Rutherford High School Class of 1976

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 10, 2008 -- For a few couples in the Rutherford High School class of 1976, romance blossomed after graduation. That is evidence, said class member Myra Brazell, that life in middle age can be just as exciting, transformative and unpredictable as the formative years. Just six years ago, a classmate of hers, Bill Brazell, contacted her out of the blue through the class’s Web site.

“My wife was an ‘A,’ ‘B’ student. That’s why she never dated me in high school. I ran with a rough crowd,” Bill Brazell said.

Note: The couple identified as Joe and Wanda Morgan in the above video actually are Joseph and Wanda Horne.

Joseph and Wanda Horne did not know each other well in high school, either. Wanda Horne said she kept to herself and didn’t socialize much. Joseph Horne was extroverted and a class officer, like Myra Brazell. But three years after graduation, Joseph Horne moved into a new place in Bay County, and it just happened to be next door to Wanda, then Wanda Cobb. Now they have been married 28 years, and Joseph Horne home-schools some of their younger children.

With some members of the class of 1976 naturally reconnecting, several class members decided last year to arrange monthly get-togethers for locals. “At our reunions, people were saying they would like to see each other more,” Bill Brazell said. So a meeting spot was picked, Larry’s Bar BQ on Tyndall Parkway, regularly drawing about a dozen people and sometimes more. “We stay here until the place closes, laughing the whole time,” said Myra Brazell, who is a therapist.

He and his other classmates said they easily envision how undeveloped the Beach used to be, and dinner at Angelo’s was something everyone’s family enjoyed.

Many students at Rutherford entered the military after high school.
Because of school cancellations after Hurricane Eloise in the fall of 1975, the graduation date for the class of 1976 was pushed back a few days. The morning after Bill Brazell’s commencement ceremony on June 8, 1976, he left for his first military assignment in the Navy.

The Hornes pointed to some of the high-profile success stories of their class, including Sue Reichelt, who was in the first West Point graduating class. Tom Abbott is a Callaway city commissioner, and Dale Hartzog worked in the Bay County Property Appraiser’s Office and ran for property appraiser in 2004. John Newberry was a Bay County commissioner.

As the class of 1976 turns 50 this year, 12 students are deceased, and the surviving ones have had their share of health scares. Myra Brazelle beat cancer, and a year after the class’s 25-year reunion, the reunion committee organized a fundraiser for another classmate who had cancer and huge medical bills.

To see more, please visit; RHS Class of 76 website http://www.classreport.org/usa/fl/panama_city/rhs/1976/

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