MEMORIES LIVE ON AFTER 74 YEARS: ALUMNI GATHER FOR FRANKLIN GYM DEDICATION

Franklin Elementary School third-grader Quitman McBride sang a soaring a cappella version of "The Star Spangled Banner," schools superintendent Dr. Dan Steska realized that he and precocious first-grader Eli Phillips were wearing almost identical coats and ties, and departing sixth-grader Nathaniel Kinsey wryly recalled his parents followed him to Franklin with a video camera on his first day of school.

Friday night's Franklin Elementary School Dedication and Alumni Celebration was a lively, memory-provoking event attended by about 200 students, parents and alumni dating back to the first class of 1927. Signs in the gym designated seating for alumni from the 1920s through the current decade.

Principal Julie Davenport presided as the school dedicated its new gym and the renovation of the old gym into a library-computer room and cafeteria-art room. Both projects were built by alumni and architects Charles Herbst and Tom Holshouser.

Holshouser remembered walking home after the teacher let his class out for his first recess. "I thought school was over," he said. "It had been a long day."

Students from each current class spoke about the school before the assemblage. Young Eli announced he is changing his career plans from rock star to politician. "Go Franklin!" he yelled. Student Council President Matt Hester said one teacher taught him "It's OK to make mistakes, just don't make a habit of it."

Other student speakers were Matthew Hileman, Callie Hoffman, Brittany Rhodes, Russell Hoffman, Jackie Twidwell, Elbridge Robinson, Sing Sing Starrett, Travis Herbst and Owen Hill.

Fifth- and sixth-grade students from the school performed a Maypole dance volunteer Liz Seesing taught them.

"I'd like to say thank you to the neighbors who have been friends to this school," Steska said.

Davenport, who is moving to Ohio after the school year is over, said, "Franklin has a very special place in all of our hearts."

Central High School students made a video documenting the school's 74 years. Among those who talked about the school in the video were alumni Morton Estes, a member of the first class in 1927, and Julia Jorgensen, a Central High School teacher whose father and children also attended Franklin.

Also speaking on the video were Anita Meinz, a former school secretary, and former teachers Gladys Kelly and Martha Vandivort.

Former state senator Al Spradling Jr., an alumnus who has lived behind the school for 51 years, spoke on the video of schoolchildren collecting pennies long ago to replace a bust of Benjamin Franklin broken when two boys got into a scuffle.

One source of memories were the school scrapbooks laid out on the tables in the library. The PTA kept scrapbooks for each class.

Debbie Harris began school at Franklin in the mid-1950s and returned as a teacher last year. She recalled the long, red fingernails of her first-grade teacher, Viola Young, firmly falling onto her shoulder from behind, letting her know that nothing gets by a first-grade teacher.