Ramsey among distinguished alumni being honored this weekend

Weekend
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Ramsey among distinguished alumni being honored this weekend

Weekend
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Fayette

County High School will honor four former students this

Saturday at their first Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame

Induction Ceremony.

The four

honorees include three writers and a former Fayette

County superintendent.

Elizabeth

Redwine Ramsey currently lives in the same house in

Fayetteville that she was born in. She was graduated from

Fayette County High School in 1929 and attended Mary

Baldwin College and Georgia State College for Women.

After

graduation from college, she taught in Fairburn for 12

years until accepting the position of the superintendent

of Fayette County Schools. She was the first and only

female superintendent in the history of the county.

Ramsey has also served as a member of the board of the

Farmers and Merchants Bank and the Fayette County Family

and Children Services.

Fayette

County High School has certainly changed since Ramsey

attended. There were only 29 people in her graduating

class and, though they had separate teachers for each

class, the number of classes was much smaller than it is

today. Many of the teachers boarded at the Burkes hotel

near the center of downtown, while children from all over

the county attended the school.

"I

felt honored that I was chosen," said Ramsey.

"I just didn't know why I was. I didn't feel like I

deserved it." Her humility aside, Ramsey is someone

who loves this county and has given it all of her love

throughout her life. Along with all of the

accomplishments in her career, she has also been very

active in the Methodist Church, serving on the Nominating

Committee for seven years as well as on the Pastor/Parish

Relations Committee.

Asked about

the other inductees that will share this honor with her

Saturday evening, Ramsey remarks, "They are all good

friends of mine and I've known them all of their lives.

They have done so much for the community. I'm just proud

to be honored among them." Though Ramsey never

taught in Fayette County, her teaching is still what she

is most proud of.

Ramsey is

afraid she might be nervous if asked to speak at the

ceremony, but would like everybody to know how much the

county means to her. "I love the people here,"

said Ramsey. "I hope to be here as long as I

live."

The other

inductees will be Robert Burch, Ferrol Sams and Jim

Minter. Burch's professional career was spent as a

professional writer in the children's field. He wrote

more than 19 books, several of which earned him national

honors. Although he has lived all over the world, Burch

has always considered Fayette County his home and has

supported various community endeavors over the years.

Jim Minter

has been a lifelong resident of Fayette County. He was

graduated from Fayette County High School in 1947, with

what was the largest graduating class in the history of

the school at that time, 49 students. Minter went to work

for the Atlanta Journal after college, stopping only to

serve in the U.S. Army for a brief period. Upon his

return, Minter served as a high school sports reporter,

college sports editor, and outdoor editor.

The

promotions continued to pour in over the years, until he

retired in 1989 as a vice president of Cox Enterprises

Inc., the parent company of the Journal-Constitution.

Minter continues to write a weekly column for the local

edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ferrol Sams

was graduated from Fayette County High School in 1938 at

the age of 15 and has been practicing medicine since

1951. Sams has written several books and has been

nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Several of his short

stories have been made into plays. He has also served as

chairman of the Fayette County Board of Health for 25

years.

The Hall of

Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet will be Saturday,

March 4 in the commons area at Fayette County High

School. The festivities will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are

available at Fayette Sports and in the main office of

Fayette County High School.

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