
DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711010324

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 07   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: WAKEFIELD                         LENGTH:  112 lines

CATCHING UP GRADUATES OF CHUCKATUCK HIGH REMEMBER THE SCHOOL THAT EXISTED FROM 1924 TO 1965.

The legacy includes the governorship of Mills E. Godwin Jr., the musical greatness of guitarist Charlie Byrd and the annual Lewis F. Morris Scholarship.

It was Godwin and Byrd who ``put Chuckatuck on the map,'' as Mary Saunders Latimer put it.

And the scholarship, named for a well-remembered principal, is bestowed upon a student who might have gone to Chuckatuck High School if such a place still existed.

It does not.

Chuckatuck closed its doors almost 35 years ago. But Chuckatuckians live on. They recently congregated at the Airfield Conference Center to celebrate history and to re-connect with classmates.

Hundreds of graduates recalled the years 1924 to 1965, an era between the birth of their high school and when John Yeats High picked up the torch of local education.

Many have passed away, and the teachers seemed a bit more human-sized to some students. Of many changes, none was more drastic than the tearing down of Chuckatuck.

Eddie Cotten, Class of '38, recalled a land before Suffolk.

``It was Nansemond County,'' he said, and it remains so to him.

Cotten, a retired social worker, now lives in Newport News. He enjoyed catching up with people who came from as far off as Florida.

``This is the first time I've been back,'' he said, walking through tables of folks mingling and catching up.

``All these people I haven't seen,'' he said. ``It's like picking up. Just 'cause you haven't seen them in 50 years . . . 49 years, I guess. I've seen some of the fellas I went to Tech with, and William and Mary.''

Polly M. Umphlette, Class of '31, Marietta M. Everett, Class of '30, and Addie Moore Austin, Class of '41, looked over a table of photo albums, letter jackets and photos.

``We're all three sisters,'' Umphlette said. ``And we have another one here.''

The Moore sisters remembered the school as it first was - one building with a handful of students in a few grades.

``Then it got to be a couple more buildings,'' Umphlette said.

And one more grade. Until 1956, the school housed 11 grades. That year it became first through 12th.

Other graduates remembered a small school in the heart of a tight farming community. They remembered how, at the filling station across the street, Charlie Byrd and his brothers picked and grinned in the afternoons.

Six principles served at the school. One of them, a table of folks recalled, was F.H. Christopher.

``He was tough,'' said Maynard V. Corson, a former pupil.

``But he was a wonderful disciplinarian,'' said Winifred Howell, a former Chuckatuck teacher.

This disciplinarian had a less than fear-inspiring nickname.

``They called him `Cutie,' '' remembered Latimer, Class of '59, after the reunion. ``That's what all his friends called him. Not too many students called him that.''

Maynard Corson, then a student, had a markedly different view of the wonderfulness of discipline. His wife, who taught at Chuckatuck after he had graduated, agreed with Howell about the man some called ``Cutie.''

``Tough, but fair,'' Mary Charlotte Corson said.

She remembered one student who always seemed to be in trouble. Christopher had the young man out in the schoolyard almost every day after school, exacting wonderful discipline on him. Later, when Christopher was in a nursing home, that young man was his most frequent visitor, she said.

Maynard Corson recalled hearing of the pretty lady he married 53 years ago.

``The agriculture teacher told me she had good-looking legs,'' he said with a smile.

In such a small town, footprints overlapped between school business and weekend recreation.

Eddie Cotten remembered his father going bird hunting with Christopher. Howell taught him. School leaders, he said, were also community leaders.

``Some of the best times in my life were at Chuckatuck,'' Howell said. ``They treated us like queens, too. They put us on a pedestal.''

Cotten remembered his classes with Howell.

``Man,'' he said, ``she kept discipline.''

``You couldn't teach then if you didn't have it,'' she said. ``I taught that child. His mother came in frequently. She said, `If he's any trouble you let me know.' I fortunately did not have any trouble.''

More than 50 years later, Eddie Cotten remembered what it felt like to be back in class.

``I thought she was six feet tall,'' Cotton said. MEMO: The Chuckatuck High School Alumni would like any Chuckatuck

graduate who did not get a notice about this year's reunion to contact

Lynn Kirk Rose at 255-4663or Mary Saunders Latimer at 238-2890. They are

also seeking photos of Chuckatuck, both the school and the village. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE

Former Chuckatuck teachers Winifred Howell and Mary Charlotte Corson

catch up at the reunion.

Addie Moore Austin, Class of 1941; Polly M. Umphlette, Class of

1931; and Marietta M. Everett, Class of 1930, look over momentos

from their high school days. The three sisters were among four

family members who attended Chuckatuck High School.

Guitarist Charlie Byrd, a native of Chuckatuck, graduated in the