Their schools have may closed down more than 50 years ago, but the graduates of Jett, Culkin and Redwood high schools came together for their annual celebration with old friends and rivals Saturday keeping the memory of their schools alive.

“This is what we call the Warren All-County School Reunion,” Bettye Barnette Oakes, a member of the Jett planning committee, said. “It is comprised of when we had county schools back in the day. We had Redwood, Culkin and Jett, plus before those we had Jeff-Davis and Oak Ridge. In 1965 they started Warren Central, which was a combination of all those schools. The last graduating class of these schools was 1965. This reunion helps everybody get together and visit.”

Oakes estimated about 200 people come to the reunion every year and share memories of their long closed schools and reconnect with old friends. Redwood is the last of the high schools to still operate as a school as it remains open as Redwood Elementary. The others have all been demolished or abandoned.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else on this day,” Annie Douglas-Warrnock, who graduated from Culkin in 1962, said. “Culkin, Redwood and Jett, the other three schools as well, were the mainstay of Warren County. Anytime I can do anything to honor those schools and keep them alive I’ll do it. I am so proud of Redwood today even though they were a big rival back then. Today, we are all friends, but still some rivalry there. As long as I’m alive Culkin school will never die.”

Frank Owen technically graduated from Oak Ridge High School in 1944, but he left school in 1942 to join the Navy and fight in World War II. After receiving his diploma, he rejoined the Navy and also attended business school.

“Meeting old friends and new friends,” Owens said of why he comes to the reunion. “I love it. I’ve got so many stories, I tell them over and over like a broken record.”

NFL hall of famer Billy Shaw and Ole Miss legend Richard Price were on hand and sharing memories of a lifelong friendship although they went to different high schools. Ray Cato, a former stock car driver, also attended the reunion to reconnect with old friends and those who supported him over the years.

“Seeing all my friends I went to school with,” Cato, who graduated from Jett in 1962, said of why he attends. “I raced stock cars for 22 years, so a lot of these people were my friends and my fans. Growing up some of them helped me become a race car driver. Our number is getting less every year. The people you see year to year who’ve got grins on their faces may not be here next year. That is the reason we do this every year. We are getting to an age that we are like the dinosaurs. We are fixing to leave here.”

The schools all merged in 1965 when Vicksburg Warren School District was created. For the graduates of the old county schools with their fierce rivalries, it was a surprise that the new merged high school was successful.

“They had already talked about consolidating the schools when we got out and we thought that would never work,” Douglas-Warrnock said. “You can’t put these three schools that are so distant and the rivalry was fierce. We figured it would never work, but it did and they gelled together real quick.”

The rivalries have never quite died though as Douglas-Warrnock said they even compete to see who can get the most alumni signed up at the annual reunion. Over the years, even old rivals have managed to become friends though.

“Seeing people from all the different schools that we competed against in basketball and football and track and renewing old acquaintances,” Lonny Stevens, a 1957 graduate of Culkin said. “It is keeping in touch with the people you knew.”