History of Lauderdale County School District | Page 263

where it went and I won the toss, so the horn went to SE. The school was very crowded when
the children showed up. The administration divided the band hall into two classrooms and the
band was moved to the stage in the gym. It was really hard to have band and the coaches to have
basketball and physical education all in the gym at the same time.
Southeast Lauderdale had some really great bands during the 1980s. The 80’s were when
we had the largest numbers in the band. Some of the Drum Majors were: Dianne Knight, Jerry
Smith, Rhonda Bolton and Terry Clark. There were many find band members and auxiliaries
during my time at SE.
I worked at Southeast Lauderdale for 32 years before I moved to East Mississippi
Community College in 1994. I always enjoyed my time at SE. I married my husband, James A.
Gibson and had my son while working at SE, and I still live near the school.
Name: Edward Mosley
Schools: Stevenson and Northeast High School
Year Started and Graduated: 1958/1971
I started to school at old Stevenson School near Toomsuba. I was only there for part of a
year, but I remember there being a lot of wooden buildings, out buildings for toilets and there
were no walkways only dirt. In January of 1959 they opened Middleton School and I was
transferred there. I was very impressed with the new brick buildings and the amount of concrete
(pavement) that was everywhere. It was pretty crowded; in fact there were two classes in one
room. My first teacher at Middleton was Miss Emma J. Bolton. The other teacher in the room
was Mrs. Gertrude Hinson.
The principals at Middleton were F.P. Posey, Smiley Bonds and George Mosley. Some
of the teachers at Middleton were: Mrs. Blanks, Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Beatrice Foreman. The
coaches were Jessie Palmer, Robert Taylor and Adrian Lewis. Jessie Palmer was the only coach
at Middleton to start with. Adrian Lewis was the first head football Coach and Robert Taylor
was the last one head football coach at Middleton. I started playing football at Middleton in the
ninth grade on the “B” Team. In January of 1970, we moved to Northeast Lauderdale High
School. Some of the teachers went to Northeast with me, but most teachers were all moved to
other school except for some of the elementary teachers and the librarian (Mrs. Naomi Bonds).
Mr. Posey and Coach Taylor went to Northeast High and Mr. Bonds and Jessie Palmer went to
Southeast Attendance Center.
Middleton School was in the Tyland Football Conference when I played. Some of the
teams we played: Southside School, Heidelberg; Oak Park, Laurel; Bay Springs; Roosevelt
School, Ellisville and Shirley Owen School, Quitman. Those were the members of the Tyland
Conference. I remember several football players from Middleton, some were: Spencer Neal, J.
Lee Newell, James McWilliams, Ralph Lewis, Johnny McKenzie, J.L. Malone and David
Jordan.
When I got to Northeast High School, there were more football players I got to know.
They were Rick Roberson, Kenny Covington, Eddie Ratcliff, Bobby Hooks, Stanley Ross and
Bill Turner. We played in the Sam Dale Football Conference. The coaches were Tim Gibson,
Taylor Davis and Robert Taylor. That year we beat Clarkdale, Union and West Lauderdale. We