THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406280136
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HOLLY WESTER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940629 LENGTH: Long
The class of 1954, which was the last graduating class from the old Kempsville High School, a building that has since become Kemps Landing Middle, said a final goodbye to their school Saturday, when they celebrated their 40-year reunion. The building, which is at 525 Kempsville Road, closed its doors for good this year.
{REST} ``It's definitely a coincidence,'' said Bob Charles, who traveled from Australia, where he serves in Parliament and has lived for 25 years. ``Why do you think I traveled 13,000 miles?''
But a sad coincidence, it was not. The 28 class members who attended, as well as former teachers, upperclassmen and the principal, showed no signs of sorrow as they hugged in the parking lot, wandered through the halls, rapped about '50s culture and talked about their younger classmates who went on to the then new Princess Anne High School the following fall.
``If you watched `Happy Days,' that's exactly how we were,'' said Charles, who was class valedictorian and voted ``Most Intellignt'' and ``Most Likely To Succeed'' by his classmates. ``It was the greatest time in the world to grow up as kids.''
He said he couldn't sleep the night before the reunion. ``I wanted to see my friends again and we're not getting any younger,'' he added. ``They're closing the school down and that's the end of it.''
To start their reunion, classmates gathered in ``homeroom,'' the school's auditorium, where they sang popular songs of the '50s, told their favorite jokes and talked about the best of times.
After a shaky top-10 sing-along from 1954, where former students sang and hummed tunes by Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Frankie Laine, four of the class' peppiest ladies led the group in the chant, ``A Kempsville Girl.''
``When a Kempsville girl walks down the street
``The boys all serenade her from head to feet.
``She has the class, the smile, the winning ways
``And when you see her, boys, you'll recognize her face,
``There goes a Kempsville girl I'd like to know
``She's got the Kempsville spirit - pep and go
``And when you see her, boys, she's quite a treat - can't be beat,
``A Kempsville Girl''
\ Students then stood up one by one to talk about not only the past, but their lives today. As they talked, their blown-up senior portraits flashed on a screen behind them.
Many told stories about Mary Barnes, the senior English teacher and class sponsor, who students nicknamed ``Bloody Mary.''
Merritt Stike of Portsmouth giggled about the time he dumped a can of white paint all over Barnes' new green corduroy dress, while Dalton Wood frighteningly recalled the day he backed into her Packard in the school parking lot.
``God, if I could have just dug a hole and disappeared,'' Stike said to Barnes, laughing.
But Barnes, now retired and still living in Virginia Beach, didn't mind the storytelling. ``This was one of the best classes I ever taught,'' she said. ``They were funny, extremely responsible and well-reared. They really were a unique class.''
Warren Littleton, the former principal of Kempsville, said he was pleased with the students' accomplishments. Some have earned doctorates, some served in the military and others became teachers and ministers.
``It gives me a sense of satisfaction to see what kinds of people these former students turned out to be,'' said Littleton, who lives in Virginia Beach and retired from the school system in 1984.
During lunch in the cafeteria, classmates looked over a few editions of ``The P.A. System,'' the school newspaper, and ``The Demon,'' the yearbook. Pete Greene, organizer of the reunion, made sure he had plenty of memorabilia for the Blue Devils.
Greene, who organized the first class reunion in 1984, said there are 80 living classmates. Four have passed away.
The first reunion was planned after Greene attended a Kempsville football game (at the ``new'' Kempsville High School, which was built in the '60s) in 1981 with his daughter, Susanne. She was a student there. ``The sportscaster said it was the first meeting between Kempsville and Great Bridge,'' Greene said. ``That kind of irritated me.''
Greene remembered playing football his senior year, and beating Great Bridge, 25-6. ``They forgot us,'' he added.
The closing of Kemps Landing prompted the second reunion. ``We didn't know what was going to happen to (the school),'' he said. Greene, who now lives in Zuni with his wife, Jo Ann, was one of the three fellows in the class to marry his high school sweetheart.
Another couple from the class of '54, Jesse and Betty Sue DuBoy of Richmond, searched their closets for vintage clothing to dress up for the reunion. Jesse DuBoy, who owns an advertising business, wore his letterman sweater and penny loafers, while Betty Sue DuBoy, who was Miss Virginia in 1954, was all decked out in a white dickey, red sweater, full skirt, bobby socks and brown-on-white saddle shoes.
Jesse DuBoy was voted ``Most Talented'' in the class and Betty Sue DuBoy was ``Best Looking.''
Betty Sue DuBoy, who attended Kempsville since fourth grade, brought in photo albums to share with classmates. She pointed at one picture, a black-and-white of a young lady with her foot in the toilet bowl, and said, ``Oooh, we were bad!''
Sitting with classmates Ida Jane Young Curbman and Marie Fisk, Betty Sue DuBoy recalled the June 6 graduation, held inside the gymnasium. The class joined hands, formed a circle and sang ``You'll Never Walk Alone.''
``That was when everybody realized that it was over and we were all going to go our separate ways,'' she said. ``We were like family.''
Although it's been 40 years, ``it takes just a matter of minutes to feel like you're in high school again,'' Betty Sue DuBoy added.
Dalton Wood, who traveled from Lexington Park, Md., agreed, by saying retirement is just like graduation, ``You don't know where you want to live, what you're going to do or how you're going to get there.''
He added, ``It's really ironic . . . what goes around comes around.''
by CNB