Marlinton High School Class of 1960
The subject of this report is definitively Marlinton High School, located in the town of Marlinton, Pocahontas County, West Virginia. This school was the home of the Copperheads and served its community for decades before its closure. It is a distinct institution with its own unique history, student body, and legacy, separate from its Ohio namesake.
A Portrait of Place: Marlinton & Pocahontas County in 1960
To understand the graduates of 1960, one must first understand the world that shaped them. Pocahontas County, West Virginia, was and remains a place defined by its rugged geography and deep-rooted history. Nestled in the Allegheny Mountains, it is the most rural school district east of the Mississippi River and the third largest by land area in the state. Life for the students of Marlinton High was inextricably linked to the outdoors—the lush trails of the Monongahela National Forest, the slopes of nearby mountains, and the rhythms of a community steeped in history, with landmarks like the Cass Scenic Railroad serving as constant reminders of the region's heritage.
The year 1960, however, was not just a period of idyllic rural life; it was a time of profound economic transition and anxiety throughout Appalachia. While specific economic data for Pocahontas County is not detailed in the available records, the plight of neighboring McDowell County serves as a powerful regional proxy. By 1960, McDowell County's mining workforce had been slashed from 16,000 to just 7,000, leading to widespread joblessness and out-migration. It was this very landscape of economic distress that drew national attention during the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, who visited the state and made its struggles a cornerstone of his platform. His first executive order as president would create the food stamp program, with its very first recipients being in McDowell County. The Marlinton High School Class of 1960 graduated into a world where their home region was at the center of a national conversation about poverty and change.
This conversation was filtered through the community's primary voice, The Pocahontas Times. A weekly newspaper founded in 1883, it had moved to Marlinton in 1892 and had long been a bastion of conservative Democratic politics, with a staunchly pro-temperance and patriotic worldview. The year 1960 marked a pivotal transition for this influential local institution. After three years at the helm following her husband's death, publisher Mabel M. Price handed the reins to her daughter, Jane Price Sharp. This generational shift in leadership at the county's main source of news and opinion occurred at the very moment the community was being scrutinized on the national stage. The graduates of 1960 were therefore entering adulthood at a unique intersection of local and national change, their perspectives shaped by a community newspaper that was itself navigating a new era while reporting on a region grappling with its economic future and its sudden place in the American spotlight.
The World of the Copperheads: Marlinton High School on the Eve of Change
Marlinton High School (MHS) was the heart of its community, a public institution where generations of students were educated and local identity was forged. To be a student at MHS in 1960 was to be a "Copperhead," a mascot name that remains a point of local pride decades after the school’s closure. The Class of 1960 was part of a particularly vibrant era for the school, but also one that unknowingly stood on the precipice of immense change.
The 1960s represented the final decade of the school's existence. In 1968, as part of a statewide movement toward school consolidation, Marlinton High School was closed, merging with Hillsboro High School and Green Bank High School to form the new, centralized Pocahontas County High School. Until that final day, however, MHS was a hub of activity and achievement.
The school's athletic teams were a source of intense community pride. Under the leadership of Coach Elmer Friel, the Copperheads football teams of the 1960s became known for their winning seasons and were well-represented across West Virginia. The Class of 1960's own senior year was marked by significant athletic success; the 1960 basketball team won its sectional playoff and advanced to the regional championship game, a major accomplishment that would have been a defining experience for the student body.
A complete and honest portrait of Marlinton in 1960 requires acknowledging a fundamental reality of the time: the educational system was segregated. Marlinton High School was an institution for white students. The African American students of the town attended a separate school, the Greenbrier Hill School, which operated from 1917 until 1966.
This school was one of at least eight such institutions serving the Black population of Pocahontas County, existing in parallel to the white school system. This context is not merely a footnote; it is central to understanding the community's social structure. The very concept of the "Marlinton Class of 1960" is, by historical definition, an incomplete picture of the town's graduating youth. It refers exclusively to the white students of Marlinton High School.
A comprehensive history would necessitate a parallel investigation into the graduates of the Greenbrier Hill School to fully capture the story of all high school seniors in Marlinton that year. To overlook this reality would be to present a sanitized and partial version of the past.
Reconstructing the Class of 1960
The central challenge in researching the specific members of the Marlinton High School Class of 1960 is the absence of a readily available digitized yearbook. The most prominent genealogical database, Ancestry.com, lists only a 1948 yearbook for the school, leaving a significant archival gap.1 This lack of a central, visual roster forces a turn toward more granular primary sources, primarily local newspaper archives and genealogical records.
Despite this hurdle, a critical breakthrough provides an anchor point for the entire investigation: the confirmed identification of one member of the Class of 1960. An obituary published in the September 26, 2013, edition of The Pocahontas Times for Thelma "Teenie" Audrey Perry explicitly states, "Teenie was a graduate of Marlinton High School, Class of 1960". This single piece of information is invaluable.
It provides a tangible human connection to the class and, more importantly, a methodological key to identifying other members.
The details from this obituary allow for the creation of a rich biographical profile, which serves as a template for what can be discovered about other graduates through similar means.
The profile of Thelma "Teenie" Perry, who was born in 1942, confirms the expected birth years for the Class of 1960 would be primarily 1941 and 1942, as students would typically be 17 or 18 upon graduation. This provides a powerful tool for reverse-engineering a class list. By conducting targeted searches of obituary databases for individuals with ties to Pocahontas County born in this two-year window, it is possible to systematically uncover other graduates. Many obituaries from the region and era mention high school affiliations, as seen in the memorials for alumni of the contemporary Hillsboro and Green Bank high schools. Each successful match would add another name to the roster and another layer to the social fabric of the class, effectively rebuilding it one member at a time.
The most promising avenue for discovering a complete class list in one fell swoop remains the archives of The Pocahontas Times. While automated searches of the available snippets did not yield a 1960 graduation announcement, the existence of such articles for other years—like the announcement of the 1965 valedictorian and salutatorian—makes it highly probable that similar coverage exists for the Class of 1960. A manual or targeted search of the newspaper's issues from May and June 1960, using keywords such as "Commencement," "Graduation," "Baccalaureate," "Honor Roll," and the names of academic leaders, is the most direct path to obtaining the full list of graduates.
The End of an Era: Consolidation and the Legacy of MHS
The graduation of the Class of 1960 occurred during the final full decade of Marlinton High School's existence. Their experience as "Copperheads" was part of a chapter in the county's history that was drawing to a close. In 1968, MHS, along with its counterparts and rivals in Green Bank and Hillsboro, was consolidated into the new Pocahontas County High School (PCHS), located in Dunmore.
This was not an isolated event but part of a broader trend of school consolidation that was reshaping rural education across West Virginia and the nation. With this merger, the "Copperheads" of Marlinton, the "Red Devils" of Hillsboro, and the students of Green Bank were united under a new identity: the PCHS "Warriors".
The consolidation created a definitive historical dividing line. Before 1968, a student's high school identity was intensely local, tied to the specific town and community in which they lived. To graduate from Marlinton High School was to hold an identity distinct from that of a graduate from Hillsboro or Green Bank. After 1968, that identity became regional and county-wide.
This shift means that being an alumnus of Marlinton High School signifies membership in a finite and now-historic group. The traditions, rivalries, and community spirit that defined the MHS experience belong to a specific, pre-consolidation era of Pocahontas County's history.
The significance of researching the Class of 1960 is therefore amplified by this context. It is an act of historical preservation, documenting the lives and experiences of one of the last classes to graduate from a uniquely local institution. Their story is a snapshot of a community on the cusp of change, a final glimpse into the world of the Marlinton Copperheads before that identity was absorbed into a larger, county-wide institution. The pride associated with MHS, particularly its athletic achievements, endured until its final days, making the legacy of classes like 1960 a poignant final statement of a beloved school's history.
A Path Forward: A Guide to Further Research
While this report has established the historical context and a methodological framework, uncovering the complete story of the Marlinton High School Class of 1960 requires direct archival research. The following guide provides actionable steps and key resources to continue this investigation.
Step 1: The Local Newspaper Archive
The single most valuable resource for identifying the full class list is the local newspaper. Graduation ceremonies, honor rolls, and baccalaureate services were major community events that received detailed coverage.
Resource: The Pocahontas Times Newspaper Archive.
Method: Access the digital archive and conduct targeted searches within the date range of May 1, 1960, to June 30, 1960. Use a variety of keywords, including: "Marlinton High School," "Class of 1960," "graduation," "commencement," "seniors," "honor roll," "valedictorian," and "salutatorian." If direct searches are difficult, a manual page-by-page review of the weekly issues from this period may be necessary.2
Step 2: The County Historical Society
The local historical society is the primary repository for physical artifacts, photographs, and documents related to the county's history. It is crucial to distinguish it from a similarly named entity in Iowa.
Resource: Pocahontas County Historical Society Museum (West Virginia).
Warning: Do not confuse this with the Pocahontas County Historical Society in Laurens, Iowa.
Method: Contact the museum in Marlinton, WV, to inquire about their holdings. Call ahead to confirm seasonal hours and to make a specific research request. Ask if their archives contain MHS yearbooks (especially for 1960), commencement programs, class photographs, or any other materials related to the Class of 1960.3
Step 3: Genealogical Reconstruction
Using the established birth years of 1941-1942 as a guide, a systematic search of obituaries can be used to build a class list from the ground up.
Resource: Online obituary databases (e.g., Legacy.com), local West Virginia funeral home websites, and the digital archives of The Pocahontas Times.
Method: Search for individuals who were born between 1941 and 1942 and who either died in or had significant life connections to Pocahontas County. Carefully read the text of each obituary for the key phrase "Marlinton High School" or "graduate of Marlinton High School." Each positive result adds a confirmed member to the class roster.
Step 4: Official School Records
The modern school district office is the successor to Marlinton High School and may hold some non-confidential archival records.
Resource: Pocahontas County Schools Board of Education.
Method: Contact the central office to inquire about the availability of historical, non-transcript records. While individual student academic records are protected by privacy laws, the office may have retained archival copies of materials like graduation programs from the former high schools.
The table below consolidates the contact information for these key resources to facilitate further research.
Works cited
Marlinton High School Yearbooks and Pictures - Ancestry®, accessed June 29, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/yearbooks/school/139y-Marlinton+High+School
The Pocahontas Times Newspaper Archive, accessed June 29, 2025, https://pch.stparchive.com/
Pocahontas County Historical Society - Home Page, accessed June 29, 2025, http://www.pocahontashistorical.org/
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