Distinguished Alumni

By Lee Ellen Benjamin
production@casscountynow.com

For the fifth year, the Atlanta Education Foundation (AEF) and the Atlanta High School Alumni Association honored four Atlanta High School (AHS) graduates as Distinguished Alumni at the football game Friday, night.
New inductees in to the “AHS Hall of Fame” are Jane Cook Barnhill, Class of 1956; Steven Fischer Smith, Class of 1974; and Amanda Ellis, Class of 1994. Joe Wall, Class of 1960, received a Distinguished Service Award. 
Honored for their lifelong accomplishments, these notable Rabbits received proclamations from Mayor Keith Crow at a reception given in their honor at the Atlanta ISD Administration Building prior to the game.
President of the Alumni Association Joel Steger, a 2015 AHS Distinguished Alum, introduced the guests of honor and heaped worthy praise on each.
Particularly touching was the posthumous award presented to Linda Smith, wife of Steven Fischer Smith. He passed away earlier this year. Smith was a charter member of the Atlanta Education Foundation.
Barnhill thanked the AEF for the tribute, but said she had three wishes for Atlanta. “I hope that my home town can get onboard with the Main Street program. It can do so much for a small town.
“Second, I certainly hope that all of you would back the Texarkana College initiative. More education can only be good for Atlanta and Cass County.
“And third, please Mr. Mayor, if it is at all possible, can we get the street sign correct? The street is B-O-G-I-E. That is how it is spelled on all the old maps and plats. Not ‘gg” as the signs now state.” The Barnhill homestead is on Boggie Street.
Many family members gathered with the four Distinguished Alums at the football game, where the Rabbits and the Big Bad Band from Rabbitland all put on a great show for the crowd.