“Beach kids” celebrate 50th class reunion
The Fort Myers High School Class of 1959 – including several members who lived on Fort Myers Beach, a congressman’s wife and a county commissioner and his wife – celebrated its 50th class reunion recently.
The festivities began Friday, April 24, with breakfast at the classmates’ alma mater where they were honored and given a tour of the school. It was followed by a Friday evening reunion dinner at the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Fort Myers.
On Saturday, the honorees attended the prestigious Lee County Pioneer Picnic at the Lee Civic Center before enjoying a Sunday beach party at classmate Ted McGee’s house on Estero Boulevard.
Among the local attendees who participated were Congressman Connie Mack, his wife ’59 graduate Priscilla and fellow grads Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, wife Mary Lee and Beach native and realtor Jack Underhill.
“We had a very close knit group,” said ’59 graduate and Beach resident Barbara Anderson Hill. “There was a lot of camaraderie and history. Unlike me, a lot of these people went to elementary school together so their history goes back even further.”
As a seventh-grader Hill remembers the long bus rides to what was known back then as the Fort Myers Junior/Senior High School.
“I believed the school opened in 1952 or ’53 just before I moved to the beach in January of 1954,” she said. “At that time, it was the only high school in Lee County. We were all picked up by the school bus and driven 18 miles to downtown Fort Myers every single day.”
Hill reflected on the days before the Mantanzas Skybridge was built.
“At that time, we went over the swing bridge,” she said. “There were several of us girls that were part of the Shrimp Queen Festival too.”
Hill enjoyed herself and looks forward to a future gathering.
“It was just such great fun seeing everyone and that was just a thrill,” she said. “I suspect we’ll try to have another one either in five or another 10 years. We’re certainly not going to wait for another 50.”