ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT TO MAKE MONONGAH HIGH BANQUET RESERVATIONS !!!

 

Not even COVID, one of the worst pandemics in American history, was able to stop the Monongah High Alumin Banquet from being the longest continuous high school reunion in West Virginia history.

The 98^th annual banquet will be at 6 p.m. Saturday, September 4 at the Knights of Columbus on Mary Lou Retton Drive in Fairmont. That’s only TWO years from the Centennial Banquet in 2023!

The town of Monongah has only received its charter in 1891.

The majority of the "Semi-Formal" banquets were in the Fairmont Hotel.  The banquet site was switched to Morgantown’s Ramada Inn in 1972. Later, it was  moved again, to Westchester Village in Fairmont. When Westchester Village closed, the MHS Banquet switched to the K of C in 2014.

Greta Martin Mike, Class of 1922,  founded the Monongah Alumni Association in 1922 and came up with the first Monongah High Alumni Reunion that year, which was held in Mannington. Irene Waltz Joyce, Class of 1922, attended every MHS Alumni Banquet for 64 years.

Greta was married to Jimmy Mike, of the legendary Monongah Mike family barbers that included Dominic Mike and Mutt Mike.

Warren G. Harding was America’s President in 1922, when the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. was dedicated and New York’s Yankee Stadium was being built and legendary “Golden Girls” and “Mary Tyler Moore” actress Betty White and singers  Doris Day and Judy Garland were born.  

The first Monongah High graduation class, in 1918, was four students – Dr. Stanley Skarr, a physician in Davis, West Virginia; Robert Jones; William Fay Holbert; and Sylvia Swisher. That was the year that World War One ended on November 11, Armistice Day when eventually became the national holiday known as  Veterans Day.

They were in one room of the Thoburn Graded School building. In 1921 the name was changed from Thoburn High School to West Monongah High School.

Greta Martin Mike, Class of 1922,  founded the Monongah Alumni Association in 1922 and came up with the first Monongah High Alumni Reunion that year. Greta was married to Jimmy Mike, of the legendary Monongah Mike family barbers that included Dominic Mike and Mutt Mike.

Rose Marie Mike Merrifield married Bill Merrifield. Her parents were Franklin and Emma Jean Mike. Franklin's mother was Rose Scudure Mike, who passed away at the age of 96 in 2014.

 

Rose’s husband was Dominic Mike who had the barber shop under the Monongah Bank on Main Street where I got many a haircut during my childhood in Monongah.

 

Rose’s siblings were Joe Scudure, Cora Scudure Mike, Anna Scudure Olds, Mary Scudure Scrivo and Virginia Scudure Richardson.

It was Greta, later a teacher in Worthington, who began compiling Monongah High graduation lists that I use today in putting together information on this Monongah High Alumni blog. It also was Greta who began the practice of finding out where former Lions lived and putting in their post-Monongah High addresses and marital information.

Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, who lives in Monongah, took up the cause after Greta passed away. Ramona has been my go-to person for Monongah High information ever since, along with the 1973 North Marion Alumni Directory that includes Monongah High graduates.

The last graduation class at Monongah High was the Class of 1979 before Monongah consolidated into North Marion High. The Lions won state titles in football in 1952, 1955, 1968, 1969 and 1973, baseball in 1925 and 1955 and basketball in 1928.

Among the 3,143  Monongah High School graduates are doctors, nurses, state legislators, prosecuting attorneys, engineers, attorneys, school superintendents, judges, educators, business leaders, military personnel including a general and newspaper editors and reporters.

That includes Dr. Michael Bruce Edmonds, head of WVU Medical Center in Morgantown, a pioneer in the treatment of COVID patients through use of fecal matter. His method is used today throughout the world.

And Nick Saban, Class of 1969, who has won more national college football titles than anyone else in history with 7, including 6 at Alabama.

Linda Lopez Gandy, Class of 1965, is president of the Monongah High Alumni Association. She lives in Alachua, Florida with husband Jim Gandy, also on the Alumni Board.

Donna Davis, Class of 1961, has been Alumni Association treasurer since forever. She is married to Bill Davis, Class of 1958.

Donna’s parents were Norma Lee Croaston Moorehead and Walter Colbert, killed during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

To make YOUR reservation for the September 4 MHS Banquet, send a check for $30 per person made out to the Monongah High Alumni Association and mail it to:

Donna Davis

858 Park Avenue

Monongah, WV 26554-1143

Photos for the honor classes (1960, 1961, 1970, 1971) will be taken at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will begin at 6 p.m. The Stepping Stones band – Ron Poole and son Todd Poole – will provide music for dancing till 11 p.m.

Ron Poole began his music career in 1961 and is a guitar player. His son, Todd Poole, began performing with his father in 1976 at the age of three for a local Lions Club. Their first album in Nashville, with Wedge Records, was in 1989. In 1991, they changed the group’s name to Stepping Stones.

There also is an In Memoriam list of those Lions who passed away since the last MHS Banquet.

There will be a rotating picture frame with almost 2,000 photos of Monongah High alumni, a large framed photo of the Monongah High Lion and photos and obituaries/tributes to those who have passed away since the 2020 reunion.