from the photograph collection of B. R. Jennings
left to right: Thomas Graves, Mary Nell Luna, James Myracle Bowman, Billy Ralph Durham, Jerry Laster, Alfred Tate Rogers, Glenn Wallace, Jack Hays, Bowman Rains, Joe Louis Luna, Billy Ray Jennings
standing: Director: Ms. Gussie Tate
This band was composed of a group of students from Parsons who took private lessons from Ms. Gussie Tate from Decaturville. Ms. Tate taught from Jenkins’s Beginners Band Book. The band was not a school sponsored group but they did play at school functions. It was a precursor to Parsons school bands that developed in later years.