Heath High School - Pirata Yearbook (West Paducah, KY)

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the government, known as KOW. Many thought this would reduce the enrollment, but it had little effect. The teaching staff changed quite a bit, but the school officials always managed to keep an efficient faculty. As a school community, we did our small part to aid the war effort. Giving our time to collecting scrap, paper and the ever giving up members of our student body to the armed forces. And so, in this year of final peace, we are looking forward, as always, to greater, better things in education at Heath High School. is. gliuffi gggll Qffflwof

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History of Heath High School fa? September 25, 1910, was a red letter day in a little country hamlet ten miles west of Pa- ducah. That day marked the beginning of one of the most progressive steps McCracken County has ever made in behalf of its rural boys and girls. The McCracken County High School of- fered to the students of the county, who had completed the eighth grade, a four year high school course. This event was more important and more far reaching than even those respon- sible for bringing it about realized. In 1909, the McCracken County Board of Education under the progressive leadership of County Superintendent W. A. Middleton, decided to establish a rural high school for county pupils. The members of the board were: Mr. Davis, Mr. Straub, Mr. Sexton, Squire Herbert Anderson, and Ferd Gholson. All of these members are now deceased, but they lived to see the educa- tional progress which resulted from their action. Land for the building and campus was donated by Messrs. A. P. Hill and Henry Harting. They and other interested citizens donated money to help finance the building and thus from the start it has been a community school. The contract, calling for a S2S0,000 structure, was let to Mr. James Rouse. The corner stone was laid in 1909, but as no building funds were available, school was held that year at Lone Oak with Professor S. Rags- dale as principal and his wife as assistant. These two comprised the entire teaching force when school began at Heath in September 1910. Twenty-four pupils entered for instruction that first year, most of them driving from near- by farms. Professor Joe S. Ragsdale was prin- cipal of the school for twelve years and since that time there have been eight more: Professor Ivan C. Baucom, Floy Hooks, C. O. Warren, Frank Irwin, D. D. Crisp, Henry Chamber, and Willard Bagwell, the present head. The corps of teachers increased slowly and today instead of the original two, there are twenty teachers. In 1929, a new gymnasium was built at the back of the original building. This helped to relieve the crowded condition and provided an indoor court for the basketball teams. In this eventful year we won the K. H. S. A. A. state basketball championship and did well in the national tournament. The school was rapidly growing and the es- tablishment of bus routes, providing free trans- portation for all high school pupils, gave it added impetus. The need for a new building was evi- dent, but nothing was done until 1934, when Miles Meredith, our County Superintendent, took the first step in securing financial assistance for a new building. Every citizen of the community had an op- portunity to help with the school. Farmers brought their teams and wagons and hauled gravel, the P. T. A. sponsored che planting of shrubs on the grounds and the children worked at cleaning the campus. Thus, our present build- ing was completed in 1938. There has been five hundred and seventy-one graduates during the thirty-seven years of its ex- istence and graduates are found in every field. There are doctors, lawyers, ministers, teachers, business men, nurses, farmers, and house wives. At the beginning of World War II, a large area of the Heath community was taken over by

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U55 cgcgoof U 1556! if? We will never bring disgrace on this our school by an act of dishonesty or cowardice. iff We will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the school both alone and with many. 'lk We will revere and obey the rules of the school, and do our best to incite a like reverence and respect of those above us who are prone to annul them or set them at naught. if We will strive increasingly to quicken the public sense of civic duty. if Thus, in all these Ways we will transmit this our school a greater, better, and more beautiful school than it Was transmitted to us.