Southern High School Class of 1960

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A good buddy in high school!

Charles Martin Obituary - Louisville, KY Celebrate the life of Charles Martin, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Evergreen Funeral Home.

(Decked out in Northwestern purple and white expressly for this occasion.)

Happy Valentine’s Day to all Facebook women with your beguiling ways and your compelling charms. You lassies of the fairer s*x transcend the bounds of the written word as you reach out across the Internet to captivate and fascinate the likes of us mere men with your feminine perspectives.

Here’s a sincere, heartfelt homage to la belle femme and dedicated to all of you special sweethearts, but especially for my Southern High schoolmates of the female persuasion.

Please permit me this personal sentiment that I have been studiously and laboriously fashioning over the past several months:

Roses are, of course, red,
Our high school color is purple,
You Southern belles are so sweet,
Much like, uh, maple syruple!

Just a quick shout out to all of our Southern High Trojans and our sweet Trojanettes.

Though I live just down the road, I haven't been back to the school itself in a few years, but I have so many, happy memories of my late 1950s tenure.

My best, especially to my fellow 1960 grads, but to all who have gone through the Southern High doors and tromped down the hallways.

" . . . that style, that smile, that winning way . . . "

Lovie Ann “Red” Higdon Baker had special reason to party in 1960. Not only were we graduating From Southern High, it was a birthday year for her and, for Lovie Ann, they don’t come by that often. No wonder she looks so young!

Lovie Ann was born on February 29, so she’s a “leap year baby” or simply a “leapling.” She’s shares her “born on leap day” fate with some other party people: bandleader Jimmy Dorsey (1904), singer and actress Dinah Shore (1916), burlesque performer Tempest Storm (1928), motivational speaker Tony Robbins (1960) and serial killer Richard Ramirez (1960). Oops!

Lovie Ann moved to Fairdale from the West End of Louisville “when I was 16, and I have never left.” That’s not to say she’s ever stood still. “Kenneth and I had a motorcycle for 19 years and enjoyed every minute of riding it everywhere.”

After working as a heart monitor technician at Baptist East Hospital for 25 years, Lovie Ann retired in January 2011. She has three grown grandchildren and one great grandchild, but we believe they’d be hard pressed to keep up with Grammy on the dance floor.

Enjoy your rare leap year birthday, Lovie Ann!

0ur 1960 Southern High classmate Harold Risner, shown with his wife, Brenda, celebrates his birthday on February 10.

"Brenda and I used my G.I. benefits to go back to school for M.A. degrees at EKU in 1970-71." notes Harold. "That was a good year because, in addition to getting those degrees, we had our only child, daughter Mary Nicole, in May just before graduation."

Sad news about a very popular Southern High Class of 1960 alumnus. Charles "Chuck" Evans was our class president. Chuck and his wife, Margaret, lived in Hudson, Ohio. They have a daughter, Meredith.

Margaret posted the following on Facebook.

Now that the information has made it where it needs to go, I wanted to finally share here.
Had to share this lovely tribute my daughter made to her dad................

Many of you know, many of you don't, but just about a year ago, my father was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. It had already metastasized to his liver. He rocked the beginning of his chemo treatments like a champ. He fought hard, and pushed himself, often times past what his body could handle. Unfortunately, the end of the chemo treatments were too much for him to handle, and he had to stop.

Sadly, this past Friday morning, Aug 30th, my father passed away. It was my parents 45th wedding anniversary.

He was an incredibly intelligent and stubborn human who loved potty humor, Dad jokes, and often had me and mom rolling our eyes. He taught me many things, and I probably ignored many more! I miss him every day.

For anyone that may be interested, there will be a Memorial gathering Saturday Sept 7th from 2-4 at the Johnson Romito Funeral Home in Hudson.

Jim Reed had a great visit today with Dave Harralson and his wife of 40-plus years, Chloe. They live in Sarasota, Florida, but have been in Louisville for a few days.

Dave and I are alumni of the Southern High School's Class of 1960. Whew, that was a lonnng time ago, almost 60 years, but I still recognized Dave and he insists he still recognizes me, after all this time. We both might have fibbed just a bit.

Dave and Chloe are very entertaining conversationalists and have had many, notable experiences during the past several decades. They have two children, Beth, born in 1967 and Kelly, 1970.

After attending Georgetown (Indiana) and Kent State, Dave became a professor at Utica College of Syracuse University and, among several pursuits ran the college's London Theatre Tour for 25 years.

He later became Dean of the humanities faculty and, in that capacity, was in charge of the college's Chinese faculty members. In that role he led contingents of students and community groups on a goodly number of trips to China.

Though Dave and Chloe now are Florida residents, he still is active with the Sarasota Sister Cities organization as a liaison with Xiamen, China.

When the Harralsons retired in 1993, Chloe was with NYC's New School for Social Research. Both have enjoyed kayaking, wine-tasting tours to California, and Scuba diving! But, as with many of us, health problems have slowed them down a speck. These days, the duo enjoy hearing about the adventures of their three grandchildren.

While the Harralsons were at my house, fellow Southerner Rich Stevenson dropped by, as well, forgoing a night of dancing (his passion), to catch up on old times.

A very merry get-together -- and the Harralsons even thoughtfully brought along supper from Bob Evans. Every day should be so enjoyable. 😀

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At Southern High in the late 1950s, Dave was a member of the Five Knights quintet.
(Left to right) Johnny Sampson, Bob Kingsley, Jerry Smith, Dave Harralson and Ack Lee Harned.

Alas, of the five SHS crooners, only Dave and Johnny remain with us.

Our Southern High School Class of 1960’s collective 70th Birthday Party Bash at South Park Country Club on Friday, August 17, 2012, began with a buffet line. Among the entrée selections, the fish was exceptional.

We’ll have many dozens of shots posted soon, including lots of close-up and personal glimpses, but we need to catch our breath. Those who know how to “tag” names onto Facebook photos are welcome to do so.

Our fellow Southerners may wish to visit our related pages, in particular, “Southern High Class of 1960 Reunion,” but also “Southern Grads,” “Southern High Class 1960,” and Southern High School 1962ers” among others. We also have our main Class of 1960 page here: www.shs60.info and has lots of photos.

In my time at Southern High, graduating in 1960, certain people were school standouts. Most of us, no matter what year we were in, looked up to upperclassmen. For me as a seventh grader, I considered senior John Kingsley “King” Stratton (SHS 1955) to be a man among boys. Likely, he regarded me as termite, if he ever even noticed us junior high peons darting down the hallway. He played football, baseball and basketball and was a major chick magnet. Among the senior favorites, he was voted “Most Handsome” — as if there were any competitors.

In the Class of 1956, Judy Marshall was not only stunningly attractive, but she was a songstress who went on to perform professionally on WHAS TV’s Hayloft Hoedown and in other radio and TV gigs.

As for the SHS Class of 1957, Morris Longacre was Mister Macho Man and could have posed for the Marine poster out in front of the school. He robbed the cradle and plucked one of the poodle-skirted beauties from my own class year as his blushing bride. I ran into Morris and Barbara Sue at Linda’s Café in Shepherdsville a while back.

Among 1958 Southern grads, Jim Haag was just so smooth and versatile, Mister All-around guy. He would have been a great Tonight Show host. He did emcee some of our SHS variety shows.

Juanita Carr was my personal favorite for standout among the Class of 1959. She could really belt out a song, in the manner of Brenda Lee or Theresa Brewer — three little gals with big sets of lungs. “Nini” went on to a career traveling around the country singing on the nightclub circuit.

Among my own peers, the Class of 1960, Johnny Sampson was BMOC, ultra good-looking, fit and with a syrupy smooth voice that reminded me of minister Billy Graham. Johnny, a baseball standout, also sang in the Five Knights quintet. Melves Riggs beat him out, though, for the coveted title of Mr. Southern and a place in the opening pages of The Southern yearbook alongside Miss Southern, Carole Lacefield, who is still a knockout.

Most of us were on the outside looking in at the “in crowd,” but we knew them all, and they signed our keepsake senior annuals with their best wishes or loads of luck to “a swell guy” or “a cute gal.” However, there is a signature few if any of us have; one popular guy wasn’t around when we signed our annuals.

My candidate for the coolest guy at Southern High, you won’t find mentioned in our senior annual, because he ran off and joined the Navy that year, if I remember correctly. His name may not ring a bell. On the other hand, who knows who Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli might be without prompting? Henry Winkler’s Fonzarelli character on Happy Days, best known as “The Fonz,” could easily have been based on Southern’s own Jimmy Frank, my candidate for Mr. Cool.

Yes, that’s Jimmy in the photo, taken during his junior year. I didn’t know him all that well, but the girls flocked to him, and he was a force to be reckoned with at after-school events. Like “Fonzie,” Jimmy spent a lot of time on his hair. This was the Brylcream era. I suspect smoking in the boys’ restroom was his major, since my mental image of him is in a white tee-shirt with a cigarette pack tucked and rolled into his shirt sleeve when not wearing his leather jacket. His rolled up sleeves also showed off his biceps and wiry frame.

Some people call that the “greaser” look, a bad boy look, and all bad boys smoked. Saying “greaser” to his face might have earned you a fat lip or, at least, a hard smack to the back of the head, though. Where is Jimmy Frank now? I have no clue, but I hope he’s still preening his hair and dressed in jeans and tee-shirt; I just cannot picture him bald-headed. You bet, if he hasn’t ridden a motorcycle off into the desert sunset, he’s still cool, even as a septuagenarian.

I’ll leave it to others to name the “coolest” guys and gals of their SHS or Okolona era, but Jimmy Frank is a definite hall of famer in my book.