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 92nd 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 92nd 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.