Eight more graduates of the South Pike School District took their place in the Alumni Hall of Fame on Friday night during a banquet at Eva Gordon Elementary School.
The 2011 inductees are former U.S. Attorney Donald Burkhalter, former Pike County supervisor and businessman Doyle Forman, retired Jackson State University educator Obra Hackett, attorney for the City of Atlanta Cathy Hampton, civic leader Eva Nell Hartwell, Osyka businessman and longtime South Pike school board member Udell Lea, retired educator Mary Marks and Texas Wesleyan University president Fred Slabach.
The group’s members represent a range of professions, but all have one thing in common: They’re proud their educational roots were planted in the South Pike system.
For Hackett, a high point was being inducted in the same class as 90-year-old Marks, who was his senior class sponsor when he graduated from South Pike Agricultural High School in 1956.
“When I saw she was a fellow inductee, I thought I must have died and gone to heaven,” said Hackett, who added he was fortunate to have “lived in the best part of the world.”
He thanked his many siblings, some of whom attended the banquet, for being “the wind beneath my wings.”
Hartwell’s niece introduced her aunt, who graduated from the agricultural high school in 1954, and noted her motto was, in part, “to do as much as you can, for as long as you can.” Hartwell retired from the McComb School District and the Pike County Teachers Federal Credit Union.
Judy Lea McGehee of McComb introduced her father, Udell, a 1946 graduate of Osyka High School, pointing out his many business accomplishments, his civic service and his love for his church and family. Lea and wife Pauline served as foster parents for a quarter of a century.
Inductee Forman took the audience back to football days, telling the play-by-play story of the day he made a record number of quarterback sneaks during a game between Magnolia High School and Crystal Springs.
When Burkhalter, a former U.S. Attorney, took his turn at the podium, he said he did some sneaking, too — off to play hooky. He noted that on his drive down from Jackson, he pondered why, of all his class members, he was standing at the podium as an inductee.
The reason he was a success in life, he said, is because someone was always drilling into him the importance of education. That person was his grandmother, Ethel Allen Burkhalter, and he thanked her by saying he knew she was proudly looking down on him.
Don Slabach introduced his brother Fred by joking that the 2011 alumni honoree went to Mississippi College to major in church music... “but got corrupted and became a lawyer.”
Don drew laughs again when he noted that Fred, who earned his law degree from Ole Miss, was appointed as Assistant Secretary of Agriculture by Bill Clinton, even though, “ he didn’t know anything about agriculture,” and was forced to find out about the field at Mississippi State University.
The Slabachs are big proponents of education. Don works with Parents for Public Schools and Fred is a university president.
Fred, a 1974 graduate, said he received “the best education I could have received at any high school in America” from South Pike.
The reason, he said, was because teachers took a personal interest in their students and pushed them to do well.
Educator Michael Marks introduced his mother, noting her dedication to teaching home economics and pointing out that “she makes the best lemon pies in an 11-state area.” Marks is a 1938 graduate of Pike County schools and continues to be active in New Zion Baptist Church.
Former Eva Gordon principal and Magnolia Mayor Melvin Harris introduced Hampton, one of his former students and 1985 SPHS valedictorian.
Hampton, who was at Harvard Law School with President Barack Obama, is the daughter of Charles and Carolyn Hampton. Harris recognized the Hamptons and said, “Most kids are where they are because of what’s back home.”
“I’m grateful, grateful, grateful,” Hampton said, and lucky to be “a lawyer and a Christian.”
She spoke of her admiration for South Pike and said, “we never separated church and home.”
Program emcee Lester Swanigan gave a sweeping congratulations to all inductees and said it’s amazing “a little place like Magnolia, Miss., could produce all these people.”
At the close of the program, Samuel Hall, a South Pike school trustee and board member of the fundraising ACHIEVE Foundation, presented an award to Fred Tate on behalf of Weyerhaeuser as business of the year.
Hall said even though “the timber industry has taken a punch on the chin,” Weyerhaeuser continues to support South Pike.
