‘We have a bond’: Orangeburg High classmates keep gathering after 70 years

She was among a dozen of her classmates who gathered for their 70th reunion at Dukes Bar-B-Q on Whitman Street in May.

Hunter, 87, fondly remembered having met her husband, the late Willard Glenn Hunter, while in high school, where she was a friend of his sister.

“His family moved to Orangeburg, although he hadn’t at the time, but I was a good friend of his sister. We just celebrated her 88th birthday. I met him through her, and we were married 68 years,” said Hunter, a lifelong Orangeburg resident.

Patricia “Pat” Boyleston Yonce, 87, of Johnston, South Carolina, and Bobbie Devore Jones, 87, of Clemson were also among the reunited class members, some of whom traveled from as far Myrtle Beach and Winston-Salem, North Carolina to be at the celebration.

“We’ve had a reunion every five years, but when the 50th came, we had it every year from then on,” Yonce said, with the exception of when the pandemic hit in 2020.

Jones, who organized this year’s event with Yonce, said the two felt that the 70th reunion was a milestone event worthy of celebration.

“We thought that’s what we needed to aim for, and that’s what we did,” Jones said, noting that fellow classmate Brown Bradley of Myrtle Beach sang on Broadway and at their class reunion with “The Lord’s Prayer.”

There were nearly 100 members of the OHS class of 1953. Jones said 46 have been found to still be alive.

She said she’s traveled a lot, but is glad to have attended Orangeburg High School, where valuable friendships were made.

“I’ll sit down to talk to friends from other countries and certainly from those in the states, too. I just think how blessed we were to have Orangeburg High School,” Jones said.

Yonce said, “You’d be surprised how many of my classmates are on my prayer list. They’ve been there for years and years. We have a bond.”

Hunter said, “I enjoyed taking shorthand. I cannot do it now, but I ended up being a medical secretary for three of the doctors in Orangeburg. That was because I was able to type on a regular typewriter.

“I never did have a computer there except to do bills. I got to go to work when I was in the 12th grade. Orangeburg High School gave me a good start. I had some good friends there, forever friends. I had a lot of good memories of the school.”

Jones said she also recalled “some of the crazy people in our class.”

Yonce said, “Oh goodness, yes, and some of the crazy teachers we had, like one who stepped up on the chair and fell through and broke her leg. She said, ‘I am standing on the floor.’ She got up in the chair and said, ‘I am standing on the chair.’ The chair fell, she fell and some little boy back there said, ‘Now you are on the floor.’”

She continued, “But she was a good teacher because I remember everything she taught me. She taught me how to spell principal. If a principal at school, it’s your pal, p-a-l. It’s surprising what you remember that your teacher taught you.”

Jones said, “She was so interested in it. She wanted to teach, she wanted to help you to do better. So that’s my memory.”

Yonce said, “I also remember the good times we had playing ball and things like that …. I love everybody, and I think they loved me. I know the boys did from the things they wrote in my annual.”

She said she regretted not having participated in the Glee Club under the direction of the late C. Frederick Ulmer, noting “you could never find anybody better than C. Frederick Ulmer.”

Jones said it was good seeing everyone at the reunion, though many class members had someone come with them for assistance.

“It was good, so good. (Classmate) Henry Allen started out talking. They said something about coming back next year. We all were thinking about coming back next year. He said, ‘You know, I’d drive across the country to come and see my friends.’ So I think that was real nice,” she said.

Yonce said it was heartwarming to be able to reconnect with some of her classmates.

“I send pictures with my phone to all of them after we’ve had a reunion. Henry Allen writes back the sweetest things. He just can’t believe how we have kept this together so long and how much he appreciates it. I mean, these people that come, they come because they want to be here. They love it. I really think that,” she said.

Hunter said, “I remember the 50th reunion. That’ll ever be in my memories because it started out at Camp Anderson. Some of these men and women I hadn’t seen since high school. After it was over, I didn’t want to leave. It was so good.”

Orangeburg attorney Tom Bryant, who was about two years younger than her and her classmates, shared history from the school at the reunion.

“Tom Bryant was so good. We almost thought that we were back in those days. He was talking about who lived on this corner and all that, but he’s really good. He comes to our reunion because we just think so much of him. He helps us so much,” she said.

Jones and Yonce aren’t sure what next year’s celebration will look like, but say it may be held on a smaller scale.

Hunter said, “It’s just always so good to see everybody. I remember them like they were when they were young. In my head, I can’t get it that we’re all up there now.”

Other class members who participated in the reunion included: Mary Sue Gramling McGee; Billy Tyler; Brooks Jackson; Sonny Briggman; Leslie Edwards; Cecil Cave; Martha Rose Camp Carson and Edith Davis Evans.