Mt. Pleasant High School Class of 1968 celebrates 50th class reunion

Over 100 classmates and their guests from the Class of 1968 gathered in Mt. Pleasant the last weekend in September for their 50th high school class reunion. The festivities began the evening of Friday, Sept. 28, at The Gather adjacent to The Coffee Depot with a barbecue dinner prepared by Bev Schumacher and Randy Stroud. Some of the classmates attended the high school football game and were impressed with the Panthers' victory over Keokuk and the marching band's half-time performance. Others stayed at The Gather reminiscing and watching a DVD prepared by classmate, Bob Bensmiller, which highlighted their four years in high school along with background music of the ‘60s.

Saturday's activities included a golf tournament at the Mt. Pleasant Golf and Country Club and a tour of Mt. Pleasant courtesy of Matt Schimmelfennig's Panther bus. The class thanks Matt for providing his bus, Duane and Martha Wiley for conducting a tour of our old high school and Tom Lowe for serving as our bus driver and tour guide at the new high school facilities. No town tour would be complete without stopping by Butch's River Rock Café to enjoy his famous tenderloins for lunch. The tour concluded at Saunders School, now the home of the Henry County Heritage Trust.

As classmates arrived at The Union Block on Saturday evening, they had the opportunity to see cars of the ‘60s provided by Ed Kropa and members of the 20th Century Car Club. Sheila Allender prepared and served the appetizers and dinner; Christie Vilsack served as Emcee for the evening. All classmates in attendance received a souvenir gift - an engraved key chain with the Iowa commemorative quarter which was commissioned by Governor Tom Vilsack. Everyone played a ‘60s Trivia Game prepared by Jerry Keeley before turning the night over to our D. J., Donita Benedict from Songbird Entertainment, for karaoke and dancing.

The class was fortunate to have several high school teachers and coaches join them for the festivities Friday and/or Saturday evening: Elizabeth (and Rich) Garrels, U.S. History teacher; Denny (and Mary) White, General Science teacher and coach; Tom (and Marilyn) Young, Economics teacher and coach. Committee members for the 50th reunion were Ron and Sandi (Stewart) Benge, Marlene (Mowrey) Hill, Melinda (Shepp) Huisinga, Steve and Diana Klaus, Carolyn (Alvine) Krabill, Barb (Messer) Miller, Cindy (Tweedy) Sperfslage, Gene and Pam (Mills) Stewart