Thank you, Mrs. McCarter: First-grade class of '56 celebrates their teacher, her legacy

The year was 1956, and young children between 5 and 6 years old were starting first grade at Frank Hartsfield Elementary School.

That year Hilda McCarter started teaching the inaugural first-grade class at Hartsfield. She said initially she was nervous, but after meeting her "sweet" students, her jitters were relieved.

"I never sent anyone to the principal's office," McCarter said to her former students as they ate sandwiches and fruit over lunch in a cozy cottage. "You were the sweetest students."

Those "sweet students" reunited inside the Laundry Cottage on the grounds of Goodwood Museum and Gardens earlier this month, 68 years later to celebrate their teacher's kind heart and darling spirit.

The reunion did more than bring back memories: It reinforced the decades-old bond between an educator and her students.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Ann Stephens Maudlin, 73, who traveled from Jacksonville, Florida, for the reunion. "We were her first class, and she was our first teacher. How many people can say they remember their first-grade teacher and get to honor her at our age?"

McCarter is 91, and those children are now in their early 70s.

"How many first-grade classes are having reunions," said Mike Gavalas, a Tallahassee native and owner of Nic's Toggery, a local men's clothing store.

Their first order of business during the luncheon was figuring out if Mitchell Gilberg actually counted as a member of the original class. Everyone remembered the day he was called to the principal's office and never returned. Gilberg said it was because his parents had him advance to a second-grade class.

McCarter put the talk to rest.

"You were still my student in my eyes," she told the independent computer consultant.

That response is classic McCarter, said Barbara Corley Robinson, a Tallahassee native.

"We just felt so much love from her, she was more than a teacher. She was just so kind and she made us feel like we were a team, a family, not just her students," Robinson said.

That day, the student-teacher bond was clear. The women moved quickly to get everything in order before McCarter's arrival, setting out sandwiches and homemade cookies, and organizing flower arrangements to make the cottage look picturesque. The men stood in a group on the porch and laughed about who was the most mischievous.

Of the original class of 26, 12 attended the reunion to visit with their former classmates and teacher, some traveling from as far as North Carolina, like Patrick Herz, and from South Carolina, like Kathy Harrison Whitehead.

Hartsfield reunion sparked by decades-old class photo

The plan to reunite was sparked by a class photo from 1956 discovered by Whitehead who shared it with Lanie Fleet, a fellow student.

In the black and white segregation-era photograph, the students sat in groups of four at desks, the girls donning frilly dresses and the boys in slacks and collared shirts, everyone posting big smiles. And gazing lovingly behind them was McCarter.

"When I looked at it, I could name all the girls and most of the boys but not all of them," Whitehead said of the photo she found. "Hilda was such a warm teacher and she was so special, and I knew her from church, too."

The discovery of the photo prompted Whitehead and Fleet to begin a search for McCarter, and discovered she was living in Lakeland, Florida.

McCarter gladly accepted an invite from Whitehead and Fleet to reunite with the class and the women got to work tracking down other students. The lunch was the first time any of them had seen McCarter and their fellow classmates in many years.

Walking into the cottage at Goodwood, McCarter recognized each of her students. "Surprisingly, none of you look much different. You look exactly like how I remember you," McCarter said to everyone standing around, clinging to each word she said.

"I remember you being much taller," Gilberg told McCarter.

The group mingled and caught up, chatting away about their families, and recounting memories from their childhood days in the Indianhead Acres neighborhood that surrounds Hartsfield, where most of them lived.

Most of the group stayed together after Hartsfield, advancing to seventh grade at Cobb Middle School, and on to Leon High School, while some enrolled at Rickards High.

The journey of a Tallahassee teacher

McCarter, a Georgia native, moved to Tennessee as a child, and from there to Florida, then to Missouri for college, before returning to the Sunshine State.

McCarter was a newlywed in 1956 and rented one of the cottages at Goodwood Plantation for $75 a month with her husband, just steps away from where Thursday's luncheon was held. She left Hartsfield in 1958 and began to teach at the Holy Comforter Episcopal School on Fleischmann Road, where she also attended church.

The couple had a son in 1960 and moved to Lakeland in 1967, where McCarter continued to work in education, serving as an English tutor for a private company. She said her mantra, "bloom where you are planted," encouraged her throughout her life.

Now, the retiree spends much of her time writing. She gave each of her students a copy of her memoir, "Crossing the Line." The book covers her life from her childhood to retirement.

"You've warmed my heart and my soul and brought back some fond memories," McCarter told her students as they sat around eating lunch. "Your parents did a good job; I just nurtured the seed that was already planted and from there on, you had others who helped you grow."

The group ran through memories of a time when gas was 88 cents and milk was even less, and the song "Tallahassee" sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters played on almost every stereo in town.

Then, in a fitting tribute, McCarter passed out report cards.

Everyone received an A+ in life skills, education, family, memory skills, kindness, thoughtfulness, diligence and perseverance.

Alaijah Brown covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Hartsfield 1st grade class reunites after 68 years to honor teacher