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    • 2013-2014 >
      • Photo Gallery 2013-2014
      • Senior Superlatives
      • Underclassmen Superlatives
      • April/May 2014 >
        • Three Seniors Select Service
        • Harmon at the Helm
        • New Assistants Added
        • Tackling the Tardies
        • Top Three a First for GHS
        • Still Smiling Down on All of Us
        • Soccer Finds Success
        • Tennis Seniors See Beyond the Court
        • What It Takes to Be Number One
        • GHS Softball: A Field of Underclassmen
        • Beyond the "Yelling and Screaming": Boys' Track
        • Red Devil Baseball Looks to Its Experience
        • Girls' Track Finds Its Pace
        • Dorm, Sweet Dorm
        • Is Sorority Life for You?
        • Tacos for Breakfast?
        • Teens vs. Labels
        • To Tattoo Or Not To Tattoo, That Is the Question
        • Watson's Wisdom
      • February 2014 >
        • HaIrspray's A Hit
        • Dr. Horrell Movin' On Up
        • Spring Break Plans
        • Still in school for SCS
        • SnapChat Dangers
        • Cold Weather vs. Attendance
        • Insider Report: Cafeteria Duty
      • January 2014 >
        • Weave? or Nahh?
        • Freshman Basketball
        • Have you heard about Her?
        • Kid Cudi
        • The New Principal at Germantown
        • Optional Plans for GHS
        • Credit Requirements
        • The CLUE Program
        • Jack Ryan: Movie Review
        • GHS New VP
        • Sophomore Struggle
      • December 2013 >
        • GHS Gospel Choir
        • GHS Christmas Concert 2014
        • GHS as an Optional School
        • Tardies at GHS
        • Christmas in Memphis
        • GHS Student Future
        • Growing Up with Miley
        • Credit Requirements
        • Too Cool for School
        • The Crew
      • November 2013 >
        • GHS Talent Nationally Recognized
        • M-Town Represent: the JT Experience
        • Popcorn Hour: "Captain Phillips"
        • #Vegan Life
        • Basketball Begins
        • Senior Advice
        • Movember
      • Oct. 2013 >
        • Operation Tucci
        • SGA and St. Jude
        • Fall Fashion Forward
        • Exam Exemption: Yes or No?
        • Popcorn Hour: Star Trek Into...Disappointing
        • PowerSchool Changes
        • Knowledge Bowl Plans to Knock Out Opponents
      • Sept. 2013 >
        • School Year Brought New Changes
        • Missing GHS Student
        • It's Football Time at GHS
        • Homecoming Is Here
        • Volleyball "Sets" Up a Great Start
      • 2012-2013 >
        • Photo Gallery 2012-2013
        • August 2012 >
          • Lunch Room Changes
          • Football Preview
        • September 2012 >
          • Animation Attraction
          • Obama vs. Romney 2012
          • Weenies Get Ready, Weenies Get Set, Weenies GO!
        • October 2012 >
          • Slide On In To Slider's Inn
          • Bell Schedule
          • Homecoming Week
        • November 2012 >
          • The Truth About College Trips: My Tours of 3 Colleges
          • Pajama Bottoms
          • After Election Expectations
        • December 2012 >
          • Time to Make Time
          • Senior Stress
          • Student WiFi Access
          • Red Devil Wrestlemania
        • January 2013 >
          • Ritter's Realism >
            • Ritter's Work
          • New Era of Reporting: From Paper to Digital
        • March-April 2013 >
          • Ian Clark named Naismith contender
          • KKK Coming to Town
          • Ted Horrell: Musician
          • Senior Semifinalist for Beta Scholarship
          • Underclassmen Superlatives
          • Senior Superlatives
  • 2014-2015
    • 2014-2015 Senior Superlatives
    • 2014-2015 Underclassmen Superlatives
    • Spring 2015 >
      • Tracking Transfers
      • Lessons from Beale Street Music Fest
      • Summer Spots
      • Summer Festivals
      • Dabney Wellford: the story behind the picture
      • Choosing the path less taken
      • Planning ahead: starting the college search now
      • Big or small? Deciding on a college
      • Should GHS offer sex ed?
      • Changing of the guard
      • Martin makes memorable impression
      • It only takes one: baseball looks to district
      • Softball sees improvement
      • Boys' track looks to state
      • The Road to the Top
      • Sinha as Salutatorian
      • Looking back in style
      • Fashion coming back around
    • November/December >
      • Erasing racism
      • White Steps Down
      • Things to do for the Holidays
      • Reaction to Ferguson
      • Best Buddies
      • Double Standards on Domestic Violence
      • Palazzolo takes over as mayor
      • Angel Tree
      • New Teacher Spotlight >
        • October 2014 >
          • Perfection
          • Malala Makes History
          • Emma Watson: Words for Women and Men
          • Snap Chat Hacked
          • Editorial: Amendment 1 Goes Beyond Abortion
          • Breast Cancer Close to Home
        • September 2014 >
          • Dress Code Changes
          • New Home at GHS
          • Freshmen Advice
          • Waddell Switches Roles
          • Decisions, Decisions
          • IPhone 6 Released
          • SGA and GHS
          • Let Your Voice Be Heard
        • Morgan Arant
        • Katie Broadwater
        • Suzzie Scoggins
        • Christopher Cloys
        • Clay Davis
        • Lisa Drumm
        • Derek Henderson
        • French Hobbs
        • Will Kelley
        • Jennifer Lesh
        • Tamara Levy
        • Andrew Meador
        • Matt Merritt
        • Felicia Munn
        • Samantha Scherer
        • Jenise Shea
        • Erin Staunton
        • Josh Taylor
        • Lauren Taylor
        • Connie Thompson
        • Wendy Willingham
      • Tennessee promises a better future
            As you walk into Guidance, glance up at the walls filled with the rich heritage that has helped to make Germantown High what it is today.  Then stop at the Class of ’44 and realize that Dabney Wellford, president of that class, is more than just a picture on that wall…he’s a picture of a rich heritage that has helped to make this school, this city, and this country what it is today.

            Sitting with Dabney at age 89, he reminisces over times before his birth.  Times when his great great grandfather James Winchester helped found Memphis and sent his son Marcus to be the first mayor.  Times when his grandfather sailed around the world on the Shenandoah, actually being deemed a “pirate” at one point for sinking Yankee whaling vessels after the end of the Civil War.  Times when his father was the president of the Shelby County Farm Bureau, traded a family home for the 275 acre farm on which Wellford still currently resides, and grew 90 acres of strawberries.  Times when his mother who majored in Latin at Vassar College, served as one of two teachers in a Cordova school, and at age 98 documented her own life on paper, calling her “sharp until the end.”

            Back in his time as a student at Germantown, a bus picked him up daily at his house on the corner of Dexter and Appling, approximately the northern most point of the lines at that time, and dropped him off for his typical day of school.  Most students at that time lived in the more rural areas south of Germantown and even near the current White Station area.

            Consisting of only eight faculty members at the time, one who was the principal, Ralph Hunt, who served as the geometry teacher, only a few classes, four at that time, had actual desks, his first class taking place in the auditorium.  Days were spent taking plane geometry (his most challenging course), history, English, Latin, and agriculture classes (home economics was just for girls).

            A two-sport athlete his senior year, Wellford joked that he was coerced into being the 10th man on the squad by the coach while his true talent was track.

            As he turned the pages of his senior classmates, he stopped at Bruce Law who later became the mayor of Germantown and later jailed for paying someone to kill his wife.  He then followed the life of Bob Cox, whom he called “Mr. Everything,” who completed a short stint in the Marines before playing football at the University of North Carolina. 

            With no proms, seniors participated in a production put on by all seniors with the assistance of the faculty, and the final commencement marked by a speaker from the Army whom Dabney “thought was never going to stop talking.”

            Wellford’s graduating class consisted of only 14 girls and 8 boys, a few leaving before senior year to enlist.

            Graduating top in his class, holding the highest average up to that point in the school’s history, Wellford completed a few months at William R. Moore, preparing at the time for a future in farming.  However, he soon entered the Army Air Corps, stationed in Colorado, developing friendships clearly until the end as his memories became clouded with tears of one who recently passed away a few months ago.

            Once his time was completed in the armed forces, Wellford attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, showing up one week late to classes and “almost froze to death” riding a bus .  After majoring in agronomy and animal husbandry, Wellford returned to Memphis.

            Realizing that farming may not be the best route for him, using what we term today as a “head hunter,” Wellford was sent to the National Cotton Council based on his skills, actually turning down the first job offer due to travel.  The next job offer was from the same company by Dr. M.K. Horne though Horne first dismissed Wellford as a potential employee, stating “I’m not going to waste my time talking to a chicken farmer.” 

            Wellford’s time at the Cotton Council was well spent as he helped draft legislation for the Agricultural Act of 1977, using Wellford’s own words in the document.    He even penned the “cotton” article of the 1968 World Book encyclopedia.  Though retired since 1986, working a few years later as a consultant, Wellford currently serves as the current director of the Shelby County Farm Bureau.

            Even at 89, Wellford is still going strong, competing in the National Senior Olympics this July in Minneapolis showing off his tennis skills.           

            Stating he has no regrets, Wellford, with all his stories, serves as more than just a picture on that wall in Guidance; he serves as a model of what life has been and can be beyond the walls of GHS.

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