the times I remember best. My mother just about croaked because it was a convertible, but my very strict dad loved it! Go figure! I lost him less than two months later and always loved that little car because he loved it so much. ________________________________________ Terry Davis, Class of '64 The place is Hill Chevrolet. ______________________________________________ More On The Armory Or Forget About Spam, This Was A Scam by Collins (CE) Wynn Class of '64 It was interesting to see the photograph of the Armory on Dallas Street in one of our recent issues. As with other classmates it brought back memories for me of our graduation night and the party we had there. As, I think, most everyone knows my Dad was a Huntsville Police Officer and as such he often worked security type jobs after his normal duty hours. In the mid-1950s one of his extra jobs was at the "rasling" matches held at the Armory that several have commented on. The names mentioned in earlier issues bring back memories does anyone remember Gorgeous George? This was true southern showmanship in its most basic form. Oddly enough the thing I remember most is the thick blue cloud of cigarette smoke that hung over the entire auditorium everyone in the room was smoking something in amongst all the hollering and screaming it was a real circus and a true cash cow. Believe me, they had police protection present for good reason. As a side note and piece of meaningless trivia, some years later I worked as the Ring Announcer for a couple of 'rasling' events there at the Dallas Street Armory and had a minor business relationship with the promoters Gulas/Welch Enterprises of Nashville, From memory I can recall bits of information about the armory that some may find interesting. Some of the Old Huntsville websites probably have more. For instance: The armory was built by the WPA (Works Progress Administration?) in the mid and late 1930s and it was the original home of the Headquarters of the 1169th Engineer Group. Although there were National Guard units in Huntsville from about 1909 onward, I don't know where they met before the Dallas Street Armory was constructed. In 1959 or so the 1169th moved to a "new" facility on the west side of South Parkway a mile or so north of Airport Road. The armory was named Fort Raymond T. Jones after a former commander who also happened to be a part of the Jones engineering family of Huntsville and Jones Valley. They remained there until, maybe, 1990 when they moved to another "new" facility farther south - still on the west side of the Parkway near Green Mountain Road (?). After the 1169th moved out in 1959, the Dallas Street Armory was occupied by two units, the 279th Signal Battalion and Company A, 20th Special Forces Group. Late one night in 1968 a fire broke out in the rear portion of the building where some electrical maintenance work had been going on and totally destroyed it. Because it was small and had little equipment, the Special Forces unit was allowed to remain in the front, undamaged portion of the building and everyone else was scattered to temporary facilities within a 50-mile radius of Huntsville. Over the next few years a new armory was designed and constructed on south Lehman Ferry Road on the west side of the main runway of the by then inactive Huntsville-Madison County Airport. Eventually the scattered units were drawn back into Huntsville and along with the Special Forces unit, relocated to the "new" armory. The Special Forces unit (now Headquarters, 1st Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group - a decorated veteran unit of the war on terrorism after spending a year and a half in Afghanistan and, I suspect, with plans for other adventures in the near future as well) was later moved into the armory on south Parkway vacated by the 1169th Engineer Group as described above. After all these moves and relocation's settled down, the City of Huntsville gained title to the then Dallas Street Armory and rehabilitated the facility to serve as a recreational center. I understand it is still in use today which proves that not everything has to be new to have value. Maintenance dollars and labor hours expended on old buildings are often well spent. As the manager of the Dallas Street Armory in 1967 and 1968 I unknowingly watched a scam as it was perpetrated on many of my friends in the Huntsville area I suspect some of you reading this may have been victims as well One day this guy blew into town who presented himself as a rock and roll show promoter who wanted to rent the armory. Hey, fine with me, just sign the contract and cough up the cash and you can have whatever kind of show you want. I mean, it was just business, you pay you play. So the guy paid up (in advance which is always a good policy) and started advertising and selling tickets to the big show. His lead act was supposedly one of the hottest bands of the day whose name I cannot now quite pull out of the fog not the Beach Boys or the Monkees but something close, perhaps the Turtles. Ticket sales were dynamite and the cash was rolling in. The day of the show the facility was set up and the stage was erected and ready to go by 2 pm. In hindsight, the fact that nothing else happened (no roadies, no equipment, no light guy, no sound guy, etc) should have tipped us off to what was happening but, besides being young, stupid, and gullible, we weren't paying close enough attention. Around 7pm, after filling the building up with probably 2,000 16 to 20 year old party animals and collecting all the cash he could carry, the guy tells me he is going to the airport to pick up the band and leaves abruptly through the front door, predictably, never to be seen again. It turned out to be a bummer night about an hour later after I made the announcement that we had all been taken, I had to call the police to get the building cleared. For me it was a hard lesson well learned I viewed everything from then on with a healthy dose of skepticism and still do. To the best of my knowledge the guy was never identified or caught, at least not in Huntsville. I was glad to see the Armory building still in use. I had a chance to visit with a long time personal friend of mine, Dallas Fanning, the other day at a civic event in Anniston. Since Dallas is a senior City of Huntsville official I inquired about the status of the old armory. He mentioned to me that the City was installing a new facade over the original sandstone block to make the building more appealing but other than that it is still sound and the City intends to use it for years into the future. ________________________________________ Tommy Towery, Class of '64 My most vivid memory of this building is from 1958 or so and it involves my brother Don. Early one evening we got a phone call from Hill Chevrolet and they asked to speak to Don Towery. Neither he nor any of us knew what was going on, but it turned out that he had entered a drawing for a give-away there and he had won. It was for a pedal car version of the 1958 Chevy Crovet. We brought it home but he was 15 and I was 12 and we were both too old for a pedal car, even though it was neat. I sat it in front of the TV and sat in it like I was at a drive-in movie the first night. We finally ran an ad in the paper and sold it for $50 I think, which shows what it was worth back then. I'd love to have it to put on E-Bay today. ______________________________________________________ |
Weekend October 3-4-5, 2003 More Activities Added Do you really want to wait until 2005 to get together and party with your friends and Classmates? Well, we're also inviting you non '64-'65-'66 Classmates to join us for the fun. Haven't you loved reading and seeing the stories about your days at Lee? This is your high school's homecoming and is a homecoming for all classes. More and more plans are being made to insute that this will be "THE EVENT" of the year for alumni. Just as we have set the standard for an alumni website, we will be the start of putting "Coming Home" back into the Homecoming Football Game weekend. We can still use a few more volunteers in the Huntsville area to work with Niles Prestage, Class of '65, and others in making this event happen. As of presstime, we are working on a schedule that will include at least the following events. This week we hear that Carol Jean Carroll, Class of '65, has booked a room for us at Zesto's for after the game on Friday night. She says many of you may not know that it is also now a bar and pub. There is a room that will hold approximately 50 people that she will hold for us after the ballgame on Friday night. (Don't worry, they still have dip-dogs.) I thought it might be fun for everyone to go back to another of our old stompin' grounds. It doesn't look quite like it used to because of a fire a few years back, but still sits on the same old corner. She has also talked with a florist who will make us the old fashioned Homecoming Mums (just like in the '60s), for around $12.50 each. We wonder what the "new" Generals will say about that. We've also procured T-shirts and coffee mugs to commemorate this historic gathering and will have them for sale at the events. Friday night, October 3, 5:00pm - Tailgate party at Milton Frank Stadium. We're thinking hot dogs, chips, and drinks (more details later) Friday night, October 3, 7:00pm - Lee High School's homecoming football game. Lee HIgh takes on J.O. Johnson at Milton Frank Stadium. Buy your ticket at the gate. Friday night after the game - get-together at Zesto's at Five Points. Saturday morning, October 4, 8:00am - Breakfast at Mullins. Saturday day sometime, October 4 - Golf match Team/Best Ball/Scramble (details later). We are also looking into a get together at one of the local bowling alleys if weather is bad or for those who don't care to join in the golf tournament. Saturday evening, October 4, 6:30pm until when- ever - The First Lee Alumni Homecoming Dance will be held at Niles' place with a full program of food, music, fun and games. (details and map later, but plan on a $10 per person cost) Sunday morning October 5, 9:30am - Perhaps another get together for breakfast at Shoney's or somewhere (details later). This event is not just going to a football game. We are speading out the activites to give everyone an opportunity to enjoy something. There will be plenty of time for visitation and photo ops and memories. Details will be given as they become more defined. Please e-mail us if you are willing to work on a Homecoming Committee for the readers of Lee's Traveller. Give A Book To Lee in 2003 A few have aready sent in their checks but there is still plenty of time to join them. Remember readers, we are trying to collect money to present a check to the Lee library sometime during the homecoming event. (See story by clicking here) Please make out your check to Lee High School, in the memo section at the bottom write Lee Library Donation, and mail it to: Joy Morris Athens State University 300 North Beaty Street Athens, Alabama 35611 We'll total all the checks and make one presentation and thanks for your support in giving something back. _______________________________________ |
Plans Are Formalized - Lee High School's 4-Day Cruise Leaves February 19, 2004 From New Orleans by Eddie Sykes Class of '66 Please join us for a winter get together on a Carnival cruise. The Carnival Holiday will sail Thursday afternoon February 19, 2004 from New Orleans for a four day cruise and return on Monday morning Feb 23rd. The ship will travel down the Mississippi River and through the Gulf of Mexico for two days before reaching beautiful Cozumel Mexico. The ship returns to New Orleans the day before the Mardi Gras celebration of Fat Tuesday. (The day most people refer to as Mardi Gras, although the celebration is a month long) We have arranged special group rates of $399 & $449 for 4a inside or 6a outside accommodations respectively. This is a cruise only price, but other travel arrangements or cabin selections are available through our cruise agent, Jeff Maul. He will be arranging booking for us. Our group name is Lee High Cruise. He is with St. Armanda Travel and can be reached @ 1-800-233-5339 or by e-mail at geoffmaul2@netscape.net. He will also make hotel accommodations if you would like to stay over in New Orleans. This price does include port charges but there is also an additional tax of $16.55. You can reserve your place with a $200 refundable deposit. We have 20+ cabins held until October 22 at that price. You can still book after that date but price is based on availability. The deposit can be made over the phone with a credit card and is fully refundable up to December 22, when the total payment is due. Please fill free to call for additional information or e-mail me (Eddie Sykes) at LeeHighCruise@aol.com. I have set up a special e-mail to answer questions and send out information. I will answer e-mails daily or at least every other day. Again, you can go the www.carnival.com and select funship: HOLIDAY and get information about this cruise. There will be additional information with more details as they unfold. But, pass the word along to friends and other classmates. Anyone, is welcome to join in with us or to take advantage to this group price. You do not have to be a graduate of LHS classes of '64-'65-'66. ________________________________________ |
From Our Mailbox Subject: Darwin Downs Jim Bannister Class of '66 I am also one one of the Darwin Downs crowd, obviously not one of the memorable ones. I lived on Giles across the street from Bucky Hoffmeyer, Jim & Mike Storm were a couple of doors up, Toni Ivey, Larry Smith & Pam Grooms were my backdoor neighbors on Stanhope. _________________________________________ Subject: Update on Butch and A Small World Encounter Skip Cook Class of '64 I visited with Butch Adcock on Wednesday night at the hospital prior to his heart surgery on Thursday. When I arrived he was in the process of getting briefed by a nurse whose duty was to get him to sign all of the release forms. Butch was as cavalier and calm about the whole thing as he was in school. I spent about an hour with him and it was great . I thought his classmates might want an update on his condition. My mother had hired a young woman to help her out with shopping, driving to the doctors, etc. Paula and I took her and her son out to dinner after visitation Monday night. We enjoyed talking with her and as usual ended up playing "Do You Know?". As it turns out Dale and Gale Thompson are her aunt and uncle. Small world my friend. _____________________________________ Subject: Lee High Web Page David Fulda Class of '64 I can't say as I've ever looked up Lee High on the Web. I was surprised to find your page. I was more surprised to find you are going to ST Louis to visit Bobby Cochran! Bobby, Lee Riggs, David Bess, and some others visited regularly during high school, playing cards and watching or playing football. Please tell Bobby hello for me. I lived in St. Louis for two years and have fond memories of it. Hope you have a nice time. What a surprise to find so many baby boomers still booming. _____________________________________ Jennifer Slaton Class of '99 I think this site is great!! I hope that my classmates and I can get something like this going it would be absolutely wonderful!! Go Generals!! _________________________________ Casey Brown Johnson High, Class of '89 I was a student of Bob Crumps at J O Johnson. I always heard that he was a graduate of Lee. I live in Indiana now and get home sick often. I found this site just by typing Huntsville into Google. I loooooove this site!!!!!!! It's nice to hear about Huntsville back then. My father (Julian Brown) went to Lee High also. I remember him talking about Shoney's and Johnny Tona's Pool Hall. Anyway, Thank you for sharing your memories with me, or allowing me to peek in on them at least. And Crump if ya read this, You were an absolutely awesome teacher!!!! You made JOJ a blast, and in a sense Johnson owes Lee for having produced you. Tell Dawn Reed whats up too, and that I miss getting in trouble for drawing on her desks in class. (Casey) Calvin J Brown II c/o 89 J O Johnson High Peace, Love Dove yall!! _____________________________ |
This Week's Mystery Building See if you can not only identify this building, but also give us a story related to it. It makes for a lot more memories. _____________________________________ |
The Proof Is In The Paper The Huntsville Times - Wednesday, June 3, 1964. Caption under photo reads "Fulton Hamilton, center, poses for photographers with Lee High School salutatorian, Ginger Burrus, left, and valedictorian Mike Acree during commencement exercises at the Huntsville Stadium last night. Lee is the first Huntsville school to hold outdoor graduation in the stadium. The article says in part, " Setting a new trend in graduation for Huntsville, Lee High School conducted commencement exercises last night at th Huntsville Stadium." Prior to the performance of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," Lee valadictorian Mike Acree delivered a farewell address. Acree urged the senior to "keep going." He told them to keep growing and learning. "Happiness," he said, "is the purpose and reward of productive achievement." Acree told the graduates that for the future, "You can do anything you want to do." Now what did he mean by that I wonder? And on another note, were we not ahead of the game in being politically correct by playing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at a Lee graduation instead of "Rebel Rouser" or "Dixie"? _______________________________________ |
