GA-JCTS
Newsletter
The
newsletter of the Gilmore Academy-Jackson County Training School Alumni
Association, Inc.
Vol. 1 No. 2
May 1997 Roy L Roulhac, Editor
GA-JCTS Alumni
Association
Incorporated
On April 3, 1997, the GA-JCTS Alumni
Association was incorporated as a
Michigan Non-profit
corporation. The name of the corporation is: The Gilmore Academy Jackson County Training School
Alumni Association, Inc. The corporation is organized exclusively for
charitable, religious, educational and scientific purposes, including, making
distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, The corporation was organized
by the following seventy-five (75) incorporators:
John J
Batson ('55) St
Petersburg FL
lola Bell ('53) Marianna FL
Shepard Bell ('58) Marianna FL
Mattie Berrian ('64) Miami
FL
Georgia Bowen ('62) Tallahassee
FL
Tereather Boykin (50) Lakeland
FL
James Caldwell ('63) Spanaway
WA
Elmer R Clay ('61) Marianna
FL
Beatrice Cobb ('62) Miami
FL
Eloise Cotman('51) Irvington
NJ
Thomas Crawford ('54) Poughkeepsie
NY
Valaria Davis ('70) Marianna
FL
Benjamin Dickens ('58) Brandon
FL
Amos Dickson ('64) Rockingham
NC
Annuel Franklin ('66) Graceville
FL
Moses Freeman
('53) Brandon
FL
Annie Gibson ('41) Marianna
FL
Elouise Gordon ('69) Tallahassee
FL
Sam Graham ('51) Fair
haven MA
Dorothy Harley ('63) Marianna
FL
Irma Hawking ('47) Tallahassee
FL
Lucy Hawthorne(56) Marianna
FL
Dan Hester ('59) Hempstead
NY
Gina High smith ('75) Marianna FL
Emma Hines Platka
FL
Lavern Holloman ('65) Plant
City FL
Voncile Jackson ('56) Huntsville AL
Arthur Johnson ('64) Springlake
NC
Barbara Johnson ('62) Marianna
FL
King David Jones Jacksonville FL
Linda Jones ('66) Marianna
FL
Priscilla Keith ('64) Lakeland
FL
Calvin Killings ('72) W
Palm Beach FL
Quetta Latimer ('65) Huntington
NY
Betty Lattimore ('59) Miami
FL
William Long Jr ('71) Tallahassee
FL
Billie Mack ('69) Tallahassee
FL
Mary Mack ('60) Panama
City FL
Verna' Mack ('74) Tallahassee
FL
Sheryl J McGriff('78) Detroit
MI
Willie H Morris ('53) Opa
Locka FL
Sarah Pender (57) Marianna
FL
Mildred Pittman ('46) Lakes
Wales FL
Dorothy Prather ('42) Gaithersburg
MD
Roberta Pressley ('32) Marianna
FL
Arskco Raines ('58) Plainfield
NJ
Mary Reeves ('58) Tallahassee
FL
Connie Richardson ('65) Tallahassee FL
Billie Robinson ('52) Albany
GA
Gussie Robinson ('42) Silver
Springs MD
Roymonia Robinson ('75) Marianna FL
Idell Robinson ('54) Miami
FL
Roy L Roulhac ('61) Detroit
Ml
Ruby Roulhac ('58) East
Orange NJ
Clarence Sikes ('66) Tallahassee
FL
Arthur Spears ('59) Colorado
Springs CO
Nelson Speights ('52) Ettrick
VA
Waymon Speight ('59) Freeport
NY
Benjamin Stephens (47) Brooklyn NY
Chrystelle Stewart ('43) St Petersburg FL
Sylvia Stroman ('75) Miami
FL
Gwen I Summers ('47) Marianna
FL
Dianne Thornton ('65) Ft
Washington MD
Meredith Washington ('53) Chicago IL
Victoria Watts ('62) East
Orange NY
Cottee White (58) Denver
CO
Earl White ('51) Marianna
FL
Juan White Washington
DC
Kha White Miami
FL
Mary White ('55) Dallas
TX
Sheldon White Washington
DC
Martha Williams (41) Marianna
FL
Marcellus Wynn
(54) Hopkins
SC
Sylvia Yon (60) Cottondale
FL
Annie Young (51) Tallahassee
FL
Organizational Meeting Set
The Association's organizational meeting will be held
at 2:00 p.m., Sunday July 20, 1997, at St. Luke Baptist Church, 524 Orange
St, Marianna. Interim officers and a board of directors will be elected and
interim by-laws adopted. The interim officers and directors will manage the
Association's affairs until the first annual meeting. A reunion planning
committee will also
appointed. Incorporators and charter members, alumni who pay dues on or
before the day of the meeting, may vote.
Items for the agenda, ideas, and comments may be sent
to the editor prior to July 15. Membership in the Association is open to all former
GA-JCTS, students, staff and faculty.
1998 Annual Meeting & Reunion
A majority
of the GA-JCTS Alumni Association's £Incorporators recommended that the 2nd
All-School Reunion he held in 1998. The Association's annual meeting will be
held during the reunion. Look for details in the next newsletter.
A Foundation Well-Laid:
JCTS Prepared Me For Life
by William E. Long, Jr.
Class of 1966
As a child
growing up in Marianna, my heroes, in addition to my dad (William, Sr.) were
people who
made sure my foundation for becoming a man was solid.
Although too many to name, when I think of these people, I thank God for
placing them in my path.
They were people like Willie Cooper (coach), Sallie
Harley, Annie Gibson, Francis Brown, Vivian Koonce, Elmore Bryant and many,
many more. These people knew me not only as an individual, but as a neighbor
and the child of two of their friends. When I stepped out of line, they were
there to put me back on target.
Many of us have gone on to be successful in life. I
term success as being able to remember and live by the morals and values that
were instilled in us by these role models; not by how much money or property we
have acquired. Many of us became educators, administrators, health care
professionals, technologists and other promising career-types.
But have we given back to the community from which we
came? Do you remember the struggles that our parents endured to provide for us
so that we would have a chance at
a better life than they had? Do you believe the
struggle is over?
Making home more economically viable is one thing we
can work toward~ How? That's the purpose of this article. Please share your
thoughts about what we can do to make Jackson County a better and more
economically viable place for our people who still remain there.
Together we can make a difference!!
Letter to the Editor
Kudos to Roy L.
Roulhac, editor, GA-JCTS Newsletter.
Please note a
small correction: The first site of Gilmore Academy was at the new St. Luke
Church site [524 Orange Street in Marianna].
Lucy
Speights Hawthorne
Class of
1956
What Men Live For
by Joseph N Fagan
Look
at the front page in almost any daily newspaper. What kind of events are
mentioned on that page? Today, perhaps someone tells a story of an outbreak of
war in some well-known country. Perhaps a thousand men have quit work and gone
out on a strike. Perhaps Congress or a state legislature has passed a law over
which there has been a prolonged and violent dispute.. Perhaps some movie star
is going to get a divorce. Perhaps some European dictator has given orders to
some people as to what they must or must not do.
Do
such items suggest that the main purpose in many people's lives is to do
something that no one else before them has accomplished? To get more money to
spend? To have the pleasure that comes from the power of controlling somebody
else's life? Is all life a struggle for comfort or mastery?
No,
there are other things that men live for. Some take a real delight in making
their families and friend~ comfortable. Some are tremendously happy if a young
man or woman whom they have helped through college turns out to be a useful
citizen. Some are glad if they can extend sympathy to a family that has fallen
into hard luck Some are pleased to find a new way of doing something worth
doing.
He
is a rare person who is "born with a silver spoon in his mouth," as
we used to say. Just as rare, perhaps, is the one
who
succeeds in practically everything he tries to do. The one who can overcome
obstacles, who can rise above difficulties, who is not discouraged when things
do not exactly please him, is far better equipped to meet the ordinary
experiences of life than one who quits as soon as things do not come his way We
all need such qualities as faith, hope, courage, and persistency But underlying
most of the good or bad that we see in human life is the desire to provide the
material necessities that keep men and society moving. Unless we have those to
some extent, we cannot expect to satisfy our highest ideals or do even the
commonplace things well.
(From
The Jacksonian Voice, Vol.1 No.2, Feb. 3, 1961, p.2. Mr. Fagan taught Social
Studies at JCTS.)
The Jacksonian Voice
The
Jacksonian Voice, a four-page newspaper of JCTS, was first published during the
1961-62 school year. The all-male staff of the class of 1962 included: Jimmy
Bryant; editor; Amos Robinson, Carl Williams, and Martin Speights, reporters;
Stanley Wilson, advertisement; and Lee Edward Smith, circulation.. The paper
sold for ten cents. The editorial, by Jimmy Bryan, in Vol. 1 No. 2, February 1961, read:
Time
plus pleasure has given me this golden opportunity to write this editorial.
Time is a valuable tool in our life. why waste it. Just stop and ask yourself
the question, "Have I Ever Wasted Time?" Think about this for a few
minutes, then ask yourself "what Did I Profit By Doing So?"
If
the answer to the first question is yes, and to the [second] question nothing,
then you should do something about it when should you do something? The time is
at the present.
Make this your slogan, "Waste Time Profits Nothing
So Use it Wisely in Everything You Do."
THE COST
by Ronald McGriff, Malone, '77
In this world of this or that
Word for word and tit for tat.
Easy to come and easy to go;
Find the rhythm, go with the flow.
Living for the moment ignoring the past
Going in slow and coming out fast.
Fades and fads tricks for cash;
From smokes to pills to crack and hash.
The cycle continues to express the woe
Of the one thing you wish you did not know.
The driving beat that you cannot stop;
pushing you, prodding you until you drop.
The disease that robs the body and mind
cruelly uncaring, no pity left behind.
Feeling the sting of a heartless society
enduring the penalty of one's careless variety.
Sinking in the abyss of your own personal hell;
suffering, struggling but never again to be well.
Crazy to think, insane to dream
that death is not coming with it's whole team.
Tearing your soul apart again and again;
bravely battling on the outside but losing the
war within.
Oh! What a joy one hopes and prays it will be,
the day when finally, at last, you are set free.
But as we know, freedom is never really free
there is always a cost.
For all that is given, so much much more will
be lost...