Rocky Mount once again became a nesting ground for more than 700 former graduates of Rocky Mount Senior High School.

The Blackbirds were home.

(ENLARGE)

Telegram photo / Alan Campbell (ENLARGE)

Rocky Mount Blackbird Bob Sides, right, shows Bobby Webb a photograph from the 1960s on Saturday during the reunion at N.C. Wesleyan College.

Telegram photo / Alan Campbell (ENLARGE)

Rocky Mount Blackbird Tom Parrish, center, greets fellow Class of '63 members, Henrietta Williams, left, and Connie May Saturday during the reunion at N.C. Wesleyan College.

Beginning Friday night at the Doubletree Inn with a cocktail party and ending Saturday evening at N.C. Wesleyan College, generations of Blackbirds mingled with fellow classmates and even some teachers, to reminisce about their high school years during the "Ultimate Blackbird Reunion."

On Friday evening, some classmates were seeing each other for the first time in years. For others, they never separated.

"I married my high school sweetheart Routh Oates," laughed Dwight Robinson of Rocky Mount, Class of 1963. "It's great to see this many people from the different classes."

Robinson, like many other '63 grads, said that his graduating class was special because it was the first year the Blackbirds won state victories in football, baseball and basketball.

The Blackbird was the Rocky Mount Senior High School mascot until 1969. Anyone who graduated from the school between the late 1920s and 1969 is deemed a Blackbird.

Ernest Bridgers, a member of the Class of 1961 who coordinated the reunion, said that he didn't plan on the event becoming as large as it did.

"It got bigger than I thought it was," Bridgers said.

However, a much more personal reason was behind Bridgers' organizational efforts. Being diagnosed with cancer at one point in his life, he said he wanted to make an effort to try to bring as many Blackbirds together as he could.

"We were mighty close people in high school," Bridgers said.

Steve Harper, a graduate of the Class of 1967, drove 11 hours from Laurel, Miss., to attend the reunion.

"I make it back about once a year," Harper said. "It's a lot of fun to see the folks you graduated with and get some North Carolina barbecue."

Strolling along the swimming pool at the Doubletree Inn, Boo White and Corinne Landis, both of the Class of 1947 and Rocky Mount residents, said they were glad to see so many familiar faces.

"People don't look like they used to," White laughed. "I'm looking forward to seeing people here I have not seen in a while."

Landis, a former teacher at Rocky Mount High School and Edwards Middle School, said she saw a few former students at the party.

"Seeing former students is wonderful," Landis said. "We're on a first-name basis."

Many of the reunion's attendees participated in a golf outing held Saturday at Northgreen Country Club. Butch Clayton of Charleston, S.C., a member of the Class of 1963, said he planned to participate in the outing.

However, Clayton said, he was also excited about getting a group Blackbirds together who were former members of Boy Scout Troop 11.

"We were the largest troop east of the Mississippi," Clayton recalled. "It's the first time I've been back in a while, and I'm looking forward to it."

Clayton also was a former Blackbirds' football player. He said that he remembers his teammates and coaches fondly, and championships won by the school's athletic teams.

"It's pretty amazing," he said. "We were the smallest school. Most of us had been together since the fourth grade. We had great coaching."

On Saturday evening at N.C. Wesleyan, the Blackbirds crowded a large tent decorated with lights and several tables.

The band, The Embers, played classic and oldies music as couples began to dance.

"Nothing can beat it," said Nancy Wordsworth of Wilmington, a member of the Class of 1959. "It's wonderful. We've had a good turnout."