David McConnell Collection

HISTORICAL NOTE

Alumni from Handley High School's Class of 1959 assembled a committee in 2008 to plan their fiftieth class reunion. The Class of 1959 was the last graduating class of Handley High School in Handley, Texas before it closed. The committee did extensive research on the history of the Handley community and the public schools in preparation for the reunion. They made alumni rosters, gathered group class photographs from the public schools and images of school buildings, and made copies of student newspapers. Some alumni sent the committee biographical sketches and recollections of their school years. While planning the reunion, the committee created a yearbook project to locate and scan as many high school yearbooks as possible. They succeeded in digitizing most of the yearbooks published between 1925 and 1959. 

Committee member David McConnell made questionnaires for alumni and kept meeting minutes. He designed a website as a way to gather information from people who went to Handley schools. He also made the yearbook scans available on the website. McConnell grew up in the Littles community near Lake Arlington. He attended Littles Elementary School (nicknamed "Tater Hill") and Handley High School. 

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The David McConnell Collection contains the documentation kept by the reunion planning committee while planning the Class of 1959 reunion. The materials were donated by committee member David McConnell. Most materials in the collection are machine copies and were organized in binders by the committee. The collection also includes computer disks and hard drives containing digital scans of every document in the binders as well as the yearbook files. 

Materials in this collection consist of the following:

Digital Files

• Country Hits for Handley High Class of 1959 Reunion, computer disks, created by the Handley High School Reunion Planning Committee, 2009
• Hits of the 1950s and 1960s, set of 20 computer disks, created in 2009 for the Fiftieth Reunion of the Handley High School Class of 1959
• Handley High School yearbooks, created by the Class of 1959 Reunion Planning Committee, dates: 1925, 1927, 1931, 1932, 1937, 1938, 1940-1959
• Digital files and images of reunion planning committee documents related to students, public schools, school publications, the Committee meetings, and alumni recollections, compiled 2005-2015

Documents

• Handley High School Class of 1959 Reunion Planning Committee documents, 2009-2016 
  • Includes: committee meetings, student contact lists, Class of 1959 Reunion, Handley school newspapers, alumni recollections, yearbook project documents and computer disks, Handley histories
• Handley High School Ex-Student Association rosters for graduating classes of 1917-1959, created by the Handley High School Exes Association, 1987; 1988; 1999; undated
• "History of a Cemetery: The Forest Hill Cemetery," by Reverend Willis E. Plapp, undated
• List of Vanished Towns and Communities of Tarrant County, Texas, printed from CensusDiggins.com, 2010
• "My Slice of Tater," reminiscences by Eldon Morris Holman, Handley, Texas, undated
• Olin DeWitt Stevens, Sr. Find a Grave webpage, accessed November 14, 2025
• "Scenes from Handley," by the Handley High School Ex-Students Association, Handley, Texas, 1988

Images

• Machine copies of Handley public school buildings and group class photographs from 1910-1957, copied in 2009
• Photograph of a Handley High School football player in uniform, circa 1959
• Photograph of Eddie Robertson and Jackie Mathis from Handley High School dressed in formal attire, 1959
• Photograph of Gary Davidson and Nancy Toomer from Handley High School dressed in formal attire, 1959

Publications

• Neighbors in Handley newsletters with announcements and membership application, published by Handley Neighborhood Association, Handley, Texas, October-November 1999