Photos courtesy of Lake Highlands Class of 1970.
Barbara Yarborough Lown plans to spend her reunion night on the dance floor with the Lake Highlands High School Class of 1970.
“Music is such a remembrance, it really takes you back to that place,” Lown says. “I plan on getting all of my class and myself on the dance floor.”
The event, originally planned as a fall homecoming celebration and spring prom night, has been delayed several times and is now going on its fourth rescheduled date. The reunion is planned as a three-day event centered around an Anniversary Gala Nov. 6.
Lown says her high school days were consumed by the Highlandettes, and she has had a chance to relive some of those high-kick memories while helping plan the reunion.
“When we had the reunion committee meetings, we talked about a lot of the funny things that have happened at the school, and that helps motivate us as to the things that we want to incorporate,” Lown says. “It’s just kind of getting us together, let our brains just go back to those happy days, so to speak, and then work on things from there.”
Classmate Maggie Riley-Hagan is traveling from San Diego, California, to attend. Riley-Hagan took home the State 3A championship for tennis while at LHHS. She also danced with the Highlandettes, and she remembers rushing to a drill team show after hours of playing tennis.
“My mother said of my routine that there were seven proper ladies and one very sunburned, red-faced girl,” Riley-Hagan says.
Now a world-traveling triathlon athlete with her husband, Rob, Riley-Hagan says she’s eager to visit longtime friends at the reunion.
“It might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see, catch up with and have fun with fellow classmates,” she says.
Videos and memorabilia commemorating the class will be displayed. Alumni will also get together for photos with fellow elementary classmates and those involved in specific student groups.
Alumni are also invited to take the stands together at a Wildcat home game, tour the recently remodeled LHHS building and attend Sunday brunch before heading home.
Reunion Committee chair Robert Grinsfelder hopes to see at least a quarter of the 500-or-so 1970 graduates, as well as some faculty members from that period.
Grinsfelder says he spent much of his high school days taking part in student government, eventually becoming class president. He remembers being on the student council when LHHS was integrated. Students from Hamilton Park began attending LHHS, and two Hamilton Park students joined student council, Grinsfelder says.
“Our goal on the student council was to help make that work as effectively as it could,” Grinsfelder says. “I think all of the five student council officers are planning to come, and that would be a very fun reunion for us.”
Alumni from years before and after 1970 are welcome to join in any activities, including the gala, Grinsfelder says.
Those interested in attending can register here. Tickets to the gala at the Westin Park Central Hotel are $85 per person until Oct. 1, when the price increases to $95.
