"I would die if they ever took this school down," Babs Peery Meador said as she reminisces about the old Starkey School building at Sunday’s reunion.

Starkey School is where she met Eddie, her husband, 42 years ago, while in the fourth grade.

"I failed the fourth grade just to be with him," she laughed. "Stella Hensley was my teacher when I met him."

About 200 former Starkey School students attended the reunion, reunited with one another indulged in some dessert, and visited the same school they attended years ago. They were even reunited by a former teacher, Stella Hensley and the only surviving Starkey family member, Margaret Starkey.

"She [Stella Hensley] was the best teacher the school ever had," Elon Hedrick said.

Margaret Starkey’s grandfather, Merriman Starkey, donated the land to build the school, and thus it was named after him.

Old classmates from Starkey School and longtime friends Benton Hopper, Charles Jennings, and Bob Saunders began planning for the reunion in the spring and had to continuously move the date of the event just to make it happen.

According to Hopper, the people in attendance were up to 95 years old.

"Seventy-five percent of the people there were up in age," Hopper said. "We tried to get the word out, we made flyers, went through school records and sent the people we could find the information and asked them to pass it along to their family members. You get one in the family and they tell them all."

Former student David Harris said, "I remember we had an outdoor toilet with a wooden structure and fence around it. We didn’t get indoor plumbing until I graduated in the seventh grade."

Cliff Peery, 88, and among the oldest of the students who attended the reunion remembered the 20-minute trek he made every day to school.

"I had to walk to school from Crescent Heights. Back in them days there was no hurry. You could stop and throw rocks on the way."

Although he did not remember many people at the reunion he said, "It’s hard remembering names. It’s embarrassing because they come up and say, ‘Hey Clifton’...I just can’t remember."

"One thing about school then, teachers could discipline you," Cliff Peery recalled.

Babs Meador laughed and said she remembered getting paddled because she could not do arithmetic.

"They spanked me with a paddle and then I went home and I got spanked again," she said.

Paul and Nancy Rucker of Cave Spring now own the Starkey School and are in the process of restoring it.

"I was looking for a business building. I’m an electronic designer. It’s hard to find one for sale. I loved the building and wanted to restore it."

The Ruckers got the school on the national register to protect the building. Paul Rucker did his share of research to figure out the original construction of the building with the help of Mark Clark with Southwest Restoration and by talking to people who worked at the school and attended the school.

After renovations are complete, the Ruckers hope to rent it out for wedding receptions and musical events.

And Benton Hopper said after many requests, they hope to make the reunion an annual event.

Timeline:

1894: Orginial Starkey School was built in what was then the village of Starkey as a one-room frame schoolhouse with white painted weatherboard siding. The school consisted of six grades taught by one teacher.

1915: The original one-room Starkey School was either demolished of incorporated into a brick grade school.

1961: Last class held. The school was closed and purchased by Roanoke County.

1968: Developer purchased it, but it sat vacant and boarded up until 1999 when it was purchased by Paul and Nancy Rucker and used for their business office. They also began restoration of the "Old Starkey School."

Information obtained from the National Register of Historic Places.

First photo: Old Starkey School as it is today.
Second photo: Mrs. Stella Hensley, the only surviving school teacher of the Old Starkey School.
Third photo: The students who had Mrs. Hensley as a teacher at some point during their schooling at Old Starkey School.
Fourth photo: About 200 people traveled from as far as Michigan and Florida to attend the Old Starkey School Reunion and to be reunited with teachers and former peers.

• Share this entry
  • Digg this entry
  • Mark in Ma.gnolia
  • Tag with del.icio.us
  • Seed Newsvine
  • Post to Google
  • Add to Yahoo!
  • Share on Facebook
  • Submit to Reddit
  • Related at Technorati
• Posted by emily flora in Schools and educationSchools and educationSchools and education
• :: Comments (0)