NATCHEZ — Almost 70 years have passed since the Natchez High School class of 1943 received their diplomas together as friends, and though much has changed in the lives of each class member, the friendship has remained constant.

A group of six of those graduates gathered at Dairy Queen Sunday afternoon to reminisce about old times, flip through old photos and relax together as friends.

“It is just wonderful to be able to get together and be with them again,” graduate and Natchez resident Mary Rogers Davis Jones said. “We really need to have them more often.”

Jones said the class of 93 graduates was a very close group that shared a lot of memories during their four years of high school.

“Everyone was close,” she said. “We all really enjoyed being around each other.”

Of the graduating class, 35 students remain spread out all over the country, and Jones said the group gets together with whoever can make it, whenever they can.

“After the last time we got together I told everybody it would be great to try and get together one last time,” she said. “And we are lucky to have as many people here today as we do.”

Graduate Marie Perkins said the class gets together often, but that they haven’t had a true high school reunion since the 1960s.

“We have been meeting for a quite a few years,” she said. “And we have had some really good times.”

Graduate Billy Simmons said since his class graduated in 1943 during the middle of World War II, the majority of the graduates entered the service after finishing high school.

“A lot of people, even the women, went straight out of school and into training,” he said. “Even with that, we only lost one of our classmates during the war.”

Simmons trained to fly planes in the war and then managed the airport in Natchez for nearly 40 years. Simmons said he also got to help train one of his fellow graduates, Stanley Eugene, to fly a plane.

“I flew planes in the military for 23 years straight out of high school,” Eugene said.

“After that I went and flew for a commercial airline company for about another 20 years.”

During his time in the service, Eugene said he even helped train the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, before he became famous.

Even with a lifetime of flying planes, Eugene said the bond he shares with his classmates has kept him coming back to Natchez to keep in touch.

“It’s just always a wonderful time,” he said.

Simmons said the group is going to continue to try and meet up to reminisce, and that he hopes more graduates from the class of 1943 are able to make it next time.