DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704040190

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HOLLY WESTER, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

OLD KEMPSVILLE HIGH PLANS MEGA-REUNION

Whether they pursued careers, raised families or both, alumni of the old Kempsville High School have at least one thing in common.

They know how to party.

Three hundred-plus former students, from the classes of 1935 through 1954 - the last class of the old school at 525 Kempsville Road (now Kemps Landing Magnet School) - will be on hand for Kempsville's fourth mega-reunion May 2 and 3 at the Lake Wright Resort & Convention Center on Northampton Boulevard.

The event is held every five years, and this year's will honor the class of 1947, which is celebrating its golden anniversary.

According to chairman Effie Webb Taylor, a Portsmouth resident from the class of 1946, this year's celebration will the biggest.

``We've opened it up to anyone who attended the old Kempsville High,'' Taylor said of the event, which has included more and more classes every five years.

It will be similar to ones of years past, and will feature a hospitality night on Friday evening, when classmates can exchange stories over hors d'oeuvres and dance to music from the '40s and '50s. ``Some people just love to come. They love to get together with classmates, reminisce with them and talk about people and what they're doing,'' she said.

Among the discussions are memories of the ``tin gym,'' where students played basketball between two pot-bellied stoves, and stories about ``Bloody Mary,'' the nickname for the hard-nosed English teacher and class sponsor, Mary Barnes. Barnes, now retired and still in the area, will be one of many former teachers attending.

Saturday night's activities will include a banquet dinner, orchestra music and a semi-formal program, where alums will, among other things, sing the school song:

Class pictures will be taken that evening, and easels and tables bearing pictures and prom memorabilia as well as editions of ``The P.A. System'' (the school newspaper) and ``The Demon'' (the yearbook), will be on display.

Taylor is in the process of working out a tour of the old school Saturday morning, which will be hosted by current students.

She said 800 letters were mailed out last fall, and alums - who have spent their lives working in fields such as medicine, law and ministry - are coming from California, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida and Maine. MEMO: For information about the reunion, call Effie Webb Taylor at

488-3748. ILLUSTRATION: Photo shows the 1950 Kempsville High School baseball

team. The school then was at 525 Kempsville Road, now Kemps Landing

Magnet School.

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