ONCE A DUCK,

ONCE A DUCK,

ALWAYS A DUCK

Homecoming connects youth with Duck Heritage

TIM CROW [email protected]

The Taylor High School Ex-Students Association welcomed over 200 local graduates for its 70th annual homecoming program.

Held at the local Knights of Columbus Hall, classes honored this year graduated in years ending in 3 and 8. The featured class graduated in 1973, celebrating its 50th high school reunion.

“It’s always so rewarding and exciting to see how many Ducks return to their roots,” said Pat Helbert, THS Ex-Students Association coordinator. “It was so much fun to hear the laughter and listen to stories told from all through the many years of THS. We always look forward to this annual event and could not do it without our

1943 graduate, Lydia Burow, raises her hand in salute to her alma mater while singing the school song, eighty years after graduating from Taylor High. Photos by Tim Crow

Taylor High School’s cheer team meets 1940s cheerleader, Carolyn Gossett Jackson, at homecoming last week.

do it without our exes playing an important role.”

Highlights of the program included several opportunities for connecting current students with their heritage. One such opportunity occurred when Taylor’s 2023 cheerleaders met a cheerleader from the early 1940s, Carolyn Gossett Jackson.

During their visit, the current cheer team learned that this former Duck cheerleader went on to a successful career in television and radio. She became well known for opening doors for women in broadcasting. Accompanied at the stage by all former cheerleaders in attendance, Jackson led the homecoming crowd in a vintage cheer “Locomotion with a Quack.”

Another heritage moment with Jackson involved a personal connection for senior Duck football player, Ayden Gutierrez. Jackson, who is Gutierrez’s great, great aunt, graduated in 1944, and Gutierrez is from the Class of 2024. Graduating 80 years apart, the two family members took a photo together in front of the nostalgic “Once a Duck, Always a Duck” background.

Senior Duck football players came face to face with a part of their heritage at homecoming when they met 1946 graduate, Phil Pierce. Pierce was the captain of the 1945 team, an undefeated and united team that won the regional championship. That was during the time that “local legend”, T. H. Johnson, was Taylor’s head football coach.

Pierce started with the team as mascot in 1936 when he was a second grader. He served as mascot for four years before playing football in high school. During homecoming, Pierce posed for a photo with current mascot, Waddles. He also donated his 1936 mascot uniform to the Duck Room Museum.

Other students joining the homecoming festivities included the Hi-Steppers and the color guard. The band played the school song for the exes using the traditional arrangement.

“A major highlight of our program is having our high school students join the celebration, welcome our exes and doing what they do best,” Helbert said. “They are amazing.”

A proud Duck moment during this homecoming event came when the class of 1968 announced that classmate and Duck Hall of Fame member, Dr. Steve Burkhart, had received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mayo Clinic.

Taylor High School’s homecoming began in 1953 when senior class president Albert Fritcher and his classmates organized the first reunion, which was also attended by over 200 exes. One of his classmates that played a significant role in organizing that first homecoming was legendary educator, Naomi Pasemann. Pasemann continued to help organize every homecoming after that until her passing in 2019.

The honor class for that first homecoming was the class of 1923, the last class to graduate from the old Taylor High School on Eighth Street.

Notable members of that class included legendary Taylor English teacher, Ruth Mantor, and Elmore Torn, Sr., father of actor Rip Torn, uncle of actress Sissy Spacek and the agriculturist credited with starting the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day for good luck all through the year.

Seventy years later, Homecoming is going stronger than ever and is an annual event that many look forward to all through the year. To inquire about membership in the Ex-Students Association, and to receive the annual newsletter, contact Pat Helbert at [email protected].