MAY – Melanie Murphree earned valedictorian honors and Hannah McKenzie finished as the salutatorian for May High School’s Class of 2021.

May will hold its graduation at 7 p.m. Friday, May 28 at the high school gymnasium.

Murphree, the daughter of Ted and Sherry Murphree, continues a family tradition as she follows in the footsteps of sisters Chelsea Murphree and Emily Murphree Lacy as the top graduate in her class.

“It’s a family thing because both of my sisters were valedictorian in their classes so I’m the third one,” Murphree said of the accolade. “It’s definitely an honor. I’ve worked pretty hard and we were so close it was crazy. Our GPAs were .008 apart. It’s an honor and I’m still amazed by it honestly.”

McKenzie, the daughter of Joey and Crystal McKenzie, said of being named salutatorian, “It really is an honor because I know so many people have worked very hard, including myself, but it really is an honor to be able to represent my school. It just shows all my hard work has paid off..”

Murphree and McKenzie served as co-drum majors for the May Tiger band during their senior year. Murphree also took part in basketball, track, FCA, took dual credit courses since her freshman year, played flute in the band, and qualified for state in cross country twice. McKenzie competed in basketball, softball, cross country, track, played trumpet in the band and was a board member of the FCA Huddle.

Murphree is headed to Angelo State to double major in business administration and marketing.

“Both my parents owned businesses while I was growing up, they’re entrepreneurs, and it was really fun for me seeing that,” Murphreee said. “I just grew up around it and really enjoyed it. My aunt is also into investments, so I had a lot of influences that showed me how fun it can be.”

Long term goals for Murphree include, “anything in the business world. I’d like to be doing something with finances or investments, something like that.”

Reflecting on her classroom experiences,” Murphree sid, “I love math in general, we have some amazing teachers here, and also sciencee. Science was my second option, we have amazing science teachers.”

Murphree wanted to thank, “My parents and my sisters for pushing me as well and making me really compete in academics. I also want to thank my aunts and all my teachers. We have some really good teachers.”

McKenzie will continue her education at Howard Payne and intends to major in either bio-medical science or biology.

“Honestly I thought I had it all figured out, I thought I was going to try and be a vet tech or go to school to be a veterinarian,” McKenzie said. “I’ve recently decided I don’t really want to go into that so right I’m just playing by ear. If I go into bio-medical science that gets me a step into the medical field, and I’m not completely sure what I want to do with that, but I do know whatever I do I want to use it to help people most likely in health care.”

Among her fondest memories in the classroom, McKenzie said, “I really loved Biology. I did really well on my STAAR test and just because I enjoyed the class so much and I think that’s what I want to go in to.”

McKenzie also expressed her gratitude for those who have helped her get to this point.

“I definitely want to thank my parents, they’ve been incredible this whole time I’ve been at May and even when I was at Rising Star,” McKenzie said. “They’ve pushed me to be the absolute best I can be and they’ve always supported me, and so many of the teachers here have done the same as well.”

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BROWN COUNTY VALEDICTORIAN/SALUTATORIAN SCHEDULE

May 18 – Blanket, Brookesmith

May 19 – May, Zephyr

May 20 – Early, Bangs

May 21 – Brownwood