MINT HILL, NC – Independence High School’s Classes of ’71 and ’72 celebrated their 50th reunion on April 23 at the Embassy Suites in Concord, NC.

Originally planned for April of 2021, the committee was forced to delay the Class of ’71 reunion due to COVID.  They teamed up with the Class of ’72 and were finally able to unite in person a full year later.

The semicentennial gathering reunited two of the first IHS classes to be integrated by means of busing.  In the early 70s, IHS lost students to Garinger and West Charlotte and gained classmates from East Mecklenburg.  Kristy Miller Eddelman and Jane Marcel Rhodes (Class of ’71) did their best to recruit those who were bused in and those who were bused away, bringing the whole class together five decades later!