Jim Nottingham, Class of 1961, has been hanging out with his friends for 68 years.

From first grade in Worthington through Monongah High graduation, it was a pair of Jims, Nottingham and McDaniel, Class of 1960, who today lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, who were constant companions.

In recent years Jim has been meeting monthly in Worthington with Edward Burley, Class of 1962, widower of Katherine Ely Burley; Roy “Jaybird” Murphy, Class of 1966; Joe McCullough, Class of 1962; David  Willis, Class of 1961; Clifford Morgan, Class of 1961; Harold Maze, Class of 1961; Wilbur Smith, Class of 1960; and Howard Shuttlesworth Jr., Class of 1972.

Roger Hartbert, Jim McDaniel, Jim Nottingham

Saturday at the 92^nd annual Monongah High Alumni Reunion he will be with Roger Harbert, a Monongah High grad who joined Jim Nottingham and Harold Maze to visit Jim McDaniel in Rehoboth Beach a few years ago. Both made their reservations. Jim Nottingham also attended the 2011 MHS Alumni Reunion.

The pair of Jims – Nottingham and McDaniel – were patrol boys at Worthington Grade School and made a 3-day trip to Washington, D.C. for their reward.

“We are still best of friends,” Jim McDaniel says of Jim Nottingham.

Darin Nottingham, North Marion Class of 1987, is Jim’s son. The late Mary Ellen was his sister.  

Linda Nottingham Willis, Class of 1964, a majorette and class officer at Monongah High, and John T. “Tommy” Nottingham, Class of 1968, married to Victoria Blocker Nottingham, Class of 1969, are his cousins.

Jim Nottingham missed a year of school at Monongah High after being shot in a hunting accident near Harter Hill.

Roy “Jaybird” Murphy played basketball and baseball for a Monongah High team that made the state baseball tournament in Parkersburg.

Jaybird lives in West Milford with Patricia Beccaloni Murphy, Class of 1964, daughter of Margaret Browning Beccaloni and Mario Beccaloni, sister of Robert Beccaloni and stepdaughter of Steve Sinkovich.

There’s something about Worthington that creates life-long friendships. Marylee Hertzog Gwinn, Class of 1948, of Rockville, Maryland; Bettie Hensley Lowther, Class of 1948, of Pompano Beach, Florida, and Suzanne Barr Loss, Class of 1948, of Mill Fall were Monongah High cheerleaders from Worthington who were known as the Three Musketeers because they ran around together so much during their MHS days.

And remained in contact with each other even though they lived up and down the Atlantic Seabord, till Suzi passed away.

Nottinghams are all over my Monongah High records.

Mary Ellen Nottingham, Class of 1965, is from Fairmont.

Victoria Blocker Nottingham is a daughter of Lucille Loss Blocker, daughter of J.B. Loss and Josephine Dieling Loss. Her siblings were the late Barbara Ann Blocker Tennant and Scott Blocker, Class of 1968.

Sharon Nottingham DeNoon also went to Monongah High.

As for the 92^nd Monongah High Alumni Reunion, which was started in 1922 by Greta Martin Mike, who married barber Jimmy Mike and lived in Monongah:

SATURDAY, MAY 28

At the Knights of Columbus, Mary Lou Retton Drive, Fairmont.

5:30 p.m. Honor class photos (1956, 1961, 1966, 1976).

6:30 p.m. Banquet.

8:30 p.m.  Dancing to the music of Stepping Stone, a father-son duo.

156 reservations have been made, well in excess of the 125 who showed up in 2015.