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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