NATCHEZ — In 1961, Washington High School saw its last graduating class walk through the doors.

Fifty years later, the building still stands, and the class of 42 graduates still does whatever they can to get a few days with their old classmates.

Approximately 30 of those 42 graduates gathered at the Eola Hotel in Natchez Saturday evening for their 50-year high school reunion, and all those in attendance enjoyed their time reminiscing.

“I could have a reunion every month,” WHS graduate Willie Thornton said.

Thornton was speaking to the crowd of graduates, teachers and family members at the reunion as the group applauded the crowning of former graduate Peggy McCall Brown as Miss Washington High School 2011.

“I waited a long time for this,” Brown said.

With a sash, a bouquet of flowers and a coffee mug with her high school picture on it, Brown teared up after receiving the honor.

“It just feels so wonderful to be here with all my old classmates,” she said. “I don’t know how to tell them just how much they mean to me.”

Brown was given the award by her fellow classmates as a tribute to all her efforts in trying to unite the class over the years.

“You are a take-charge person, and that is what it takes to get a reunion like this done,” Thornton said. “Nobody deserves this more than you.”

Graduate Pat Rankin said the 42 graduates are spread out all over the country, and getting them all together is a tricky ordeal.

“We have people from California to Pennsylvania to right here in Natchez,” he said.

Brown said it has been so long since she has seen some of her classmates that she could only recognize them by their voices.

“People have changed a lot over the years,” she said. “That is why we had to put our senior pictures on our IDs. I can remember some of the faces from high school more than I can now.”

Graduate Cissy Burch said she was honored to be in a room with so many of her fellow friends.

“We had such a small class, and we were all so close,” she said. “There were no cliques. We were all friends.”

Burch said that five of the former graduates have died, including one graduate in California who died three weeks before the reunion.

“Our classmate Vernon George bought his ticket on a Tuesday and passed away the very next day,” she said. “We all know how bad he wanted to be here.”

George did live on at the festivities. The sash Brown wore for being Miss WHS was bought by George and sent to his fellow classmates before his death.

Rankin said the dinner at the Eola was not the only event the WHS graduates shared at the reunion.

“We got to go out and tour the old school,” he said. “It brought back some memories.”

Rankin said the school, located on U.S. 61, was locked, but county officials opened up for the school’s last graduates to tour.

The tour was a great way to relive high school and the many events that happened, but it was also a time of disagreement, Rankin said.

“We had a good time, but a lot of people were arguing about what each room was and where things were,” he said with a laugh. “After 50 years, everybody has different memories of things.”

Burch said seeing her old classrooms and hallways was very emotional to her.

“I was sad at first,” she said. “It was such a great place with great teachers. I just hated to see it go.”

Brown said this was the first reunion the school has had in 20 years, and she hopes to plan another one in 2016.