Mellon alumni gather to look back over school years | Palatka Daily News, Palatka, Florida

Doreen Eubanks Partridge, left, and Alice Baggs Radcliff Farrell greet each other at the Putnam Mellon High School reunion Wednesday marking the 100th year since the school opened.
Edwin Reid, left, reunion committee chairman, and Carey E. Ferrell, one of the speakers at the event, greet each other before the luncheon.
Andrew Efstathion, left, a member of the class of 1953, shares a laugh with one of the reunion guest speakers, Dickie Ryals, who is a member of the class of 1956.
Carey E. Ferrell, front, goes through the buffet line with other class members during the Putnam Mellon High School reunion.
Positively Putnam FL

There were historic events nationally in the entertainment and sports worlds in 1921, but some history was made in Palatka that year, too.

The first Miss America pageant in Atlantic City occurred in 1921. It was also the year baseball legend and later Palatka visitor Babe Ruth was presented a towering silver crown celebrating one of his home-run records.

More significant to generations of Putnam County residents, 1921 was the year Mellon High School opened its doors and was the first season in the 100-year history of Palatka High School football.

James Ross Mellon, a wealthy banker and philanthropist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, donated the land for the school. He spent his winters in Palatka for more than 40 years. His local legacy also includes the Larimer Arts Center, named after his wife.

The two-story, red brick Mellon School stood for more than four decades between U.S. 17 and then Lemon Street, where sits today the parking lot at the Putnam County Courthouse.

Graduating class members gathered Oct. 14 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the school with a luncheon and program at Christ Independent Methodist Church fellowship hall in Palatka.

Reunion guests represented classes from the 1940s through the early 1960s, with a total of 87 reservations made, which included 60 class members.

Reunion committee chairman Edwin Reid, 91, of Palatka, remembers his school years as a simpler time. A 1948 Mellon graduate, Reid said he was in the band and later played football for the Palatka Maroons.

“Back then, we didn’t have cellphones, TVs and we all played outside,” he said. “We had a radio, but (it) was AM mostly. I remember playing football in a grassy area that ran alongside the school. We would choose sides and get dirty. We just liked to do that and we played sandlot baseball.”

Reid said this year’s reunion drew the largest crowd in the six reunions he’s helped organize since 2015.

“The enjoyment part of my time in it has been producing the quarterly newsletter,” he said. “It has been a great way to get to know former classmates. At the reunion, it was nice to know most everybody by name.”

According to Reid, the oldest class member in attendance was Doris Hilty Darden, 93, of East Palatka.

Class members who traveled the farthest for the reunion were Tommy Hires from Missouri, Meredith Pat Patrick and his wife, Patty, from Virginia, and 90-year-old Jenna Knox Cassese, who flew by herself from Birmingham, Ala.

One of the reunion guest speakers was Carey E. Ferrell of Sanford, a former Putnam County school superintendent and state education official. Ferrell researched and wrote the booklet, “James Ross Mellon and Palatka’s Legendary Mellon High School — 1921–1962.” The booklet was given out to class members in attendance, as well as a 3-by-4-inch refrigerator magnet with a picture of Mellon School with the writing “100th Anniversary.”

Ferrell’s talk was on the 100th anniversary of the school and the centennial of the Palatka football team.

“One of the most enjoyable parts of the reunion was the opportunity to see many of my classmates again and recall old times,” said Ferrell, who is a 1947 graduate.

“The first edition of Ferrell’s booklet was released in 2018 and was about 20 pages. The expanded version handed out this year was 97 pages and included photographs,” Reid said.

Ferrell said his purpose in writing the booklet was “to recognize and preserve the actions and contributions of Mr. Mellon to the Putnam County School System which have been ignored for years by historians.

“Another purpose was to document and preserve the history of the high school for its many former students and their descendants.”

The other reunion speaker was Dickie Ryals from Ormond Beach, who was a member of the class of 1956.

Ryals, 83, is a retired radiologist who talked about different people who were involved with football at the school.

“I tried to use my own participation as a frame of reference as a chronicler of their feats,” he said.

Ryals was an assistant equipment manager in 1951, a player on the B squad in 1952-1953, a spotter for the play-by-player announcer, the sports editor for the school newspaper in 1954 and a player in 1955.

“The best game ever was when the Maroons defeated Seabreeze 13 to 7 in homecoming game November 1951,” he said.

Ryals admits he didn’t see the game but was told about it by players from Seabreeze High.

“Richard Cole ran a recovered fumble 48 yards for a touchdown in the last minute with Seabreeze leading 7 to 6,” Ryals said.

Ryals also had plenty of other information to share about the school’s football teams.

He said, “The best sportsman had to be eighth grader Eddie Mathews, who is the only player I know of who earned five varsity letters at Palatka High.”

Reid said he believes the slide show of photos of class members to be one of the highlights of this year’s reunion.

“There were people that probably represented 80% at the reunion that came up on the slide show,” he said. “I really believe they enjoyed it. They were in it. The slide show brought back a lot of memories.”