Classes of ‘39,’40 and ‘41 celebrate teacher’s 102nd birthday
Published: August 21, 2005
The Gainesville High School Class of 1940 had brunch Saturday at the Northeast Georgia History Center to celebrate their 65th reunion, and, as they have for the last 15 years, the classes of ‘39 and ‘41 joined them.
At the brunch, the three classes wished a happy birthday to one of their former teachers, Ms. Bertha Turner, who turned 102.
“I had some mighty good students,” said Turner, who taught English. “A few sort of slow ones that didn’t want to learn, but not many. I had top students, and that made it fun to work.”
Reunion organizer Monk McClure from the Class of 1940 said that she was a tough teacher.
“Boy, you should have seen the expression on all these people’s faces when they saw her,” he said. “She just was thorough, and you had to be prepared. If you weren’t, she’d put you on the back row. Very disciplinarian. She didn’t put up with foolishness.”
The three classes have held their past three reunions together, beginning the tradition in 1990.
“The Class of 1939 didn’t have enough people to have a reunion, so we just combined them with ‘40, and then these folks at 1941 said, ‘Can’t we come, too?’ so they came in with us and that’s how it got started,” said McClure.
This year they held a banquet Friday at the Best Western Lanier Centre, and shared memories and cake with Turner at the Northeast Georgia History Center Saturday morning.
“It’s wonderful to see some of these people,” said Virginia Hall of the Class of ‘40. “We haven’t had a reunion in five years, and a lot of these people, it’s the only time we see them.”
“This is completely informal,” McClure said Saturday. “We held our banquet last night. We had a planned program last night, but there’s no program today at all.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: