Fort Gay View, Early 50s

Below is a picture of Fort Gay with the businesses across from the High School.  This is a copy of a copy that Jim Doc Lakin sent me.  Copies from a copy machine do not do very well but I think you can make out what is going on.

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JOE DAMRON

Good morning to all.  We had a light frost here this morning but it appears that covering the tender new flowers with sheets prevented any damage.

I am attaching a couple of pictures to this post.  I think most of you will recognize the individual.  Customarily you would see him with much more  hair, although I saw a high school picture of him once and I believe he had a “buzz” cut in it.   With or without long hair he is easily recognized as Joe Damron, our golf chairman, assistant chairman, recent treasurer, and lots of other hats he wears or has worn for the Alumni Association.

The reason for the “buzz” cut is not the loss of an election bet or the desire to change his image.  Joe is experiencing some health issues which require that he undergo some chemotherapy treatments.  In many instances during this kind of therapy there is considerable hair loss.  Joe decided that rather than have his hair fall out on its terms that he would take charge and make the decision as to when it would fall on his terms.  Most of us lose our  hair normally, if it is normal to lose your hair, and look older as a result.  My question would be, how does he get to look younger?

I am sure that all of you join me in wishing Joe the best in his course of therapy and I know that Joe would appreciate you and all of your friends, family, and church members in joining together and lifting him up  in Prayer during the next several months of treatment. God hears all prayers and I am a firm believer in the healing power of prayer.  I also believe that the more the prayers, the greater the blessing.

Joe will continue actively in the Alumni Association activities during therapy.  He is again chairing the golf tournament for this year as well as other responsibilities.  If you wish, you may leave messages of encouragement on this web site or contact Joe directly

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY JO!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARY JO

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Three score and ten years ago Mary Jo appeared on this earth.  As you can see from the attached picture she isn’t minding it one bit.  Mary Jo is part of the Damron team on the Alumni Association board and what an assett she has been.  Everyone that has her email address, phone number, or mail address send her a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Looks as if there are some surprises on the table.

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I REMEMBER WHEN!!!!!

I realize this is not Fort Gay, however, those of us that spent time in Fort Gay, whether as residents or only attending school also spent time in Louisa, KY.  Whether it was shopping, going to the movies,  getting ice cream, or just hanging out, this should bring back many memories.  I do hope you can read this.  By clicking on the printed page you can enlarge it.  Incidentally the movie showing on the marquee of the theater is “My Friend Irma” starring Marie Wilson.  I hope you enjoy some of these memories. 

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SCHOLARSHIP TEA AND RECEPTION

Good morning to all.  Your FGHS Alumni Assiciation board was privileged and honored to represent the Alumni Association at this past weekends event at Marshall University which brings scholarship donors and their scholarship recipients together.  One of our four recipients was there and represented the group well.  He is a  computer science major and hopefully will be in attendance at our reunion banquet this fall.

We were proud to have twelve members in attendance, nearly all of our board.  The Fort Gay High School board was honored by a private lunch in the executive board room at the new Alumni and Foundation building hosted by Dr. Ron Area, The Marshall Foundation’s CEO and by Lance West, Vice President of Development.  Dr. Area was able to answer several questions about The Foundation, our scholarship fund, etc.  He presented a very positive picture of The Foundation’s recovery from the recent economic crisis. 

Lance West spoke about the new building and provided a private tour of the facility.  There are many naming opportunities at or in the building for anyone that would  be interested in making a lasting memorial to a loved one or in honoring a family member.  If you should have this interest you may contact Lance directly at Marshall University and he would be happy to discuss the naming possibilities that exist. 

During the reception, our board was honored by having one of our members speak on behalf of all the donors present.  We do attempt and have succeeded in keeping a high profile there.  We will have some pictures of the event to eventually post on this site. 

Our board will meet again on Tuesday, May 18, at the Fort Gay Baptist Church at 9:30 am to continue planning this years reunion, golf tournament, etc.  Anyone wishing to attend and participate would be most welcome.  I would add, that anyone attending the reunion this fall and desiring motel reservations in the area should be making them at your earliest possible date.  I checked the Super 8 in Louisa, KY, just a couple of weeks ago and they had non-smoking rooms for Thursday and Friday night of that weekend but only smoking rooms left for Saturday night. 

We do hope all is well out there in “the free nation” land. I do have a couple of pictures to post later this week.

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NEEDED!!! NEWS ITEMS AND OR PICTURES

So far today we have reached an all time low in visits to the Viking Chronicles web site since its initiation a few weeks ago.  I haven’t posted anything new since April 15 and I am sure that is the answer.  The problem is that without news items of interest to you or new pictures to post it is pretty difficult to post.  I do,  and will continue to post as long as I can come up with material to post.  It is really important that you, the readers, send me material that you would like to have on the site.   Would please, please, please, work?  Just send to my email richard.plymale@insightbb.com.

The Fort Gay H.S. Alumni Association board will be attending the Marshall University scholarship tea and reception this Sunday, April 22.  The reception is held each year as a function to bring scholarship providers and recipients together in a group setting.  It is an extremely nice event.  We will have eleven members of our board present by special invitation by The Marshall University Foundation plus those students receiving the Fort Gay High School Memorial Scholarship.  There will probably be 200 to 300 persons in attendance.   It is being held at the new foundation and alumni center. 

One of our members will be the speaker representing scholarship providers.  They will be telling “The Fort Gay High School Story”  Our association gets much publicity at the Marshall Campus and you should be proud of the efforts on all of your parts in making this possible. 

Prior to the reception, our group will be guests of Dr. Ron Area, CEO of The Marshall Foundation, at a private luncheon held in our honor.  We are all excited and will be writing about the event  on Monday, April 26.  In the meantime, please submit information or material that you would like to see appear in the “Viking Chronicles”.

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FGHS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Good morning to all.  We have received information from Marshall University regarding the FGHS Memorial Scholarship and it’s recovery following the financial setbacks beginning in late 2008 and it is very good news.  As all should be aware,  most, if not all, college and university foundations and scholarships suffered sharp declines in value following the market decline in 2008 and early 2009.  While this also affected the FGHS Memorial Scholarship, it was able to continue to fund 4  students at Marshall for the school year 2009-2010.

The corpus value of the scholarship was, as of February 28, 2010,  $240,521.90.  The actual market value of the fund on this date was $231,062.31.  With the increase in the market since February 28, I would estimate that the market value has totally recovered and perhaps be above the corpus value.  THE REALLY GOOD news is that we have an additional $14,500.00 in the fund as an expendable amount to be used for scholarships beginning in the Fall of 2011.  This $14,500.00 actually makes the market value of our scholarship $245,562.00 as of February 28, 2010 or exceeding the corpus value.  The expendable amount was established early this year to prevent market fluctuations from affecting scholarship funding on a year to year basis.

The leadership and financial managers of The Marshall University Foundation have done a marvelous job in bringing about the recovery of the various scholarships funded by the foundation.  The board members of the FGHSAA  have also done a great job in supporting and bringing about changes to further strengthen the scholarship and they also are to be congratulated for their time and efforts.

I hope I haven’t  confused anyone by the above but “plain and simple” it just means that the scholarship is well and healthy and exceeding expectations

If anyone has any questions and or comments please use the comment section on this site.

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FGHS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION HAS FIRST PLANNING MEETING

The FGHSAA committee kicked off the new year with its first planning meeting yesterday, April 12.  The meeting was held at the Fort Gay Baptist Church and was well attended.

We were pleased to welcome new board member Rhonda Dotson.  Rhonda presented some new fund-raising ideas  that we are very excited about.  As she develops these we will provide more information.  She is from the class of 1971 as are Paul and Pam Salmons who are also recently added board members as well as Martin Artrip from the class of 1954 and Doris Staton from the class of 1959.  We continue to encourage  anyone who would like to join us in planning the reunion activities and managing the FGHS Memorial Scholarship to contact any of our board members for information.  We are in particular looking for persons from the 60″s, 70″s, and 80″s.  The following is a list of our current board members.

Richard Plymale, Chairman

Joe Damron, Assistant Chairman and Golf Chairman

Paul Salmons, Treasurer

Doris Staton, Secretary

Martin Artrip

Ada Bibb

Carl Chadwick

Phyllis Cyrus

Mary Jo Damron

Una Hughes

Jewell Jackson

Margaret Michael

Pam Salmons

Doris Staton

Faye Thompson

Patty Wallace

Nancy Workman

Fred Reid, Member Emeritus

This is an extremely hard working group that is willing to give of their time and resources in furthering the aims of the FGHSAA.  We would love to have YOU join the group.

The board also has a great friend in Hazel Damron who operates the Fort Gay radio station from Tolsia High School and provides a great service to us in announcing various news items in promoting our activities.

Ambitious plans were made in preparation for the reunion, lawn activities, and the golf tournament.  You will be hearing more about these in future posts to this web site as well as in an announcement letter to be sent in late June or early July. 

We are again asking that if you are reading this and have not passed the web site address along to all of your friends, please do so.  The site is getting many visits per day, many days in excess of one hundred.  While this will never replace our one annual mailing it certainly serves well to immediately disseminate information of interest to our members and friends that visit and read our messages.  A good example of this will be an informative message regarding the FGHS Memorial Scholarship and it’s status.  It is a message that I think you will find exciting as did we.  The help and support of all of you that read these messages is much appreciated.

During yesterdays meeting it was determined that several of our members are having health issues and are in need of our Prayers.  I am not going to publish names so that these persons might have their privacy but God knows who they are and we would ask you to ask Him when you pray to consider them all.

May God Bless all

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I CAN’T BELIEVE ANYONE WAS THIS YOUNG

Here is a picture was taken in the “Honky Tonk” at Christmastime 1951.   I know the two people in the picture  but does anyone else.  They look so young and so thin.  If you have pictures that you would like posted, please email them to me and they will go on.

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CEREMONY HONORING REVOLUTIONARY WAR VETS

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