Wednesday, October 11, 2000

By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@TheCitizenNews.com

Jerry "Dink" Masters' ambition in 1956 was to play center for the Globe Trotter when he graduated from Fayette County High School.

Annie Laura Tyson wanted to become a secretary and "marry a young man with a lot of old money" when she graduated in 1957.

Well, Dink didn't become a Globe Trotter, but Annie did become a secretary and married a young man who now makes his living in finance.

Annie and Dink married about two years after her graduation, raised two children who also graduated from Fayette County High School, and are enjoying the antics of two grandchildren who are likely to become Tigers.

The Masterses are typical of native Fayette countians who grew up here, returned after school or a work stint in the big city of Atlanta, and settled down to raise their families, and often work in the community.

Annie Masters has been secretary to five school superintendents since she started working in the administrative offices of the Fayette County Board of Education in 1973. Her husband, Dink, works at the Airport Credit Corporation and owns Fayette Auto Center. Daughter Lisa, 37, is a banking executive and son Jay, 33, manages Fayette Auto Center.

Recently, the Masterses got together and shared some of their Fayette County High memories. Their nostalgic look back painted a vivid picture of a simpler life in simpler times, starting in 1949.

"She was in the fifth grade and I was in the sixth," recalled Dink, referring to his wife Annie.

"We attended elementary school where City Hall is now. It was the only one at that time," Annie said. According to Lisa, they were considered "girlfriend and boyfriend" then, and continued to date through high school.

"We went through high school together and participated in a lot of high school functions together. At that time, basketball was really big here girls and boys basketball. Both of us played basketball; that was a big, big thing."

In fact, Annie was captain of the team the year they almost made it to the state finals. "

"We won all of our games that year, and probably would have gone on to state, but one of our star forwards broke her ankle right before the state tournament... That was the best team we ever had during the time we played," Annie recalled.

Football was not the sport it is today during that time period, due in part to the school's loss of equipment in the fire of 1954. As the story goes, the Jonesboro Fire Department arrived at the scene before the Fayetteville volunteer firefighters. A dead battery in the fire truck forced the firemen to push it down the street in an attempt to jump start the engine.

"The fire chief was also the police chief and the garbage man," Dink laughs. Cause of the blaze was never determined, but a pile of drapes stored behind the stage may have been the culprit, Dink suggested.

Fayette County High School was rebuilt and completed in 1956, the original portion being the "D" building of the recently renovated LaFayette Educational Center.

Flipping through the 1957 Fayette County annual, we learn that Annie was voted "Most Popular" and classmate Sonny Farr was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." The most scandalous thing Annie admitted doing during her high school days was leaving school early with some of her basketball buddies to go to the Southeastern Fair at Lakewood Fairgrounds. "A gentleman saw us going up Highway 85 in a car, and reported us to Mr. Booth [J.C. Booth, principal]," Annie said. "For punishment, he had us memorize the poem 'The Highwayman.' We had to recite it to him in the office. I was a senior at the time and he told me I had to recite it before I could get my diploma."

When Lisa attended Fayette County High in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were 425 students in her class and still only one county high school. "It was still a very small community. One of the things I remember is cheerleading and how much the community engaged in everything we did around the football games. We painted windows in all the stores and then painted the street. There was very strong community support."

The big rivalry at the time was with Griffin High School. The school spirit was so intense, it attracted the attention of Atlanta Journal columnist Ron Hudspeth, who wrote, "I went to two pep rallies. It turned out to be a mindbender. The year was 1979, but it was almost as if I had stepped into a time vacuum. It could have been 1959. It was the big game for each team... the Bears vs the Tigers... signs hung everywhere: Pooh! On the Bears" And talk about the noise! The students drowned out Led Zeppelin and a DC 10 combined."

"School spirit was the greatest it's ever been," Annie remarked. "They [cheerleaders] started those big run throughs for the football players..." she added, referring to the paper walls traditionally produced at the start of every game.

Lisa went on to be co-valedictorian with Susan Turner the year she graduated. She also admitted to skipping school one time to go shopping at Lenox Square. Lisa didn't get caught.

It was around that time that FCHS began to build its reputation as a school of academic excellence.

"As we began to grow, we really took off," Annie said. "I think we improved steadily."

Jay, who was the most recent member of the Masters clan to graduate, said there are too many of his escapades that he can't talk about, but admitted that it was all just mischievery. "We were pretty sheltered," he said about himself and schoolmates whom he stays in contact with. While Jay doesn't go to the football games anymore, he can still hear the band playing on Friday night, living off South Jeff Davis, just down the street from his sister.

Perhaps Dink summed up the strength of Fayette County schools and particularly the high school best:

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