Over 300 alumni plan to reunite

St. Mary's became a high school in 1944.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- More than 300 people, some from as far away as Alaska, will meet this week to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their alma mater's closing.
About 1,200 students graduated from St. Mary's High School, a parish school, from 1947 to 1964 when the school closed. Warren John F. Kennedy, a diocesan school, opened that same year.
The JFK/St. Mary Alumni Association is hosting an all-class reunion inviting alumni from St. Mary's graduating classes and the first three JFK classes who attended St. Mary's. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the former school gymnasium-auditorium on Elm Road.
"It's going to be a blast," said Rick Smith, alumni association president.
All reunion attendees are invited to attend St. Mary Church at 4 p.m. Saturday.
About 1,200 people graduated from St. Mary's during those years, and invitations were sent to about 1,500, including those who attended the school but graduated from JFK.
Hundreds expected
"We've got people coming in from Alaska, California and Florida -- they're coming from all over," said Smith, of Chagrin Falls, who graduated from JFK in 1971.
Between 320 and 340 people are expected to attend.
Smith's brother graduated from St. Mary's in 1964, the last year the school was open.
Smith planned the all-class reunion to coincide with the last class's 40th reunion.
"We just decided, let's have a big party," he said.
The alumni association will recognize former St. Mary's football, basketball and golf players and cheerleaders before the JFK-Struthers football game Friday.
St. Mary's opened in 1922 in temporary buildings as a first- through eighth-grade school run by the Sisters of Notre Dame of Cleveland. Ground was broken for the new building on Elm Road in 1925 and dedicated in 1926.
It became a high school in 1944 but continued as an elementary and middle school. It was the first senior high school established within the new Diocese of Youngstown, Smith said.
After JFK opened, St. Mary's continued as an elementary and middle school until 1970 when it was reorganized. It's part of the Notre Dame School system.
denise_dick@vindy.com