1925 Sykes School Students and Teachers

Sykes Had One Big Room For Eight Grades

It was just a one-room frame building, but Sykes School in the year 1925 meant many things to many people. The two teachers, Miss Katherine Neal and Homer Huffines, shared in the teaching of grades one through eight and it was their duty and their personal pledge to educate every pupil under them.

Most children attending the school walked two to four miles each day and most did it barefooted in the summer months before school let out for the summer vacation.

It was customary for the teachers to live in the community in which they teached, roads being what they were and transportation limited. Mrs. Neal boarded with Burse and Bertha Nixon.

Students and teachers, front row, from left, Robert Reynolds, Orbon Bennett, John Hall, Ivy C. Wills, Grady Nixon, Howard Green, Howard Granstaff, Lionial Jones, Malcolm Kyle.

Second row, Willette Potter, Lois Potter, Eva Frances Dedmon, Margaret Gwaltney, Mildred Gwaltney, Ruby Jones, Marylena Wills, Gertrude Granstaff, Minnie Lee Granstaff, Eva Williams, Kathleen Nixon.

Third (short) row, Alberta Bennett, Ruby Granstaff, Willidean Dedmon, Annie Williams, Alta Bennett, Katherine Williams, Etta Evans, Elva Granstaff.

Fourth row, Smith Bennett, Ernest Gentry, Johnnie Kyle, Baxter Allison, Keller Allison, Alton Sykes, Robert Crawford, unknown student, James Wills, Grace Sykes, Lurlie Granstaff, Lillian Moore.

Fifth row, Bonnie Nixon, Louise Reasonover, Frankie Granstaff, Julia B. Green, Elsie Driver, Elizabeth Granstaff, Irene Williams, Corrine Granstaff, Altie Wright, Ina Moore, Lola Moore, Auline Wills, Dessie Helmontaller.

Sixth row, Hoyal J. Sykes, Marvin Parker, Clifton Kyle, Clyde Granstaff, Lofton Wills.

Seventh row, Clarence Prowell, Luke Wright, Clayton Potter, Jess Granstaff, Walter Sykes, Claude Sykes, George Wright, Paul Dowell, Frank Kyle.

Teachers, standing in back doorways, Homer Huffines and Miss Katherine Neal.

The above description and identification of students and teachers is from the Carthage Courier’s Old Pictures Series. The Photograph was provided by Becky Mitchell Goodman, a descendant of Grace Sykes Mitchell.

Questions or Comments: Jim Sykes.

Last Updated: May 2008