In the Eighth Grade, our home room teacher was again Mrs. Geneva Helm.

Our subjects that year included

• English (Mrs. Eleanor Piper)
• Math VIII
• Science
• Social Science?

This was the year that television sets became much more numerous in Russellville, even though they were expensive with just black and white images. The closest stations were WSM-TV in Nashville and WHAS-TV in Louisville. Ed Sullivan's Sunday night variety show was popular. Here are some of the top songs for 1954:

• "Mr. Sandman" by the Chordettes
• "Sh-Boom" by the Crew-Cuts
• "Oh! My Papa" by Eddie Fisher
• "Hey There" by Rosemary Clooney
• "Secret Love" by Doris Day

On May 21, 1954 we officially graduated from the Eighth Grade, with the commencement exercise held in the Auditorium. Click on the photo below for a larger version with more easily readable names.