Community celebrates Lincoln High’s 1949 graduating class

The Weller Neighborhood Association will dedicate a bench to commemorate the 1949 Lincoln High School graduating class on Friday, Nov. 14 at 3 p.m. The dedication will take place on the campus of Ozarks Technical Community College at the southwest corner of Central Street and Sherman Avenue. The former Lincoln High School, which was attended by African-American students during segregation, is now part of the OTC Springfield Campus and houses many of the college’s allied health classrooms.

In 1941, Ms. Mary Tolliver’s fourth-grade class – the 1949 graduating class – planted an elm tree at the corner of the property. That tree still stands and the bench will sit in the shade of the tree. The bench will be inscribed with a portion of the poem “Trees” written by Joyce Kilmer, “Poems are made by fools like me / But only God can make a tree.”

Rosetta Brown Clarida and Edna Rainey Adams, two of eight surviving members of the Lincoln High Class of 1949 will be in attendance. The bench and dedication are made possible by the Weller Neighborhood Association, the City of Springfield and Ozarks Technical Community College.

In the event of inclement weather, the dedication will be moved to the Information Commons West building, room 108.