VALDOSTA — Though the school is long closed, the memories of time spent at Pinevale High School remain.

This weekend the Pinevale High School class of 1969 is gathering to reminisce, reflect and recall their time at the facility.

The class of 88 students was the last to graduate from the all-black high school before integration.

On Friday the former classmates got together at the Wingate Hotel to socialize and prepare for other events scheduled throughout the weekend.

The former students consider themselves the spirit keepers of Pinevale, Dr. Willie Houseal said.

“Pinevale had a lot of spirit,” he said. The success of the individuals who passed through the halls from 1956-1969 is seen in all walks of life: military, academic, religious, civic and business, Houseal said.

Graduating from Pinevale High School in 1969 was a joyous occasion tinged with sadness as the students knew the institution would be closed, Houseal said.

“There were a lot of mixed emotions about all the civic activities taking place,” he said. “Around us there was a lot of anxiety but we had hope, hope for a better tomorrow and integration was a step toward that.”

The school was a place that promoted cultural growth and a community atmosphere, he said.

Leroy Butler Jr. attended the Friday meet and greet, though he did not graduate in 1969.

A 1967 graduate of Pinevale High School, Butler accompanied his wife, a fellow Fighting Tiger and 1969 graduate Gloria Butler.

The high expectations in the classroom were also on display in athletics, Butler said.

A member of the 1963-1964 state championship football team, nothing but the best was expected at all levels, he said.

“It was an excellence that was demanded,” Butler said. “The teachers absolutely refused to allow for mediocrity.”

Dorothy Paulk Lance echoed Butler’s sentiments by recalling a particularly exacting chemistry teacher by the name of Mr. Wilson.

Before the class of 1969 encountered Wilson, no other student in the preceding senior classes had managed to make better than a 78 in chemistry, she said.

The class of 1969 was the first and only class to make A grades in chemistry, Lance said.

Before graduating, Lance said the class hugged, an embrace of the memories they had created at Pinevale High School. At graduation, the class did not walk into service, they strolled, a testament to their achievement as graduates and students at the high school, she said.

Those gathered on Friday also recalled beloved teachers like Ruth Council and the late Mildred Hunter as people who demanded excellence and expected greatness from all students.

“They treated us as if we were their children,” Lance said.

The standards set by the teachers were not things the students were expected to aspire to but goals they were expected to surpass, Helen Miller Baker said.

The fact that the class of 1969 was the last to graduate from Pinevale and the major societal changes happening brought the class closer together, Lusharon Woods Wiley said.

“The teachers gave us an education morally, ethically and spiritually as well,” she said.

The lessons learned at Pinevale are still a part of who they are today, Wiley said.

Houseal and his fellow classmates are banding together to get a commemorative plaque placed on the grounds in memory of the school.

The plaque will be located at the Pinevale Learning Center, now a facility within the Valdosta City School System, he said.

“We want to place it as a landmark on what we call hallowed ground,” Houseal said.

Former Valdosta City School Superintendent Sam Allen authorized the placement of the plaque.

Houseal hopes to get the funds collected and the plaque designed in the coming month.