Class of 66 - 50th Reunion Saturday Dinner and Dance

From initial planning, the idea of the Best Reunion Ever for the Best Class Ever of Lone Oak High School became the mindset of the planning committee: Think big, plan big and do big and in the end, it couldn't have been much bigger. Of all the weekend activities, Saturday night's dinner, program and concert were the biggest and most exciting part of a wonderful weekend.

The pictures in this collection show the event and activities in as close to order as we can determine with the over 500 raw images collected. We certainly hope you can see and remember the fun and excitement. Along with the convenience of this digital age, this was the first time we had engaged a roving photographer to not only take a class picture but document the event as it happened. Many thanks to Tammy Cothran for her work and for allowing us to share with everyone. We dare say, Tammy had as much fun as we did.

The pictures on this page are grouped by program segments, but may be viewed continuously as part of one long slide show. Just click on any thumbnail to view a larger image and them you may scroll back and forth or click the play arrow and sit back and watch. We don't do a lot of captioning unless there are people not previously identified. We hope you enjoy the memories.

The evening began with another time of meeting and greeting at Walker Hall Event Center, which had been exquisitely decorated for the dinner and concert. We not only greeted classmates who couldn't come Friday night, but also friends from other classes who were invited and welcomed. For this reunion, classmates we hadn't seen in many years made the effort to attend.

The reunion program was led by our own Steve Wood as Master of Ceremonies. With everyone finally seated and attentive - not a small task with this group - Steve welcomed classmates, spouses and the numerous guests attending. In retrospect, we were very happy to have opened the event to other classes and friends we grew up with.

Our 1966 Class President, Bobby "never speaks in public" Wallis surprised us with a touching tribute of what it meant to grow up in Lone Oak, at Lone Oak High School, under John Robinson, with a group of what became lifelong friends. Bobby set the tone as to why we might consider ourselves the Greatest Class to graduate from Lone Oak High School, by remembering the many contributions we made before and after graduation and the great comradery our class has maintained beyond our growing up years. The events Bobby spoke of are history, but the effects live on as witnessed by the continued closeness of our class.

Reverend Louis Criswell (Mr Georgia Dunlap) led the invocation and dedication. We then recognized those class mates who have passed since our high school years. Twenty-Five at that time, now twenty-six, were honored in a slide show. At the end of the list, David Wilson stood to lead into the hymn of Amazing Grace quickly to be joined by the rest of our class and quests. Four verses later, there were few dry eyes in the crowd. Yes, to those who wondered, the "flash choir" was a planned event organized by our very own choir director; Nancy Godfrey Page. But the emotional memories of those gone on were certainly spontaneous.

After a few moments of collecting our thoughts and a few housekeeping announcements, the class gathered for the requisite class picture. Forty-Seven classmates are pictured in our 50th Reunion photo, the most classmates together since our 25th (no photo taken) and possibly our 20th.

After the class photo, dinner was served, while others took advantage of our photographer to for a few individual images. Some of these may not be exactly in the time line of events, but it is a good place to show them.

We have to mention that dinner was excellent, prepared on site and served by the Walker Hall Event Center staff. Once again, THANK YOU David and Linda Curtis.

Sufficiently stuffed and watered, MC Steve again took charge of the program to recognize and thank all those who participated in the planning and execution of the reunion events. It was a team effort by quite a number of local and distant classmates. We won't try to list them for fear of omission, they know who they are and the success of the event is honor enough.

Frank Harris ('64'), former Chairman of the John Robinson Scholarship Committee, presented a tribute to the Class of 66 as the founding class of the John E Robinson Scholarship Fund and Memorials. Some may remember our 35th reunion in 2001 where an idea coming out of the infamous "Zula-B" group for a memorial honoring John Robinson was announced by Rick Leeper. The idea quickly became an action fed by enthusiasm from the Class of 66 and other Robinson years classes, teachers and friends that grew to be a perpetual honorarium for the man who made a difference in many of our young lives. You can read more about the origins, honors and success of the memorial at the John Robinson Pages of our parent web site.

Jean Marie Smith Russell, our Class Valedictorian, then took charge of what had only been listed on reunion planning schedules as "A Special Presentation" and a deep secret among the planning committee. She revealed a Thank You to our very own resident computer geek Dave Osborne in the form of a rather large Loving Cup engraved to "The Wizard of Os, L.O.H.S. Class of 66." Dave, and his editorial review board; Brenda, provided the Memories slide shows the class has enjoyed at our 40th, 45th and now 50th reunions. Dave has led the team to compile, build and publish the LoneOakAlumni web site which contains most of the LOHS year books and many of the Oak-K newspapers, along with pictures and other memorabilia from many class years of our high school; including the web site for the Class of 66 on which you read this. Thanks Wiz!

Following that bit of hillarity, we took another pause for pictures and cleanup as the band and entertainment set up on stage.

Upon introduction by MC Steve, the feature entertainment for the reunion took the stage for two hours of music and singing from the 60s and 70s presented by Internationally known artist Terry Mike Jeffrey and his band including horn section (Hellooooo Chicago!!!).

We won't try to verbalize the ensuing two hours, the pictures are better. Suffice it to say that just for a little while, we were all young again... and thankful our kids weren't watching.

And there you have it. The Class of 66 50th Reunion. Like graduation, it is a memory growing distant, but we hope through these pictures you can enjoy it again and again. Thanks Class of 66 for who you all are!

Oh, many have asked how we could have done all this at the price collected. We'll just say that is why the Class of 66 is the Greatest Class ever to graduate from LOHS.