Listen, O ye men and women, youths
and maidens, and little children: Listen all ye people of Ryan to the
words of wisdom from the lips of your prophet, who now speaketh unto you
what hath been revealed unto her, even as it hath been decreed by the
powers that be.
Now it so happened when it was decreed that the
future of the Class of 1966 was to be given into the hands of this your
prophet. “Who am I that the future of this great and glorious class
should depend upon me”? What am I that the future of these most fair
and beautiful damsels, and these most sturdy, noble and manly of youths,
should rest upon the decisions of one so humble of intellect as I.
I, as the prophet of 1966, ask you to step inside
our time machine and spin it around to about the year 1986, where we
will find our prominent seniors of 1966. Come along with us for a tour
through the State of Oklahoma, down near Red River, we see a large ranch
house and as I look closer, I can see a man standing on the porch and
recognize him to be a school mate of mine, Ronnye Benton. Ronnye rode
the rodeo circuit for five years, but decided to come back to Ryan to be
a rancher. He could not keep his mind on riding broncs and bulldogging
steers. It seems Ronnye was not able to keep his little girl friend
Connie, while he was away at the Cow Palace. Connie got too fast for
him after a few years. Guess she found her another cowboy.
Now, I see on this ranch a slender cowboy riding up
on a pinto horse. Why, it isn’t a cowboy—it is a cowgirl. Believe it
or not, it’s Maxine Duncan. Yes, Ronnye and Maxine were married not too
long ago. Seems that Maxine had plans to work awhile before settling
down, but things turned out different. The only thing Maxine is working
at is teaching the little Benton boy how to ride a horse.
Now, as our journey takes us for a tour through New
York, we are delayed and decided to attend a World Series Baseball Game
in the Yankee Stadium, and who do we find on the pitcher’s mound? Why
none other than our own little Larry White. It seems Larry finally
decided to make something out of himself. He took over a spot vacated
by the Yankee Whitney Ford, after Larry roughed him up a little too
much. And what’s this? Well if it isn’t Mrs. Larry White out there in
the crowd. And lo and behold, it’s the former Miss Nancy Ewing. I
guess Nancy finally decided to settle for this handsome man. Seems as
though those out-of-town boys were too hard to keep up with.
We are now headed for Washington D.C., we see the
President’s car drive up to the White House, and look who’s stepping out
of the car. President Butch Ellis, and the first lady Mrs. Judy Ellis.
She has formerly been associated with the singing group “The Dyer
Sisters.” Poor Butch looks as though he has been through the mill.
Judy must really dominate him and his money.
It looks as though Judy is more popular than
Ladybird was, she has started a new movement in the fashion world. She
has even redecorated the White House. She has done the Blue Room over
into a peach perfection which reminds her of the ‘Ole “Peach Orchard”’
back home, where she throws some dandy shindings. The White House is
really rocking and President Ellis doesn’t seem to mind a bit. He has
moved into a motel across the street.
Now we climb back into the carriage of time for a
quick trip across the continent. On the west coast we find a custom
shop. As we go inside we see two legs under a fashionable Willis, I
believe they belong to Russel Givens, seems he and his wife Cindy
Harris, have had time to finally organize the parts they didn’t
salvage. Cindy has turned into a regular grease monkey too. She and
Russel own and operate the Willis Custom Shop. And what’s this—a racing
strip down the side. Can you actually believe Cindy and Russel have won
the Indianapolis 500 in partnership, two years in a row. Also they
have a teenage son who has inherited racing fever from his parents. He
gets his practice by pushing carts in the isles of the famous Mother’s
Modern Motor Mart chain stores owned and managed by the former Ryanite
Ex-governnor Cleatus Jeffcoat. By the way, Cleatus was elected governor
in 1981. It has been said that Cletus won his race by his campaign
motto “All for one and that one is me.”
During our tour of foreign countries we decided to
stop over a night in Nigeria. Here we found in a little village south
of Nigeria, two of our well-known schoolmates, Dr. Johnny Baker, and his
wife the former Miss Paula Keller. Here they are devoting full time to
aid the natives. While resting at night Paula continues her poetry work,
and Johnny uses his time to educate small children.
Now returning to the good ‘ole U.S.A. our ship
pulls into port. Look who’s sitting on the dock a lovely mermaid,
Karen Sullivan, writing a book of love poems for her lost love Boyd
Rayburn, who left for the Navy around four years ago. She is awaiting
the day his ship will return. But little does Karen know that waiting
along her will be a little Jackson girl, who will be graduating from
high school pretty soon.
After chatting a while with Karen, we boarded a
plane and flew to Chicago. While awaiting our next plane, we decided to
look in on some of the newest fashions modeled at a Fashion-a-Go-Go.
Here we interviewed a world famous model for Glamour Magazine, Miss
Shelia Johnson. Shelia’s secret for a trim figure is her daily hour in
a local gymnasium. As we strolled down the 42nd Boulevard
toward the airport we spotted a familiar face. It was Mrs. Charlotte
Overstreet. There in the local park Charlotte was giving some advice to
her oldest daughter. We were going to say a few words to her but
decided not to interrupt her basketball session there.
We boarded the plan and flew to Denver, Colorado,
reaching our destiny for Denver we spotted a large building, standing
there admiring the building we noticed the cornerstone. It read
architect—Harold Burden. We went inside and luckily we spotted Harold
sitting in an office by the entrance. Seemed as though Harold decided
to build his own office building. Harold invited us to dine with him
and is family later on in the afternoon. As we arrived at his home we
were cordially invited in by his wife, Mrs. Harold Burden. We found it
to be the former Miss Barbara Huff, who had settled down to the nice
family life at home. She is now the mother of two little Burden boys.
While being entertained by this family we were discussing the Senior
Class of 1966 and the name of one of our friends we could never forget
was Miss Dana Chambers. Yes it is still Miss Chambers. We found that
Dana is still in Oklahoma. Poor Dana could never find her a man so she
is a se?? old maid who has charge of the girl’s dorm at Cornellies
School for Girls. She prides herself on having the most expensive and
best college in America. While spending the quiet afternoon renewing
old times we heard a special broadcast from the radio. Yes, Jerry Dalton
as a young man of 30, has made a successful trip to the moon. He has
landed there this afternoon around 5:30. Yes, Jerry is a brave man,
stay tuned for more reports of Jerry.
Now ready to step back into this time machine, for
a trip back home. Oh—wait—I seemed to have overlooked someone, Yes, you
know, on the way back home we attended a Grand Ole Opry, in Memphis
Tennessee, and you will never guess who we ran into backstage. Yes,
taking the place of little Jimmy Dickens, was one of our graduates
Walker Ryan.
Well back at home we ran into Linda Jackson
shopping in the local dry goods department. She informed us that her
dream had come true and she is now Mrs. Joe Benton. She said she was
still waiting on her husband Joe to graduate from Midwestern College in
Wichita Falls, Texas. He is still trying to make up his mind what he
would like to be.
These are the things I have found most interesting
to me, so I have been glad to pass them along to you and share with you
this remarkable find of mine, that it may answer for you, as
satisfactorily as it did for me, the all-important-question “what is
going to become of the Class of 1966.