Our History

After researching existing Junior Assembly programs in Richmond, VA and Greenville, NC, Mrs. Thomas E. Wilson, mother of Beverly Sumner, began the Junior Assembly of Rock Hill in 1967. While living in Richmond, Mrs. Wilson had belonged to a dance club which offered ballroom dance instruction with emphasis on social graces. Mrs. Wilson later helped organize similar Junior Assemblies in Shelby and Spartanburg. Upon Mrs. Wilson’s retirement in 1989, she encourage her daughter, Beverly, and Ellen Maxwell to “carry on their family tradition.” The Junior Assembly of Gastonia continues in its thirty-fourth season this tradition of wholesome dance instruction, social etiquette and supervised entertainment for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders.