By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@thecitizennews.com

Fayette County High School will honor four former students this Saturday at their first Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The four honorees include three writers and a former Fayette County superintendent.

Elizabeth Redwine Ramsey currently lives in the same house in Fayetteville that she was born in. She was graduated from Fayette County High School in 1929 and attended Mary Baldwin College and Georgia State College for Women.

After graduation from college, she taught in Fairburn for 12 years until accepting the position of the superintendent of Fayette County Schools. She was the first and only female superintendent in the history of the county. Ramsey has also served as a member of the board of the Farmers and Merchants Bank and the Fayette County Family and Children Services.

Fayette County High School has certainly changed since Ramsey attended. There were only 29 people in her graduating class and, though they had separate teachers for each class, the number of classes was much smaller than it is today. Many of the teachers boarded at the Burkes hotel near the center of downtown, while children from all over the county attended the school.

“I felt honored that I was chosen,” said Ramsey. “I just didn't know why I was. I didn't feel like I deserved it.” Her humility aside, Ramsey is someone who loves this county and has given it all of her love throughout her life. Along with all of the accomplishments in her career, she has also been very active in the Methodist Church, serving on the Nominating Committee for seven years as well as on the Pastor/Parish Relations Committee.

Asked about the other inductees that will share this honor with her Saturday evening, Ramsey remarks, “They are all good friends of mine and I've known them all of their lives. They have done so much for the community. I'm just proud to be honored among them.” Though Ramsey never taught in Fayette County, her teaching is still what she is most proud of.

Ramsey is afraid she might be nervous if asked to speak at the ceremony, but would like everybody to know how much the county means to her. “I love the people here,” said Ramsey. “I hope to be here as long as I live.”

The other inductees will be Robert Burch, Ferrol Sams and Jim Minter. Burch's professional career was spent as a professional writer in the children's field. He wrote more than 19 books, several of which earned him national honors. Although he has lived all over the world, Burch has always considered Fayette County his home and has supported various community endeavors over the years.

Jim Minter has been a lifelong resident of Fayette County. He was graduated from Fayette County High School in 1947, with what was the largest graduating class in the history of the school at that time, 49 students. Minter went to work for the Atlanta Journal after college, stopping only to serve in the U.S. Army for a brief period. Upon his return, Minter served as a high school sports reporter, college sports editor, and outdoor editor.

The promotions continued to pour in over the years, until he retired in 1989 as a vice president of Cox Enterprises Inc., the parent company of the Journal-Constitution. Minter continues to write a weekly column for the local edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ferrol Sams was graduated from Fayette County High School in 1938 at the age of 15 and has been practicing medicine since 1951. Sams has written several books and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Several of his short stories have been made into plays. He has also served as chairman of the Fayette County Board of Health for 25 years.

The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet will be Saturday, March 4 in the commons area at Fayette County High School. The festivities will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at Fayette Sports and in the main office of Fayette County High School.

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