Leo Murphree is asking for help finding some lost pieces of Greenwood High School history.
Murphree is interested in finding “class composites” that featured photos of all the members of some graduating classes.
Although he is the self-described “guardian” of a collection including many of the composites from 1931 through 1963, there are some notable gaps — 1932, 1937, 1943-1945, 1951-1953 and 1961-1962.
“If anybody has any of the old, original ones, we’d like to have them back or at least let me have them long enough to photograph them so we can make one,” Murphree said.
The composites that Murphree does have are on display at the Greenwood High School Hall of Memories, which is housed at Murphree’s Swan Lake Pavilion and Museum on County Road 91.
The composites are available for reunions and special events.
Murphree, a history buff and a 1959 graduate of Greenwood High, said capturing those images from long ago has been an adventure.The composites lined the halls of the old Greenwood High School building, which is now Davis Elementary School, he said.
“Several years later, the architect or whoever was running the show, in his infinite wisdom, failed to put them back up. They wound up in the basement of the Central Office building, which is the old post office downtown,” Murphree said.
Relegated to the basement, the large framed composites didn’t fare too well, he said. They got scattered, and some got wet. Also, some of the composites were taken out by classes and not returned.
For a time, many of the composites were displayed in the hallways of Wilson & Knight Funeral Home.
One of the missing composites, for the Class of 1951, wound up as a wall decoration at Pizza Inn a dozen years ago. During the restaurant’s renovations, that picture was lost, he said.
Another missing composite, the one of the Class of 1943, was placed in safekeeping at the Museum of the Mississippi Delta by its owner, the late Harris Coleman, Murphree said.
Murphree said he hopes to go through the museum’s collection soon and recover the 1943 composite.
He said some missing classes were given 8-by-10 photos of their class composites. He said if he could get those, he could take them to Hank Lamb of Lamb’s Photography, and “we can make a big one out of it to fill the gaps.”
For more information, call Murphree at 453-0588 or 392-5753.
•Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
