A longstanding Rockdale tradition will age a little this year when the annual Rockdale Homecoming is held June 13 in Patterson Civic Center.
Way back in 1933, Ira Perry, rancher and former Rockdale resident, gathered a group at the present day fairgrounds for a picnic and those folks formed The Rockdale Homecoming Association.
The group decided that day that they would meet the next year and every year thereafter for a homecoming of past and present citizens on the second Sunday in June.
Over the years the gathering grew and when the 1936 event was held with a Texas Centennial theme, there were 175 in attendance with 100 of them being from out of town.
During the planning for that year’s event, it was decided that a graduating class would be honored. They chose to honor the class of 1886 that year, all six of them. Three of them made it to the reunion.
Then 50 years later during the state’s Sesquicentennial, they decided to honor the Rockdale High School class of 1936. That was the birth of highlighting the class celebrating its 50th reunion at the annual gathering of those with ties to the city of Rockdale.
This year the classes of both 1970 and ‘71 will be honored as COVID-19 prevented the homecoming from being held in 2020.
The reunion in 1986 attracted 400 visitors to the Knights of Columbus Hall which has also served as the venue for the gathering along with Fair Park and, in recent years, the Patterson Civic Center.
This year’s event will get started at 9 a.m., with coffee, donuts, registration and visiting.
There will be homecoming histories to look through before the meal is served to those who made food reservations in May.
After the meal, the graduates of the classes of ’70 and ’71 will be recognized.
The Jones family, the owners of Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home, will be spotlighted at this year’s homecoming. The funeral home opened in 1936 with the Jones family taking over the operation in 1972.
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