Ten graduating classes from 1970 to 1979 met at Asheville High’s Alumni Center.

By Jacquelyn Hallum, Asheville City Schools Board Member

On Saturday, September 4, more than 100 alumni of Asheville High School met in an unprecedented reunion of ten classes representing graduates from 1970 to 1979. It was the first “1970s Reunion Picnic,” the result of a conversation on the Facebook social network.

The weekend kicked off with fellowship and class pictures at Asheville High’s Alumni Center. Volunteers Tim and Marcia Britt Amos, along with their son Britt Amos, opened the center and provided school tours. Class pictures were taken with the majority from the Class of 1975, who celebrated their 35th reunion at the Crown Plaza Hotel and Resort.

In conjunction with their help at the reunion itself, the Britts have been cataloging memorabilia from Lee Edwards, Stephens Lee High School, South French Broad High School and Asheville High School, pulling together information about the decades of segregation, integration, and consolidation. The classes represented at the reunion weekend graduated during some of the most volatile and divisive times in the history of Asheville City Schools, and they included many of the student activists who were responsible for the healing and moving forward of the student body.

One highlight of the Alumni Center event was the awarding of a long overdue diploma to Class of 1973 alumna Myrtle Pinkney by classmate and Asheville City Schools Board member Jacquelyn Hallum. Ms. Pinkney never received her official diploma—most likely because of an overdue library book—so she was thrilled to “graduate,” even 37 years later!

Immediately after the Alumni Center event, the reunion picnic began at the historic Recreation Park in East Asheville. The alumni and their families gathered with picnic baskets, high school annuals, old pictures and photo albums, and tales gone by. Some wore name badges with their senior class pictures, and Ray Mapp provided official customized reunion T-shirts on site to commemorate the occasion. 

Fellow alumni from the 70’s classes gathered for a group photo and lots of fun and fellowship at the alumni picnic held at the Recreation Park in Asheville.

Myrtle Pickney (left) holds her high school diploma, presented to her by Asheville City School Board member Jacquelyn Hallum.