I recently came across a 1966 Howard High School yearbook. School annuals are good artifacts of Chattanooga area history because of the photographs and advertisements. The publications are interesting to peruse years after graduation, because they capture so well what was going on inside and outside the classrooms.
Many of the sponsors of the Howard annual were located either in downtown or in South Chattanooga. One of the well-wishers for the Howard class of 1966 was connected to the production of school yearbooks – the O.K. Studios.
O.K. Studios was one of several advertised businesses located on East Ninth Street (later renamed Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard). Other Howard sponsors in that business district were Bob’s Custom Tailors and Tuskegee Shoe Shop, Renewal Barber Shop, and the Stardust Restaurant.
The person behind the O.K. cameras was Clarence Bernard Foster. Mr. Foster was born in 1914, and was the 1933 class salutatorian of the same school that he would later sponsor. He opened O.K. Studios after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Mr. Foster continued in the photography business for thirty years. He made portraits of both local and regional school groups. After retiring in 1969, he became a Master Gardener after completing courses. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 87.
If you follow Memories on a regular basis, you have already seen some of the advertisements from the Howard High 1966 annual on our front page. I will post others from this yearbook in the near future.
Ah, yes, high school. As the Statler Brothers sang in “Class of ’57” – “Things get complicated when you get past eighteen, but the class of (fill in your class year here) had its dreams.”
If you have additional information on O.K. Studios or Mr. Foster, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.
The classes and activities of Howard High were captured in this 1966 yearbook.