The Class of ‘46 never parted

By Paul Bailey | October 23, 2006

Unlike so many graduating classes where members receive their diplomas and you never hear from them again, the Paris High School class of 1946 has never parted.

“We began having reunions 10 years after graduation, in 1956, and have had them every 10 years since,” said permanent class secretary Mary Ann Stephens of Paris. She was elected to that “special” office at the 1966 reunion.

Mrs. Stephens said there were 185 members in her graduating class. There are 95 members still living today.

Mrs. Stephens began earning her permanent secretary title back in 1956 when, after only 10 years out of high school, she began putting together memory books and scrapbooks of class members to have available at each reunion.

She now has 15 of those books that accurately record the ongoing history of class members that include familiar names like Jack Ashmore, Dr. Charles Baxter, Henry Braswell and many more outstanding citizens who reside throughout the United States.

To make sure that these pieces of Paris history are preserved, she recently placed them in the A.M. and Welma Aikin Regional Archives at Paris Junior College where people can have access to them for reading and research.

Archivist Daisy Harvill said the memory books “are real treasures” and represent a lot of research and recording by Mrs. Stephens.

Mrs. Stephens has recorded in the memory books all of the high school events involving the class, and has chronicled events (at least the important ones, she said) that have happened in the lives of each of her classmates since graduation. She said her greatest treasures are the thank you notes and letters she has received from her classmates as a result of her work over the years.

“This was a close and loving class, and I truly believe in each of my classmates,” Mrs. Stephens said. “This has been a labor of love, and I am proud that we can store and preserve these books in the Aikin Archives for everyone to enjoy.”

Reader comments

No one has commented on this article.

Want to comment on this article?

You must be registered and logged in order to leave comments on this site. Please register or log in at the top left of this screen. Once logged in, return to this page, and you will have access to the commenting form.