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A Surprise Found In The AHS Reunion
Guestbook Ackerman and Ackerman High School have special places in my heart. Now that I am by myself I have plenty of time to think back and remember the many wonderful things that happened to me, I find myself not alone, but filled with fond memories. In my 41 years of teaching, the eight years in Ackerman were the most memorable of all. The students were the best as well as the people of Ackerman and Choctaw County. The teachers of the Ackerman Schools were the best. Just look at how well the graduates have turned out. I'm proud of every student who came through Ackerman High School during my tenure as science and math teacher, assistant football coach, football scout, girl's basketball coach and high school principal. In '53, we initiated "Smoke Signals", the yearbook, with Ann Barron as Editor and Glenn Calloway as Business Manager. It was a hugh success then as well as in the years since. I am proud to have had a hand in it. It sounds as if I am taking credit, but I am not. Dale Dexter Davidson, "Mr. D", is due the credit. Many things were initiated under his administration and I am proud to have served under him. May GOD bless and keep everyone of you and remember that HE loves you and so do I. William
(Bill) W. Griffin
Here are some of my recollections of Ackerman High School. When I was in the 4th grade J. B. Edwards became the principal. As I recall he replaced every teacher in both the grammar and high school. He was a controversial figure, dictatorial, and highly demanding. He set high standards, set up strict rules and was absolutely unbending as to the enforcement of those rules. If you didn't make the grades you didn't get promoted to the next grade. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Mr. Edwards was not a popular figure. He was not popular with the kids because he demanded hard work. And some of the parents didn't like him because they thought he was over strict and too demanding. However, in spite of the controversial nature of his administration he had the absolute and total loyalty of the school board in everything he undertook. I remember one member of the school board was Mr. Graves (I can't remember his first name but he was the father of Clint Graves). Another member of this compliant school board was a Mr. Griffith. I think his son is an Attorney in Ackerman at this time. Mr. Edwards died suddenly of a heart attack in 1942, or 1943, I think. I doubt that very many of the students, or the parents, realized at the time what we had lost when he died. It was only years later that I realized what a blessing Mr. Edwards and his fine teachers were to me. I specifically remember two of those teachers who have had a lifelong impact on me. Miss Beamon was one. And Miss Doris Boykin was the other. When I was in college I discovered that what Miss Boykin had taught me in her English classes put me head and shoulders above some of my contemporaries. I have learned over a fairly long life that what may be highly unpopular at the time may later be seen as a great blessing. Just as strict parenting may be resented by children until later in life, they eventually realize that such discipline made better adults of them. I doubt that you could put a Mr. Edward clone in any high school today. His strict rules were controversial then; they would be absolutely unenforceable now. You would have lawsuits and uprisings by parents and teachers alike. But I submit to you that, unpopular as his tenure was, this man turned out high school graduates with a good education, and most of them were fully prepared for college. Maybe a look at then and now will serve to remind us of what we have lost. ************* Buddy, here is an article that I clipped out some years ago. Allen Barra: While I was growing up in Alabama, we always said, "Thank God for Mississippi!"-meaning that no matter how low Alabama ranked nationally in education and per-capta income, Mississippi would surely be just a little lower. The irony is that so much of what shaped my youth-indeed, shaped American culture in this century-came from Mississippi. I had driven through the town of Meridian countless times without stopping at the museum built in honor of the "Father of Country Music," Jimmie Rodgers, and I had passed within miles of the birthplaces of Robert Johnson, Skip James, Muddy Waters and a dozen of other legendary bluesmen. William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and Eudora Welty all came from "the most illiterate" 47,689 square miles in America. As the poet Michael Swindle has said, Mississippi is to America what Ireland was to the British Empire: "Woefully behind the norm in virtually everything held in value by civilized standards, and producing more genius per capita than Athens under Pericles." -Premiere I want to add a postscript to Allen Barra's comments. It has always amazed me that the small town of Ackerman, Mississippi has produced, within my lifetime, two governors, J.P. Coleman and Ray Mabus and one Miss America, Cheryl Prewitt. By Morris Ellington [ AHS Class of 1944 ]
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Ackerman High School Reunion Memorial Blog
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