70-year class reunion highlights 'rich history and tradition' of Leon High School
More than 70 years of history separates the Leon High School class of 1951 and the class of 2023, but on Saturday, the two came together to celebrate what it means to be a Leon Lion.
Marge Masterman, 89, sat at a lunch table and told stories about her time in high school as 16-year-old Jayla Worrell recorded on her phone.
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"Every year, the student council would get to go to the beach," Masterman said. "Governor LeRoy Collins had a beach house and he would invite everybody down there."
"It would be fun hanging out at the beach with the governor for a day," said Worrell, a member of the Leon's National Honors Society chapter.
She didn't think Gov. Ron DeSantis would invite students to the beach. Maybe one day, she wondered.
"We'll have another governor," she added.
Conversations in the cafeteria were just one part of the Leon High School class of 1951 70-year reunion, which was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alumni had been anxiously awaiting to reunite over the two-day occasion.
Current Leon students, teachers and Leon County Schools administrators took the day to meet with about a dozen alumni and their families. Principal Michael Bryan guided a tour of the school, and Leon's Melodears, a choral group of 20 girls, performed around the famous lion sculpture in the lobby on the first floor.
Alumni shared stories about their high school years and looked at old yearbooks, scrap books and other memorabilia.
Leon student Jada Salter met a woman named Ms. Linda who said she was the first student to ever get suspended for skipping. Instead of going to history class, she went to the beach.
"They tell all of us to stay in school or we won't really do much in life or you guys are going to be like bums or something, and (Ms. Linda) is like 'yeah, I graduated top 5 percent of my class.'" Salter said. "That's so amazing."
Masterman, who was valedictorian of her class, teared up remembering the last reunion she attended 20 years ago.
"It's actually sad, but you're so happy to be here," Masterman said. "You think of some of the classmates that passed away, particularly this year. That's been hard because we wanted them to be here, too."
The alumni who stayed in Tallahassee have kept in touch, she said. There have been Christmas parties and Valentine's Day get-togethers. And every month, a group meets at The Egg for brunch.
The day before, at Westminster Oaks, a larger group got together for a luncheon. On the menu were slaw dogs, a staple of their high school years at legendary Mutt and Jeff's Drive In. Masterman remembers ordering the coleslaw topped hot dog if she had enough money leftover after the movies.
"That's always been a landmark for us," she explained to Worrell, who didn't know the history of the restaurant of what is now Midtown Caboose. "Of course, that's all changed."
Masterman, a grandmother to 13 and a great grandmother to eight, is worried about Tallahassee's youth and gun violence. Last week, a student was found with a handgun on Leon's campus, and the county has seen a record number of students bringing weapons to school in the past year.
She also doesn't agree with the state's recent efforts to restrict teaching about race and attempts by parents to ban books, either. In the past year, books were banned at least 2,500 times by more than 130 school districts across more than 30 states, according to an analysis by PEN America, a free speech and literary organization.
Florida placed second for most books banned.
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Masterman said her school years allowed her to learn how to think for herself.
"It wasn't just one way and no way," she said. "You could think about things and come to your own conclusion."
Milestones and moments throughout Leon's history are preserved in display cases in the high school's lobby. Superintendent Rocky Hanna, a third-generation Leon graduate, pointed out portraits of his father, class of 1960, and his grandmother, class of 1930, framed alongside other memorabilia: a "Goldwater for President" pin, a pair of PE uniform shorts and an old Tallahassee Democrat with the headline "Court Bans Segregation in Public School Case."
"When you have a group that graduated over 70 years ago able to come back and relive some of their fond memories here at Leon, it's important," Hanna said. "Leon, one of the things it prides itself on is that rich history and tradition, and the graduates of 1951 were certainly a big part of that."
He was also proud of the current students, members of the Student Government Association, the honors society, and other school clubs who devoted their Saturday to give tours, interview alumni and sing.
As the words of the alma mater echoed off the lobby walls, students threw their arms around each other and the class of 1951 held hands, swaying to the words every Leon High School grad knows by heart: "the red clay hills of Tallahassee harbor memories dear. Memories of our dear old high school that we all revere."
Contact Ana Goñi-Lessan at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com and follow her on Twitter @goni_lessan.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon High School's class of 1951 hosts 70-year reunion in Tallahassee
