Poly High marks 100th anniversary of first graduating class

By Jessamy Brown

jessamybrown@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH -- This summer, 22 ladies aged 60 to 79 began rehearsing a chorus kick-line routine for the Polytechnic High School all-class reunion, but not all of them made it to Saturday's performance.

One had a bad back. Another broke her leg. For others, the kicks proved just too strenuous.

"The first and second time we practiced, I would go home and my back ached," said 75-year-old Marie Doggett Gaunce, Class of '55. "I would be in bed for two or three hours, but it got better. So this has been good exercise for me."

On Saturday, a reduced contingent of 16 performed a modified version of the high-kick chorus line for fellow Poly High alumni at a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the school's first graduating class.

The kick line was a highlight of back-to-back, 90-minute Centennial Memories programs that included a stage band of alumni from the 1950s and 1960s performing the alma mater, former and current cheerleaders, and a salute to state champions over the years.

The crowd roared as Shelby Sharpe, a 1958 graduate, sounded the herald trumpet used by the school's famed Marching 100 band. Several horns, originally purchased in 1957, are being donated to the school. They were recently located after being missing for several decades.

"It plays, but it needs to be re-lacquered and completely cleaned out," Sharpe said.

The daylong reunion at the campus on Conner Avenue was open to anyone who attended the school, not just graduates, as well as former faculty and staff members. About 2,000 people were expected.

To handle the crowd, organizers secured hundreds of parking spaces at area lots and arranged for shuttle buses.

The reunion drew three members of the Class of 1938 and one from 1929, Dora Brauer Middleton, now 100. Middleton didn't graduate with her peers because she withdrew in May 1929 after a tiff with her stepmother. That was when students finished school in the 11th grade.

"I lacked two credits. I was a senior. So I consider myself a Poly alumnus anyway," she said.

The kick-line performers had been members of a girls-only rhythm and dance class offered in the late 1950s for physical education credit.

From that class, teacher Evelyn Reeves chose students to create a kick line in the style of the famous Rockettes from Radio City Music Hall in New York. The girls would kick their legs toward their heads, and performed in short shorts, tuxedo shirts and high-heeled dance shoes.

Fast-forward several decades. The group donned black jeans and ballet shoes, linking arms and dancing to music from the 1975 Broadway hit, A Chorus Line.

For three months, the reunion dancers practiced every other Saturday, and in August, bumped up rehearsals to twice a week, including two hours on Saturday mornings on Poly's auditorium stage.

"There is no jumping and kicking because I have several that have had hip replacements and knee replacements," said Sharon Lemons Arber, a 1957 grad who choreographed the routine. "I picked steps that I thought the ladies could handle.

"We don't kick much higher than our knees," Arber added. "We wanted to make sure everybody had fun and didn't get hurt."

Jessamy Brown, 817-390-7326

Twitter: @jessamybrown

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