The Tallassee High School Alumni Association held its annual Hall of Pride inductions on Sunday, April 13 at the THS Performing Arts Center.

This year’s posthumous inductees were Dr. Catherine James-Peters (Class of 1990) and Coach Duane Webster (Class of 1949).

Peters was a family practice physician licensed in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. She also earned an MBA from Auburn University so that she could better understand the financial complexities of running a medical organization.

Webster was a legend in high school football in Alabama, coaching at both Tallassee High School and Reeltown High School. His Reeltown team won the state championship in 1987. He was inducted into the AHSAA Hall of Fame in 1994.

Dr. Catherine James-Peters (October 17, 1971 – February 6, 2023)
Class of 1990
Inducted 2025

Dr. Catherine James-Peters was the 8th of 9 children born to Mitchell and Ethel (Lewis) James.

Dr. James-Peters grew up in Tallassee and graduated from Tallassee High School in 1990. Her academic work gained her a scholarship to the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB). She graduated from UAB in 1994 with top honors with a B.S. in biology and was awarded a scholarship to medical school. She graduated from the UAB School of Medicine in 1999. Dr. James-Peters was the first African-American physician from Tallassee High School.

The next stop in her career was a Family Practice Residency program at the University of Tennessee in Jackson, graduating in 2002.

Dr. James-Peters and her husband, Junius, and son, Keytrio, moved to Dothan in 2003, where she opened her own clinic, Total Family Care. She especially loved working with her pre-natal patients that she had the privilege of following through their pregnancy and post-delivery. She was a “true example of a family physician as she often followed her patients from birth on up.” Dr. James-Peters ran a very successful practice, helping many patients and gaining the praise of her colleagues and others who crossed her path. She continued her professional development, studying and gaining numerous board certifications.

Dr. James-Peters ran the clinic until 2010.

Dr. James-Peters transitioned to a medical directorship practice in rural Georgia in March 2010, which she led until March 2015. She not only took care of her patients but had to manage the financial operations of the practice. She pursued an MBA from Auburn University so that she would be better able to understand the complexities of running a medical organization. She completed her MBA in 2014.

She was very passionate and concerned not only about patient health and wellness, but health and wellness among physicians as well. She formed a committee within the American Academy of Family Physicians for physician advocacy. The Employed Physician Member Interest Group was approved by the AAFP in 2019. Dr. James-Peters served as founding Chair and Vice-Chair of the MIG.

Dr. James-Peters was a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, where she served 7 years on the Practice Management Committee. She served as the Georgia Academy delegate to the National Chapter Constituency Leaders Program. Her licenses and certifications included Georgia Medical License, Alabama Medical License, Tennessee Medical License, Louisiana Medical License, and Texas Medical License, American Family Board Medicine, and LEAN Healthcare 101.

Dr. James-Peters died unexpectedly on February 6, 2023. She is survived by her husband, Junius, and her son, Keytrio Denmark, 5 brothers, 2 sisters, and a host of family members, professional associates and friends.

Dr. James-Peters considered her greatest accomplishment was dedicating her life to God and getting baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1997. She worked tirelessly in the ministry with her husband and son, helping many people “find joy in life by teaching the Bible to them, assisting many to improve the quality of their life in a spiritual way by teaching them how to apply Bible principles in their life…It was her hope that all would study the Bible and learn about Jehovah and Jesus and their purpose for the future of this earth.”

Coach Dencil Duane Webster (June 18, 1931-January 31, 2022)
Class of 1949
Inducted 2025

Coach Dencil Duane Webster, a native of Tallassee, was one of 6 children born to Charlie W. Webster and Josie Lee Foster Webster.

Coach Webster was orphaned when he was 12 years old, and arrangements were made for him to board with a family in the community. He attended Reeltown High School from 1943 to 1948 but enrolled in Tallassee High School and graduated there in 1949. During the school year, he would work from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Mt. Vernon Mills and then attended school, where he played basketball, making the All-District team, and played football under legendary Tallassee coach J.E. “Hot” O’Brien.

He began his military duty with the United States Air Force on June 23, 1949, in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was honorably discharged on December 19, 1952 at Craig Air Force Base in Alabama.

Coach Webster used the GI Bill to attend college and graduated from Auburn University in 1956. His first job was at Union High School in Tallapoosa County as the B-team basketball coach. He then interviewed at Reeltown High School, and was hired as the basketball coach but was told he would also have to coach football. Coach O’Brien was instrumental in helping Coach Webster get the program off the block.

Coach Webster started studying books about football to prepare for his role as coach. He took a team that had a 5-36-2 record over 5 seasons and turned the program into a winning one. The Reeltown Rebels won 6 games that first season and, over a 14 year period, they compiled a 98-33-8 record.

He left Reeltown to take a teaching and coaching job at Tallassee High School, but returned to Reeltown in 1976, where he remained through the 1987 season.

His 1969 Rebel squad finished 9-0-1 and his final team (1987) went undefeated (15-0) and won the Class 2A state championship. The 1984 Rebels were Class 2A runners-up with a 13-2 record and his 1986 team reached the semi-finals, finishing the season with an 11-3 record.

Coach Webster’s record stands for itself: 208-64-8 in 26 seasons at Reeltown, and a career record of 218-93-9.

Coach Webster has achieved many accolades in his life, including being honored at the State Fair in Birmingham in 1956 during Alabama Teachers Day.

Governor Fob James awarded him the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1998) for being one of Alabama’s “unsung heroes” and also named him an Honorary Alabama Colonel, charging him with the duties of “performing all manner of things which benefit the citizens of Alabama, such as influencing the best young men and women in Alabama to serve in the Alabama Army and Air National Guard.” He received the Alabama Football Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 for “excellence in inspiring and influencing his students, players, coaches and community, for his loyalty and dedication to high school football in the State of Alabama.

Coach Webster was inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1994 and part of Alabama Highway 120, which runs past Reeltown High School, was renamed “Coach Duane Webster Highway” in 2020. The stadium at Reeltown High School also bears his name.

Previous Hall of Pride Inductees

2015
Mrs. Vicki Atkins Oliver Baker (Class of 1964)
Mr. Bennie Little (Class of 1936)

2016
Mr. William E. Goss (Class of 1948)
Dr. Byron Brightwell Nelson (Class of 1925)
Dr. James Robert Piper (Class of 1951)

2017
Mr. John L. Allbrittin (Class of 1981)
Mr. Samuel Oscar Dunn (Class of 1938)
Mr. Ernest C. Hornsby (Class of 1955)
Mr. Jessee Willard Pienezza (Class of 1934)
Mrs. Marion Woodall Powell (Class of 1974)

2018
Dr. Byron Brightwell Nelson, Jr. (Class of 1953)
Mr. Joseph Wilson Patterson (Class of 1928)
Col. Bobby W. Smart (Class of 1967)
Dr. Thomas N. Taylor (Class of 1956)
Mr. Edwin R. Watkins (Service Award)

2019
Coach Derrick Ansley (Class of 2000)
Dr. Henry Lee Taylor (Class of 1952)
Dr. G. Larry Whatley (Class of 1958)
Mrs. Marjorie Carter (Service Award)

2020
Mr. Jerry Cunningham (Class of 1978)
Coach Jackie Davis (Class of 1946)
Mr. Billy Gillyard McKenzie (Class of 1948)
Coach Carl Stewart (Service Award)

2021
Ms. Lacey Brewer (Class of 1985)
Mrs. Michelle Hayes Cole (Class of 1992)
Mrs. Sylvia Farrow Phillips (Class of 1974)
Mrs. Olivia Pienezza Solomon (Class of 1955)
Coach John Edward “Hot” O’Brien (Service Award)

2022
Col. Jesse Charles (Jake) Bush, Jr. (Class of 1944)
Dr, Boyde Jerome (Jerry) Harrison (Class of 1970)
Coach Howard Dean Tippett (Class of 1953)
Mr. Russell Hill Stokes (Service Award)

2023
Col. (retired) Mary Stonaker Burrus (Class of 1982)
Cynthia Farrow Martin (Class of 1972)
Arthur Ted Oliver (Class of 1989)

2024
Joan O’Daniel (Class of 1964)
Stacy Goss (Class of 1965)
Bernice Paschal Rivers Barton-Simmons Cooper (Class of 1970)
Susan Schonberger Swagler (Class of 1982)