by Ivy Rutzky
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Nacoochee school reunion alums, friends and family gather on the Community Hall steps for this year’s photo. CASEY TANKSLEY/Submitted -
Gae Stovall (wife of Ike), alum Sonny (Paul) and Milene Watkins and alum Jim Glen gather on the front porch of the Community Hall. IVY RUTZKY/Submitted -
The Nacoochee School logo adorns this cake. IVY RUTZKY/Submitted
The Nacoochee school reunion was held on June 10 at the Sautee Nacoochee Center.
The Nacoochee school ran from 1928 through 1974. It was established as a public school by the White County Board of Education, with grades 1 through 11. The last graduating class was 1959.
Nacoochee grade school continued until 1974. The Sautee Nacoochee Community Association was formed in 1981.
This year, over 70 alums, spouses, family and friends gathered together.
Once everyone was settled at their tables, Skeet (Richard) Cathey, chair of the reunion committee, welcomed the group. Then, executive director of the Center, Mel Whitehead, spoke.
“Last year at the Nacoochee school reunion, it was my first week here,” Whitehead said. “My wife and I have come to love this community like we’ve been here forever. The Center has the best staff in the world.
“I was a trained opera singer for 15 years,” Whitehead continued. “Sometimes, when I need to clear my head, I come out of my office and go into the gym. I just listen. I hear the voices from the past. And then I sing. There’s nobody else in the gym, and yet there’s everybody.”
“My office door is always open,” Whitehead said. “I begin to understand the history of this place that way. Until Allen Stovall came into my office, I didn’t know what a historic overlay was.
“This place is about relationships. That you all get together each year for the reunion shows that. I am so privileged to be here.”
Plans in the works for the Center include adding the old school building and the historic gym to the National Register of Historic Places.
And the Center will have an indoor-outdoor pottery sudio for the community by the fall.
After the speeches, the group was treated to a performance by singer Casey Tanksley and guitarist, Dylan Tonogan. Casey is the daughter of Marilyn McCay Chastain and granddaughter of alum Frances Stovall McKay. Dylan is the grandson of Jeff Zuline Cathey (Skeet Cathey’s nephew.)
And then came a potluck lunch and catching up with old friends.