Beva Stevenson, an organizer of the reunion, interviews King Pithla (Paul Good) and Queen Chasco (Anna Mae Lee)
Two Gulf High School alumni — Anna Mae Lee and Paul Good — were honored at a reunion for older graduates held in July 2002.
The two were crowned as the unofficial Queen Chasco and King Pithla, copying a tradition of New Port Richey’s Chasco Fiesta.
Anna Mae Lee is the only surviving member of Gulf High School’s first graduating class of 1924, which consisted of eleven students. She actually served as an attendant to the queen of the first Chasco Fiesta, which was held in March 1922. Miss Lee was born on October 28, 1907, in Spring Lake. She attended St. Petersburg High School through the eleventh grade, but transferred to Gulf for the 1923-24 school year, which was the second year for Gulf High but the first year that included seniors.
She married Edward Carlton in January 1925. Mr. Carlton was born in 1901 and died in 1976. She later remarried and has been widowed twice.
Crowned as King Pithla was Paul (“Pete”) Good, who was the oldest male Gulf High graduate who attended the reunion. He was one of nineteen students who graduated in 1928.
Several hundred alumni attended the reunion, which was advertised as being for the classes of 1924 to 1967+. It was held from July 4 to 7, 2002, and included events at the Spartan Manor, the Ramada Inn pool, Green Key Beach, the old Gulf High School on the Boulevard, and other locations.
