WHS students were rocking the night away on Saturday as they gathered for the 2025 Ozark Echoes Ball hosted by the Echoes yearbook staff. The middle school multi-purpose room was decorated in red, gold and black as a salute to Old Hollywood. Students walked through the doors and down the red carpet that welcomed them to the 2025 edition of the annual Ozark Echoes Ball.
Halfway through the evening, the Ozark Echoes 2025 royalty was crowned. Queen was Samantha Harr; King Jaxson Deckard; Princess Hazal Uelker and Prince Tyler Fajen.
The royalty court consisted of juniors Ayden Burdick, Isaac Henderson, Naomi Yoder, Kaleby Stevenson and seniors Ashlynn Adams, Hazel Thompson, Mason Anderson and Gabriel Wassman.
This is the 75th anniversary of the Ozark Echoes yearbook which was first published in 1950. In this day of email, Facebook and other forms of social media, the printed yearbook has almost become a thing of the past in many schools across the nation; however, WHS has continued to publish it's Ozark Echoes for 75 years.
The first Ozark Echoes was a class project by the WHS Class of 1950. William Brooks was the editor and Mrs. Louise Campbell was the advisor. (Mrs. Campbell was a relative of the present advisor Amanda Campbell Adler). The yearbook was only 35 pages and, of course only had black and white photography. Mahlon White (father of the present Enterprise publisher, James) was one of the photographers.
Sophomore Amy Ann Scott was the first Echoes queen and her attendants were freshman Lois Ann Bybee, junior Ruth Houseworth and senior Marcine Tally. The queen was then selected based on how many yearbooks the class sold. That year the sophomores won. In later years, paper ballots were used with a candidate from each high school grade level and this year the candidates and winners were voted by students on the internet. At first only queens were selected and then in 1998 princess candidates from the junior class were selected and the queen candidates were all from the senior class. Then in 2011 king and prince candidates from the senior and junior class were added.
Some of the other past Echoes queens include: Carolyn Martin, 1963; Patricia Gorham, 1964; Sharon Robb, 1966; Marceline Gregory, 1967; Patty Button, 1968; Cheryl Robb, 1969; Karen Hughes, 1970; Debbie Martin, 1971; Patty Carroll, 1972; Elaine Harper, 1973; Malea Greer, 1974; Brenda Parks, 1975; Janie Durham, 1976; Kathy Roellig, 1977; Kathy Simons, 1978; Rhonda Clark, 1979; Robyn Hessefort, 1980; Jill Eldred, 1981; Kathy Breshears, 1982; Doris McCullough, 1983; Annette Smith, 1984; Tracy Tanner, 1985; Cassandra Walker, 1986; Alyssa Newberry, 1987; Tracy Grubb, 1988; Heather Lynch, 1989; Christine Hazel, 1990; Kim Nolte, 1991; Pam Claycomb, 1992; Jennifer Smallwood, 1993; Carey Sieve, 1994; Heather Heier, 1995; Amanda Lane, 1996; Emily Lane, 1997; Megan Glenn, 1998; Abegail Campbell, 1999; Jana McMurtry, 2000; Angeline Schremser, 2001; Ashley Boul, 2002; Jonna Pickens, 2003; Stephanie Eason, 2004; Lynsie Carroll, 2005; Leah Hansen, 2006; Mary Swearngin, 2007; Chelsea Kaezmarek, 2008; Allison Cocke, 2009; Brandy Kellner, 2010; Taryn Kohn, 2011; Rachel Umlauf, 2012; Ganelle Reed, 2013; Antonia Herbst, 2014; Melissa Pierce, 2015; Alexis Riga, 2016; Mikayla Mais, 2017; Zoe Eledge, 2018; Madie Gardner, 2019; Kiersten Grobe, 2020; Gabrielle Porter, 2021; Karlie Jones, 2022; Brieanna Fenlon, 2023; Autum Walton, 2024.
In the first Ozark Echoes yearbook the copy was typed on typewriters and then sent along with the pictures to the publisher to be printed. All pictures were black and white until 1972 when spot color was used on a few pages then the yearbook went full color in 1995. All pictures were developed in the dark room at WHS until 1995.
The yearbook included all grades of Warsaw R-9 until 1992 when the yearbook staff created elementary books for North and South. Now both schools have their own yearbooks. The middle school remained in the Ozark Echoes until 2006 when they started publishing their own yearbook.
Until 1993, the yearbook was created by the cut and paste method in which the copy was typed and then pasted on the page. The journalism department received two Mac computers in 1993 to take the yearbook and newspaper into a new technology.
Presently, the Ozark Echoes staff downloads digital pictures to their layouts which are created on computers.
The 2025 edition of the Ozark Echoes is on sale now at WHS. Contact Mrs. Amanda Adler at (660) 438-7351 to reserve your copy or go by the yearbook room.
