PAGE FOUB
THE BLACKBIRD. ROCKY MOUNT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1957
Odd ‘Gifts’ in 214
«/■
Elbert Robbins, Jane Palmgren, Beulah WDkins, Jean Harris,
Judy Cobb, Teddy Little, Pat Johnson, and Hulda Wiliams were
officers of homeroom 214 during the year. (Photo by Barringer)
Outstanding Sr. Girls
Win New Title, Dancing Role
To Add to Honors
(Editor’s note: Blackbird Staf
fers Ellen Joyner and Eleanor
Balluck are exited, and right
fully! so —■ but read on to find out
■why.)
Ellen Joyner has won another
title, and Eleanor Bulluck has her
first professional dancing role.
Both these beautiful and talent
ed girls have worked tA-o years
What Curious Sights!
Unusual Gifts Decorate 216
Students in Mrs. Ora. Van Bus-
kirk’s homeroom 216 say they have
manyi curious sights awaiting them
on their arrival at school each
morning, since itheir room is a
biology lab and “Mrs. Van’s” pu
pils often bring her unusual “gifts”
such as a huge dead fly.
Members of this homeroom don’t
have to decorate for the season
■at Christmas, other students,
mostly sophomores obliged by
making daied flower arrange
ments, wreathes, and centerjMeces
as biology projects. Even mistle
toe rings are allowed.
‘Squares' Fill 208
No, Not Students—
Math Structures!
Upon entering room 208 the
casual visitor may find it filled
with strange, colorful objects —
cubes, squares (no, not studients),
and other solid structures, for
trigonometry, algebra, and solid
geometrj( are subjects taught by
the homeroom teacher. Miss Wiia
Bond.
Miss Bond literallyi “carries a
torch” for scholarship, leadership,
character, and service. For many
years this teacher in addition to
her regular duities has advised the
Romonoca chapter of the National
Honor Society. Encouraged by her,
about a fourth of her room have
been tapped into tliis organiza
tion.
Miss Bond’s students for the
past three years have exhibited
many of these traits. Service Club
president, Pajie Kirkland; Cap and
Gown chairman Carolyn Langley;
Senior class president, Freddie
Fulcher; Hi-Noc-Ar sitaff member,
Jean Edwards; and last year’s
chief commencement marshal,
Dan Woodruff, are just a faw of
Miss Bond’s “biddies” graduating
Mayi 31.
Homeroom students appreciate
the sophomores’ efforts, for not
only are they; lovely, but the eas
iest way to have one of the best
decorated homerooms in school.
THE BLACKBIRD editor, Ed
ward Riner, is one of the members
of this senior homeroom. Beauty
and brains combined are here too
with Betty Lou Savage and Jo Jo
Cuthrell in the 1957 Beauty Court.
Names of many National Honor
Socdetyi leaders, club leaders, and
athletic contestants also on this
homeroom’s roll.
A1 cGoo's
Kazoo
By Kelsey McGee
Oh, it’s great /to be a senior at
graduation time — earlyi exams;—
early morning (ho-hiun) com
mencement practices: — Senior
Day (!) — guess who’s running
for dog catcher — no, not McGoo;
rush, rush, rush; and graduation
gifts (thank-you notes, too).
Some people aim rather high at
what they hope Mom and Pop will
give them as a reward for strug
gling mightily through -twelve (it
doesn’t seem that long) years of
borrowed notebook paper, library,
fines, lost fountain pens, and de
tention slips for chewing gum in
class.
Grads List ‘Wants’
Lee Newby, for instance, would
especially like a hi-fi record play
er — “Like Prank Wilkinson has.”
Luanne Hobbs thinks a portable
radio or clock radio would be nice.
In t»us photo Annette l^ee and Karen Procior are shown on the
bottom row, and Clayton Hurt, Charlotte Carmichael, Linda Bul
lock, and Freddie Fulcher are on the top row.
(Photo by Barringer)
HR 117 Has Brains, Height
Faculty Has Party
Prolickin’ ^with no pupils pre
sent) was the order or the even
ing at the annual RMSHS faculty
pincic in the lovely garden of Miss
Eleanor Pearsall’s home, Thurs
day night. May 16.
Teachers brought homemude
foods for the picnic — potato
salad, sandwiches, deviled eggs,
cakes, and cookies and fried chick
en galore.
Miss Rubie Vause of 117 boasts
a varigated homeroom; that is,
it includes people ranging from
the tallest boy, Clarence Williams,
to some of the ‘brainest’ students
in the school.
This lively and sometimes ex
asperating (according to obser
vers, not Miss Vause) homeroom
at their recent presented their
teacher with a white sweater as a
‘graduation’ gift. Originally the
homeroom of Mrs. Jay Massey,
this group ‘adopted’ Miss Vause.
whose 1956 senior homeroom had
graduated, after the departure of
Mrs. Massey lasrt, year.
Student Organization president
and a recipient of a Morehead
Scholarship, Don Harris; editor
Of th)e Hl-Noc-Ar, Bettie Ann
Whitehurst; advertising manager
of THE BLACKBIRD. Barbara
Davis; and several choir members
are only a few of the more out
standing people in homeroom 117.
Brains must go hand-in-hand
!’^ith energy, because some of this
group look back with sheepish grin
and due repentance at some of
the situnts they pulled, much to the
consternation of poor ‘little’ Mrs.
Massey, their sophomore teacher.
‘Black John’ Pearson once (?)
was ‘naughty’, with the reslut that
he was assigned to write a sen
tence a thousand times for his
teacher. The next day a Tide box
was found on the teacher’s desk
with thousands of pieces of paper
inside — John’s assignment!
(Wouldn’t it have served him right
if he had to paste them all to
gether in the correct order? I)
Jane Palmgren says she “would
like a car, but that’s just a dream.
I really would appreciate a radio
or record player.”
Larry Warner mentions a “stero-
tape player” — whatever that
might be; Roger Gregory says his
graduation gift is his trip to
Europe — “le grand tour.” Don
Harris already has his gift — a
set of new golf clubs.
Anna Smithson knows she’s to
receive a highboy-style cedar hope
chest to go with her diamond. An
nette Lee, Bobbi Pullen, and Mar
garet Ricks say luggage is “the
thing” for them, and Betsy Avera
and Linda Pittman think their
gifite will be “probably a watch.”
With Accompaniment Yet
“A Musical Instrument” by
Elizabeth Browing was the poem
Paye Kirland iwas reading to Miss
Kate Parks Kitchin’s third period
senior English class — when sud
denly a resonant, blaring blast
(seemingly from a giant instru
ment of some sort) drowned her
voice. At the end of the echoes.
Fajp resumed only to find she
again had competition.
What kind of competition?
Nothing less than a rocket on the
Command Decision Jet exhibit
on the Nash Street side of RM-
SIH3. These loud, mournf-al noises
continued fcr most p^art of Thurs
day.
More Gifts They Get
Keiling Meyers gave all senior
girls Lane miniature cedar clients.
The Jewel Box preseted each sen
ior with a geld and black school
key.
Annual Junior Guild tea for the
senior class was at the home of
Mrs. Julian Fenner, Wednesday,
May 1. Manyi seniors enjoyed the
lovely afternoon affair.
on the staff of the BLACKBIRD
and have contributed much to its
improvement.
Ellen Is Rose Princess
Pretty, blonde, brown-eyed El
len Joyner is now Rockj\ Mount
Rose Society’s 1957 Rose Princess.
Ellen and her three attendants
Clare Davenport, Lee Newby, and
iBci.ty L.u Savage, greeted guests
iittendinj ths Rose Soaioty’,5 an-
-lual Rl33 Show at itlu Ricks
Hotel Friday, May, 17.
Climaxing the day. Princess El
len was crowned by Mayor P. K.
Gravely at the banquet that night
with a “diamond” tiara on a base
of pale pink rosebuds. Ellen wore
a full-length gown of pale pink
chiffon, and her attendants^ iwore
waltz-length formats of gneen or
gandy, butter-cup y,ellow, and deep
blue.
Ellen’s other titles are 1957
Sweetheart ojf the D)eux Pays
Chapter of the Order of De Molay;
RMBHS Campus Sweetheart, 1957;
Rotary girl for December, 1956;
and member of the RMSHS Beu-
ty Court, 1956.
An outstanding senior, Ellen
plans to continue lier higher edu
cation in the field of art.
Asked about her plans after col
lege, Ellen said, “I’ll probably go
into some phase of art.”
What could a talented young
girl like Eleanor Bulluck want
more than a summer of valuable
experiences, with pay, at Manteo,
N. C.?
Eleanor has it, a, summer of
dancing. She was notified last
week after her second audition for
the part one of the eight dances
m “Tlie Lost Colony” that she
imd been accepted for a role.
She says that although she is a
dancer, she will trii out for a role
aiS a dramatic understudy, for one
of the outdoor drama’s actors —
‘■because that’s what ’most every
one does!”
While at Manteo, Eleanor says
that s'he and the other dancers
ivvall pool talent', with others in the
drama and conduot and attend
classes in speech, drama and
modern dancing.
Her schedule after that will be
busy, fcr rehearsals start June
10; the play starts July 1 and ends
September 1.
.
i
Senior homeroom officers of Miss Vause’s 117 ar/left to risht
Shirt., Pl.;cj B.bM Pullen. ,.h„ Pearson. Bill wite " Riefiia
Taylor, and BUl^ Merntt. (photo by Barringer)