It was half a century ago that DeKalb West School opened its doors for the first time, consolidating the elementary schools in Alexandria, Liberty, and Dowelltown. But the new educational building continued to carry that quaint community feel from 1974 to today. On July 29 the members of the very first Kindergarten class returned for the 50th reunion at DWS.
“DeKalb West School holds such a special place in my heart!” says Monica Kimbrell Reynolds, who was part of the 1974-75 Kindergarten class. Her grandfather, Woodrow Frazier was the first principal at the school and her aunt, Lisa Cripps, was her 7th grade teacher. “I feel like DWS has always remained a family-oriented school with values and is viewed as such throughout the county.”
Besides Reynolds, Steven Brown, Jon Foutch, Tim Rowland, Mike McMillen, Karen Robinson, Kellie Sandlin Taylor, Stacey Mullinax Martin, Leigh Ann Williams Prince, Tony Vickers, Kerry Davis, and Greg Fish attended the reunion.
“Our class represented a significant part of our childhood and memories that we all have from growing up,” Leigh Ann Williams Prince said. “These people have a very special place in my heart.”
“We are one big family,” adds Reynolds, who along with husband David, have two children—Levi, 7th grade, and Molly, 5th grade—who now attend the school. “I try to impress upon my children that these early friendships that you develop in school will be some of the best friends that you have in this life, so we must cherish them.”
The night was full of reminiscing about the early learning years.
“I never wanted to take a nap when I was young, but now I just dream of taking one,” Prince says. “We always took a nap after lunch. Those were the days! I also remember a sweet little old lady who would come and have Bible story time. I always loved it when she would come and share with our class.”
“I loved Mrs. Kay Grumbach!” Reynolds recalls. “She was our teacher in Kindergarten and first grade. I also loved show and tell. I still remember some of the items we shared. I also remember meeting my new friends and classmates. Some of us are still best friends.”
Former DWS teachers—Carolyn Mullinax, Genrose Davis, Carol Hale and Danny Parkerson, who was the principal prior to Sabrina Farler—joined the celebration.
“We had a small gym when we were at West School and had to travel on a bus that Mr. Danny Parkerson would drive to the old high school gym in Liberty for our basketball practices every day,” Leigh Ann remembers. “What fun we had on that bus and in that gym!”
“At one time the library was the gymnasium, and it wasn’t much bigger than a playroom, but they had basketball goals up,” Parkerson explains. “When I moved to DeKalb West, we talked them into letting us play basketball in the old Liberty High School gym. [Coach] Tommy [Alexander] and I had to get our bus driving licenses. We would drive the bus down there and practice. He’d take the boys, and I’d take the girls. It had four sets of stairs on each side that went to the top, probably about 15-20 rows of steps. Tommy would run those boys up and down those stairs. They may not have been as good athletically as some other teams, but they were in better shape. It wore them out! We always had an old school bus that we would park out there in the parking lot. Sometimes the battery would be down on it, and we’d have to put some of the boys in the back pushing to get the bus rolling. We’d roll it off to start it and then go to ball practice and do the same thing coming back.”
“Kerry Davis and Jon Foutch reminisced about how Mr. Danny Parkerson and Mr. Tommy Alexander would play football with the boys during P.E.” Monica recalls.
“We’d have a recess a long about 10 o’clock and Tommy would take out the 5th, 6th, 7th,8th grades at the same time, and the boys would get together and have a football game,” Parkerson adds. “I’d quarterback one team, and Tommy would quarterback the other. Tommy and I were in our late 20s. We were just big kids too.”
Throughout the night the tight knit friends from decades ago joked and reflected on the years that brought them together at DWS.
“We talked about our years in the school, such as the harvest festivals, plays and field trips we went on. We got to go to the World’s Fair in Knoxville in 1982. We also went to Opryland and saw a movie afterwards in our 8th grade year. We would go to the creek across from the school several times a year as well! We always had fun basketball memories to share. We always sang Mr. Parkerson’s favorite song, “Home on the Range” on the ball bus after a game – only if we won, though. It was silent if we lost,” she adds with a smile.
