Betty Jo Backstrom, Vernon Davis and Sammie St. John have shared a lot through the many decades of their friendship. Recently, they also shared a life milestone — turning 90 together.
During one social-whirl of a week in July, they were honored with three separate birthday celebrations given by family and friends. All three celebrants attended all three parties.
Davis and St. John have known each other since they were together at Columbus’ S.D. Lee High School. They graduated in the Class of 1944, the same class Backstrom’s late husband, Bill, was in.
Davis and St. John may have been in the same class, but that didn’t mean they got to “hang out” much outside of school. Davis lived in south Columbus. St. John lived in north Columbus. Very few students had cars.
“It was World War II, gas was rationed, and we walked everywhere we went,” said St. John. “If you didn’t have a stamp to buy gasoline you couldn’t roam around like they do now.”
After high school, the two lost close touch due to college, marriages and moves in and out of Columbus. Lee High reunions would bring them together again, but it took awhile.
“Our class waited 40 years to have a reunion,” St. John explained. “Then we had a 40th, 45th, 50th and 55th, but the numbers were dwindling, so we finally decided, heck, we’ll just meet out at the country club [now Lion Hills] for a Dutch lunch every month.”
Remaining class members have been doing that on third Thursdays now for the past 15 years.
Bill and Betty Jo Backstrom were regular attendees. After Bill passed away, Betty Jo continued coming, maintaining ties with Davis and St. John and her adopted class.
“I lost him, but I kept going to them,” said Backstrom who hails originally from the small town of Brunswick, Tennessee, near Memphis. “I came down to The W, and I met Bill, and that’s the way it began.” It was also at The W — then Mississippi State College for Women — that Backstrom and Davis first met.
Connections that had their beginnings in high school and college have matured and strengthened in the seven decades since. The friends now look forward to being nonagenarians together and catching up at least monthly at the Class of ’44 luncheons. They try to see each other, or call, in between reunions, as well.
Backstrom’s June 28th birthday was celebrated at her home July 23. St. John’s July 27 birthday party was at Lion Hills Center. Davis’s July 29 birthday was celebrated at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
“It’s not often you have three friends turning 90 at the same time and having three birthday parties in a week,” said Davis of the marathon of festivities, “but we just enjoy each other’s company.”
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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