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10A ? SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2000
THE SEA COAST ECHO
ena C. Jones School Reunion 2000:
Remembering those who remembered the school
ECHO STAFF REPORT
Earlier this summer, former students of the old Valena C. Jones School in Bay St. Louis got together for their	first
reunion since the school closed.	;
?We are here tonight,? guest f 1 speaker Roger James said at the	;
time, ?not by a haphazard effort ...We are	here
because we rode here on the backs of a long line of men and women who were dedicated educators, who loved children, and who worked endless, tireless hours for very little money, because they saw a future for us, they loved their work.
?We?ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go, so please when you go home, remember this, and how you got here and
contin-	?	?
ue the	f
work	-	.??
t o make things better,?
James concluded.
1948	graduate,	Gloria
Payne recalled attending school in a two storv wooden structure that
burned down. After that, the elementary school students were	housed	in	Mt.
Carmel?s Church while |	the	older	students
attended school in the Odd Fellow?s Hall. Neither structure still stands.
*	Payne	graduated
I	from	the	Odd
Fellow?s Hall because the new ? school wasn?t finished yet. The
1949	class went into the last location in the building that now houses Bay St.
Louis	Police
Department.
?When the school burned I told my parents that I would just get a job, but they insisted that I fin-i s h e d school,? said Payne. ?The teachers back then were dedicated, and they saw that you learned ... if a page was missing from a book, they would copy the page on the blackboard; if
you couldn?t afford your supplies, they would take money out of their own pockets to get them for you.?
Payne said that the school played basketball games at the 100 Men?s Pavilion near the railroad tracks.
The last graduating class of Valena C. Jones School, in 1969 had 25 members and at this time the high school was closed. A free choice system had been in place since the 1966-67 school year allowing students to chose to attend previously all white schools and an increasing number of students chose to do so. By 1969 only about 75 students remained in the high school and the school board voted to close the school.
Valena	C.
Jones was born in Bay St. Louis in 1872 as Valena Cecelia MacArthur	and
began her teaching career in rural Mississippi in 1890. She was revered for her work in education and the community and a school in New Orleans was also named in her honor as well as The Valena C. Jones Methodist Church in Bay St. Louis. Her husband, the Reverend Robert E. Jones was
the Resident Bishop of the New Orleans area Methodist Episcopal Church.
While the 2000 school reunion was a huge success,	Alumni
Representative J. Labat Tate (Class _	of	?64)	said	last
week, ?I couldn?t sleep at night because we had not recognized those who had worked so hard to make the reunion possible.?
To correct that oversight, Tate went into overdrive to raise funds to get special commemorative plaques made to thank the organizing committee, others who had worked to make the reunion, and others who had made the school itself what it was to so many.
Tate also had a plaque made to hang at Gulfside Assembly in order to commemorate the reunion itself.
Among those honored with special awards in a ceremony at the church last week: School Reunion 2000 organizing committee members Yvonne Holmes, treasurer; Thomas Farve, chairman; Zettie G. Farve, co-treasurer; Gladys
Dedeaux, secretary; Joseph Farve; Mary Weaver; Mary Whavers; Larry Wilkerson; and Earlean Washington.
Special awards were also given to Charles Dorsey; Victorine William; August Price; Stella Lang; Vivan Curry Gaunt; Annatole Holmes, writer of the school song; Rev. Bobby McGill, pastor; and Gloria Payne, lay leader.