No news was submitted by class members of 1943, so the newspaper staff reviewed the article published 20 years ago for their 50th class reunion!
The members of the class of '43 were born in the middle of the roaring twenties when the state of Oklahoma, Beckham County, and the town of Sayre, were all just about 18 years old. It was a rowdy, exciting, vital, oil and gas oriented period in our local history.
The '43 grads started the first grade in 1931, introducing a decade of national and international depression, the worst drouth of the century which originated the descriptive term, 'dust bowl.'
When the class of '43 entered Sayre High School, both Asia and Europe were involved in bloody, armed conflicts and the neutrality of the U.S. was a hotly debated issue. In the middle of the class's junior year, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the lives of virtually every member of the class of '43 were forever altered.
World War II provided the centrifugal force that scattered the class over much of this planet. Many of the boys enlisted in the armed forces at the end of the junior year. Others moved with their families to areas where workers were needed to produce the articles of war. Albeit scattered, many of the '43 classmates have stayed in contact and many enjoyed a festive reunion in 1993.
Some of the class members may remain, but, the newspaper knows that many are deceased. The class list included: Billy Jarvis, Roy Mac Jones, Charlie Woods, Patricia Kerrick, Lloyd Abbott, Amelda Jean Thurmond, George McClintic, Betty Ann Stephens Lamb, Eugene Lewis, Hattie Mae Whitten Nichols, Betty Jo Barnes, Meldean Minton, Ruby June Taylor, Patsy Russell Barr, Genelle Rogers, Betty Ruth Skinner French, Jay Fairless, Nell Joyce Worley Cook, Virginia Mae Walker Patterson, Steve Andre, Edd Abbott, Gail Harris, Larry Barker, Frank Armbruster, Jr., Jim Bo Ulmer, Doris Howard Hill, Jeanne Dodson, Lomax Murphy, Calvin Puckett, Pauline Fiitchler Strange, Vernon Wynn, Essie Dowdell, Betty Jo Cloyd, Juanita Locke, Francis Lee Lane Roper, Johnnie Sides, Irene White Clark and Imogene Wilson Cain.
