Audrey Bufka loves to be organized.

She keeps a box full of pictures, programs and other mementos of the Montgomery City High School Class of 1953.

“All of this sits in my living room,” Bufka said. “Whenever I hear anything or anyone wants to talk about anything or about classmates passing away, I go right in there and associate it. I'll keep it all together.”

On Oct. 9, Bufka brought that box to share with her classmates during the class reunion at the VFW 4436 building in Montgomery City.

“I just keep all of these pictures, and everybody comes and they add pictures to it and they take some of them home or whatever,” Bufka said.

Nine classmates plus their spouses attended the reunion. Besides Bufka, the other class members were Maggie Naughton, Naomi Claus, Alpha Logan-Shelton, Bob Shelton, Jim Morrow, Ed Schultz, Bill Cobb and Lloyd Weeks. During the two-hour event, the class members spent time talking about their years in school and had pizza for lunch.

“We were just a happy class,” Bufka said.

The class had a reunion every year until 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We don’t plan anything,” Bufka said. “We just get together and chat with people. We just get together and remember old stories. We all get together and have a good time. We don’t plan any parties. We don’t plan any entertainment.”

Bufka said the class came up with the idea of scheduling its reunion annually following its 50th reunion in 2003.

“One of our superintendents was there and he said, ‘I want you all to think how old you are and how old you will be 10 years from now,’” Bufka said. “So we started every two or three years. Then, when we got to the 60th reunion, we said, ‘Now, what are we going to do?’ So we started having one every year.”

There were 47 students who graduated from Montgomery City High School, which is now Montgomery County High School. A total of 22 students are still living.

“There are a lot of them who have either died or are staying in nursing homes,” Naughton said. “At 87 years old, I’ve been blessed to be able to take care of myself and live by myself.”

Bufka, Cobb and Shelton have returned to Montgomery City after living out of the area for a short time.

Morrow, Schultz, Betty Davidson, Shirley Fischer, Nancy Gentry, Dorla Lucas, Dean Moore, Naomi Teacutter, Floyd Wiss and Phyllis Wombie live in the state of Missouri, but not in Montgomery City.

Marianna Anderson, Harold Barr, Raymond Brower, Larry Gallop, Esther Gruber, Elaine Height, Dorothy Palmer and Mitzi Wolbrink live out of state. Barr, who now lives in California, joined the reunion by phone.