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 98th 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.
