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Searcy High School group of stars from school play. Back in the 50's tonight.

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

This old newspaper article was found in a pile of saved things.  It dates back to the 50's and includes a few people who have remained in Searcy.  Because the writing underneath is hard to read, let me tell you who they were.

They were members of the Senior Class.  Front row, left to right, Ann Ward, Bill Green, Bobby Maddox and Margaret Smith.  Center row, Jack Young, Susan Jones, John Pruitt.  Back row, Sue Dean, Betty Lynn Sowell, Glenn Elliott, Glenda Love, Larry haile, Linda Chambliss, Lou Ann Morgan, Gayle Triplett, and Mira Van Patten.

Bet the play was a good one!! 

Play group of seniors from the 50s

Comments (18)

Alan May
Jameson Sotheby's International Realty - Evanston, IL
Home is where the hearth is.

wow, the style of dress is so different... they sure don't look like High-school seniors, do they?

Feb 11, 2011 06:05 AM
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

I know most of those "kids".  Love their clothes.  Question:  are those their real clothes, or are they in a dress rehearsal?

Next question:  What was the play?  Was the title written above the picture, otherwise why would anyone, but parents, be enticed to attend a "play" that had no name?

Feb 11, 2011 09:38 AM
#2
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I don't know any of these folks...but...I love Ms. Ward's sailor shirt and Mr. Elliott's bow tie.  I'm wondering who Ms. Triplett is eyeing so fondly...obviously, not the photographer...smiles.

Hey Barbara - do you have a special room for all these treasures at your house...or do you keep them someplace else...I'm just amazed at all the finds.

Feb 11, 2011 10:08 AM
#3
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

Godmother,

The 50's playon in my mind every day.

Godson

Feb 11, 2011 10:30 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Alan, they look older, to me, than kids do today.  But they dressed conservatively then.

Anita, I didn't see a name for a play.  I also didn't find the date.  I thought it odd, too, that the play was being performed by all seniors.  Parents don't go to see the play!  They go to see the kids!

Debbie, you are so observant.  I hadn't noticed those items at all.  If we had the original picture, rather than this newspaper print we could see all kinds of detail.  My mother-in-law saved everything and I found these things that she'd saved.  She didn't even have a kid in this picture but they were her kid's friends.

Nice outfit, Nutsy!  Way to go!

 

Feb 11, 2011 12:33 PM
Anonymous
Anita Fuller

Not odd, in that is was the Senior Class Play.  Each year a play was produced in the spring, with only Seniors in the cast, hence the name.  Ours, in l954, was 'You Can't Take it With You".   I had the romantic lead, opposite Dean Langford, who still lives in Searcy. .  He gave me a STAGE KISS! (which really isn't a kiss, just looks like it, sorta)....

Many years later, about 1997, The Rep. Theater in Little Rock did "You Can't Take it With You".......as my daughter was still an anchor with KATV, Channel 7, she got us (as many cast members of the SHS play as I could get together) and we had a little gig on "Daybreak".  Some of the Rep. cast was there, too, and it was live from the Rep. Theater!   Later that evening we attended the play and were recognized in the audience.  Believe it or not, there were quite a few of us still around to attend.

Feb 12, 2011 12:16 AM
#6
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

That YCTIWY reunion was 10 years ago.  I brought the play book. My part was Mr. DePina, a tecnical assistant to the mad professor. I got to pose in a green mini tunic for a sculptor.

Here's the group pic. I also have a video tape of the KATV interview.

The lady in left center bottom is holding a copy of the Daily Citizen from 1954 showing an article about the play.

YCTIWY Reunion

The folks in the  pic from left to right and front to back are:

Mary Ann Johnson Fuller,  Dorothy Quattlebaum, Jeanette Coward Weir, Mary Beth Cook Spangler, Judy Rice Yates, Betty Brown, and Paula Windsor Peacock

William Harold "Cotton" Fuller, Bryant Quattlebaum, Donald Thompson, Anita Hart Fuller,
Bobby Fuller, Carolyn Thompson Nicholson, and Tommy Brown.

YCTIWY Playbook

Feb 12, 2011 01:51 AM
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I liked the reunion post.  That sounds like it was a blast.

Nutsy - Nice Outfit.  Please feel free to pick up your assistant at anytime or send us an address and we will ship him to you.  I'm glad you understand the seriousness of his situation.  I hope we are at the "last stand" with him.  So far, it seems more like bounty hunter and the reward states dead or alive.  He just stays one step ahead.  Just let him miss a step in the dance and it will be all she wrote.  "Life is hard...and then you die."  I can't remember the movie but I'm sure it was a western.

Ms. Barbara - I wondered if that was where you got all these treasures (your mother in laws ).  I would imagine it would take another house to store all those treasures...but isn't it nice someone actually keeps all of those things for us to find.  There is obviously a generation following that will supply the next round...Mr. Don must spend a great deal of time looking stuff up, a team of experts sitting on go or everything on file in a computerized system.  Unbelievable.  My stuff would be in a box in the garage or the attic or I got that around here somewhere...It would be like finding the pyramids all over again...hahaha

 

Feb 12, 2011 02:25 AM
#8
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Well, Anita, I have to repeat that you really led a charmed life.  Now you add that you actually had the lead role in the Senior class play and got kissed by the best looking (not counting Don) man around the campus.  I'm going now to see what Don has supplied from that meeting of former stars.

Feb 12, 2011 02:32 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, you have done-us-up-proud again.  There they are....the cast and the play!  You need to name the folks.  I recognize Cotton Fuller and his wife.  You truly are amazing as Debbie says and perfectly organized.  You should have had that lead role and get to kiss Anita! 

 

Feb 12, 2011 02:38 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Debbie, don't ship to Nutsy.  Ship that cutie to me.  Nutsy would be jealous and kill him.  You, gentle soul that you are, will never kill that squirrel.

Yes, my mother-in-law prepared for the future by saving everything.  I don't know if I told you this but she had a diary in 1937 which talked about all the things she did in that year.  It ended with her marriage.  I typed that thing and gave copies to the kids.  She also had diarys for almost every year of her life.  I don't think I can type all those!

Feb 12, 2011 02:41 AM
Don Thompson
Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Thanks Miz Debbie for the kind words. I remembered that I had used YCTIWY to label the pics so I just used the search function in Windows Explorer and found it in less than a minute. I have all my 80,000 + pics on my notebook hard drive.

The names of folks in pic have been added to the post. Here are the cast members:

"YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU"
Cast in order as they speak.


Penny Syeamore----------Virginia Farrar
Essie-----------------------Judy Deener
Pheba---------------------Fayrene Thompson
Paul Sycamore------------Lynn Stewart
Mr. DePinna------—----—-Donald Thompson
Ed--------------------------Calvin Skaggs
Donald--------------------Bryant Quattlebaum
Martin Vanderhof—-------Jimmy Glrkin
Alice-----------------------Anita Hart
Henderson ---------------Larry Lacy
Tony Kirby ---------------Dean Langford
Kolenkhovj---------------Bob Fletcher
Gay Wellington.----------Judy Rice
Mr. Kirby------------------Dean Greer
Mrs. Kirby ----------------Mildred Taylor
Three Men----------------Dick Phillips

I even have a ticket to the play. Any buyers?

YCTIWY Ticket

Feb 12, 2011 03:16 AM
Anonymous
Debbie Wantulok

I have a great appreciation for organization...my mess is in organized chaos...it is just that I'm the only one that understands the language...hahaha.

Mr. Don...I'm impressed!  That is some serious organization...so what major in life prepared you for that...military...I say that because the only other person I have ever known with capability to organize that much and with the initiative to actually DO it had a Q security in some intelligence organization that is called something else now.  He organized everything and it came so simple to him. You are talented Mr. Don.  Everyone else knows it happend...you prove it.

Ms. Barbara, Luke and I just took pictures of a Hawk in the field below the house.  He was asking if we could hire the Hawk to get the squirrel.  I thought that was a good plan but I don't know how to talk Hawk.  It sounded yesterday like something scared the little fellow.  Luke and I both heard it.  It was kind of funny, cause it was middle of the day and we were working on school work.  Then Luke said...just how did the people leave this house anyway?  I was wondering what the REAL reason for them leaving.  Our squirrel is talented...somehow...he made it sound like a fullsized person walking in boots on wood was up there and then a while later like he had just been scared out of his wits getting out of the attic.  I didn't think this house was old enough for story's like that...I wonder if anyone from the academy awards is in the area...we have one dramatic squirrel on our hands. 

Feb 12, 2011 03:52 AM
#13
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

Godmother,

I have serious dread of betryal on the part of you town regarding one of my relatives. It is sad.

Godson

Feb 12, 2011 05:22 AM
Anonymous
Anita

Debbie, it is obvious you need to be taken on a tour of Don and Paula's house:  mainly to see Don's computers and there are many.  Plus, on the computer, he is the most organized person I've EVER known or ever will know.  He can find anything at a moment's notice.  And yes, he was in the military and had some top secret clearance.

Thank you, Don, for finding the picture.  I figured I should try and find it, then figure out how to copy it and get it to Barbara....but then I immediately forgot about doing it.

I am sad to report that 3 people in that picture have died:  Mary Ann, Judy and Tom.  One of our group, Mildred Taylor Wilbourn, was critically ill in the hospital on that day.....we all went to visit her after the t.v. show.  She has since died, also.

I wrote on my play book, You Can't Take it With You, so you better get it while you can.

Feb 12, 2011 06:48 AM
#15
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Don, you are gaining more and more admiration!!  : )

Debbie, the squirrel is smart.  We can see it in his expression.  I don't think the house is old enough to be haunted!

Feb 12, 2011 09:56 AM
Steven L. Smith
King of the House Home Inspection, Inc. - Bellingham, WA
Bellingham WA Home Inspector

Godmother,

Thanks so much for the compliment, I am quite bright.

Godson

Feb 13, 2011 03:00 AM
Barbara S. Duncan
RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR
GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Godson Nutsy, you are also a little arrogant.  But I forgive you.

 

Feb 13, 2011 09:26 AM