Escambia Farms Classes of 1962 and ’63 to be honored May 25

Escambia Farms School, seen in a June 1942 photo by John Collier for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, has a May 25 reunion.

BLACKMAN — Escambia Farms School alumni will reunite May 25 at the Blackman Community Center, honoring the 50th anniversary of the school's last graduation.

The school's classes of 1962 and 1963 will be honored during the reunion. Alumni are encouraged to bring pictures, yearbooks and other memorabilia from their school days.

Escambia Farms was a Depression-era U.S. Farm Security Administration development north of Baker. It included family farms, a school, a commissary and a farm co-op at which residents would sell produce.

"It was a whole little settlement," historian Ann Spann of the Baker Block Museum said. "They offered families a 40-acre farm, a house and a mule to develop and maintain the property."

"Our school had grades 1 through 12, a home-ec room and an agriculture building," alumna Noma Motley said. "Great cooks provided us with daily hot lunches."

Underclassmen transferred to Baker School when Escambia Farms School closed in 1963, Spann said.

Want to go?

An Escambia Farms School reunion is 4 p.m. May 25 at the Blackman Community Center, 7590  N. Highway 189. A $10 Boston butt supper will be served at 6 p.m. Call Danny or Claudine Cook Hall, 994-9276, or Noma Motley, 537-5916, for details.

Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Escambia Farms Classes of 1962 and ’63 to be honored May 25