Two Mile Negro School - Mt Tabor Baptist Church

Two-Mile School Reunion Brings Memories

Rockdale Reporter - 02-24-2011

Mt. Tabor Baptist Church in Gause recently hosted a reunion of the Two Mile Negro

School alumni.

Dr. Leroy Swift of Rockdale is the pastor.

Two-Mile Negro School closed in 1951 and has been demolished. It had been located at

the Mt. Tabor site.

Pastor Roosevelt Moore of Greater Antioch Baptist Church, Tahoka gave the invocation.

His sister, Della Mae Dukes of Oklahoma City, gave the welcome.

Special recognition was given to Mrs. Thedora Brown of Houston as being the oldest

alumni present.

She attended the school in the 1920’s when it had one room and one teacher. She said

Minnie Long, mother of Vera Brown of Gause would assist.

Jessie Cooperwood played two selections on clarinet and Dr. Swift played two selections

on saxophone.

Della Mae Dukes won the grand prize of $200 and Mrs. Brown won $100.

Freda Dixon of Houston sang a medley and Cooperwood, of Grandview, Mo., gave a school

history presentation.

Alumni present remembered field trips taken to Sugarloaf Mountain, over the hill to the

Smith Bottom and especially one to a dipping vat on the Long property.

The school went through eighth grade. Afterward they attended Gause to complete the

10th grade and to Hearne or elsewhere to graduate.

Principals at Two-Mile include Mr. Smilie, Mr. Moore, Mrs. Moore, Professor V. Smith

and Mrs. Mozelle Smith.

Teachers included Mrs. Smilie, Mrs. Odessa Moore, Vira Thompson, Miss Minnie Long

(assistant), Odessa Long and Mrs. Eddie Vera Chaney.

Alumni in attendance included Joyce Bell, Vera Brown and Ruby Moore all of Gause;

Thedora Brown of Houston; Jessie Cooperwood of Grandview, Mo.; Della Mae Dukes of

Oklahoma City; Esther Green, Bennie Nance and Pastor Roosevelt Moore all of Tahoka and

Dr. Leroy Swift of Rockdale.

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the Rockdale Reporter

Students at Two-Mile School in photo taken around 1920.
The school stayed open until 1951.

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