Another Photo Gallery of a Special Weekend

Thanks to Pam Jones Hazelwood, here's another photo gallery looking back at the wonderful weekend we all had for the 45th Reunion of Sing-Out South at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. The photo above includes (on either side of me) my two "little sisters" from the cast, Debbie Jones Bauder and Ann Garrett Clay.

It's always great to see both of them! Ann was a valuable member of our Planning Committee and Debbie played an important role over the Reunion weekend making sure everyone's nametag was large enough to be read. Take close look at the name badges and I think you'll see what I mean.

The former SOS cast members who made the longest journey to attend the Reunion had to be Bob and Harriet Hall Cates who have been living in Costa Rica for the past few months. Thanks to Harriet for making availalable (courtesy of her late grandmother who saved it all back in the day) a lot of the memorabilia items on display during the Reunion. There was always a crowd of people at the memorabilia tables looking at what was there. That sparked lots of special memories and stories and answered a few questions as well.



Thanks as well to Bob Cates (above center) for his rendition of the song he used to sing in Up With People called "Up The Holler." The song was written by his brother Bill Cates of Sing-Out South & UWP, and complete with kazoos and help from Buster Barry (left) and Hazel Robinson (right) their performance (above) of the "Holler" song (which was also performed by SOS) was one of the many highlights of our talent show Saturday evening.



Another person everyone was so glad to see (he was a last minute addition to the list of those coming to the Reunion) was Ted Overman (above). Ted is an original SOS cast member, our first music director, and a member of the original trio (along with Eddie Lunn and Cabot Wade). Later, after traveling with the national cast of Up With People, Ted returned to Nashville to be our cast director from the fall of 1966 to the late spring of 1967. Ted, along with Paula Thompson and her husband, made the longest journey to come to the SOS Reunion from within the continental United States, flying in from Arizona.



Another original SOS cast member who attended the Reunion weekend was George Thomas (seen above). The Reunion dates actually coincided (to the day) of when the premiere shows of Sing-Out South were performed at Hillsboro High School 45 years ago on March 25-26, 1966.



Along with having close to 60 former cast members (along with some spouses and friends) from all eras of Sing-Out South (1966-1971), we were blessed to have 15 original cast members join us for this 45th Reunion weekend. That includes (above) not only Buster Barry (left) but also Bobby Johnston (right). Bobby was able to complete a couple several business trips to South Africa early in order to be in attendance.

All the original cast members were honored Saturday night with the presentation of a special commemerative book about the history of the cast.

Thanks again to Pam Jones Hazelwood for providing this photo gallery. We plan to post even more photos from other sources in the days to come. So, if you attended the Reunion, and have some of your own photos to share, please e-mail them to me and we get them up on this blog.

Thanks! And thanks to everyone who came to the Reunion weekend. As we hoped, it truly was a special weekend for all of us!