C.F. Vigor was Assistant Superintendent of Mobile County, Alabama Public Schools for more than 30 years, serving from 1910 to November 3, 1941, and was mainly in charge of rural schools in the system. He was a lifetime resident of Mobile, having graduated from Barton Academy, and was the first president of the Mobile Education Association.
     It was fitting that in January of 1944, a new elementary school at 913 N. Wilson Avenue in Prichard was named for him. (This aerial view of the school was taken in 1957. The view is toward the Southwest with Wilson Avenue at the bottom of the picture). Originally there were eight grades in the school. After its opening, the student enrollment quickly increased to such an extent that three grades were put on double sessions.
     Three years later, relief for overcrowding came when the elementary grades were absorbed by other schools in the area. Eight additional classrooms were added to the existing facility and Vigor began concentrating on the upper grades. Before then, all public high school students in the county had to travel to midtown Mobile to attend Murphy. In those days, high schools had only 11 grades. Vigor’s first 11th grade graduating class was in 1952, the same year the auditorium was added to the complex, and the last 11th grade graduating class was in the Spring of 1956. Elvis Presley, before he became the King, came to the campus in 1956 for an assembly program that ended abruptly when Principal J.M. Laird had the curtains pulled because of Elvis’ gyrations and unconventional style.
     In the fall of 1956, when the full class of 1959 entered Vigor, a 12th grade had been added and Vigor was becoming an up and coming member of the Big Four in Mobile area high schools (Vigor, Murphy, University Military School and McGill). The crowning night of recognition in 1956 was when Vigor beat Murphy in football for the first time. The celebration at Ladd Stadium lasted long after the end of the game. In fact, Vigor beat Murphy for two of the three years that the Class of 1959 was in residence.
     Who could forget swimming at Johnson’s Lake in Eight Mile, sizzling delicious hamburgers at Tom’s near the campus and the Kreame Bar in Chickasaw, roller skating at Rambo’s in Saraland, bowling at the Smith Brother’s bowling lanes near the campus, waterskiing on Bayou Sara and fishing in Chickasabouge. There was the “Stairway to Stardom” teenage talent show on WAIP Prichard radio on Sunday afternoons which Vigor dominated, dancing at the Teenage Haven over the Prichard City Hall on Friday and Saturday nights and, if all else failed, there was always the "Kali Oka Road light show".
      Mobile had only three television stations in those days and there were movie theaters in both Prichard and Chickasaw. Prichard had the Waterall, the Prichard, the Rex and the Gem. Chickasaw had the Air Sho Drive-in and earlier the Chickasaw Theater in the Chickasaw shopping center on Craft Highway. There were flat tops, 45 rpm records, full skirts and bobby socks, ‘Dixon on Disk” television show on Channel 10, sock hops in the gym after games, and much, much more.
     Come remember the 50’s and renew old friendships at the 50th reunion of the Class of 1959, Dates TBD, 2009, at Place TBD. Check back at this web site for more details about the reunion.