Class Notes

Sixty-four years ago, if I used the right number of fingers, we were young girls trying to decide which school we should attend. Now we have friends from Mary Washington who have contributed much to their communities, many of them world travelers, and many who are trying to complete more “bucket list” items.

Dot Rice Clarke summarized her activities. She retired from a career in Physical Therapy in 1998, but is still receiving inquiries from family members. She and husband Tom have traveled to sixty countries, most recently to Spain and Portugal, and they anticipate a visit in the fall of 2016 to Patagonia, followed by a family gathering in Topsail, North Carolina. They have one son, two daughters, six grandsons, one granddaughter, and great-grandsons. Tom is now clear of colon cancer after a long battle, and they are thankful and hoping to complete a lot more items from their “bucket list.”

Deane Ford Rook and “relatively new” husband Clark recently spent two weeks in Cuba through the Road Scholar program, and they had the pleasure of spending a night in a Cuban home. She senses that the people there are happy having Americans visit again. She is hoping to get an UMC Alumni group going in Tucson and in Pensacola, and is requesting calls. (520-743-3697 or deanef2460@msn.com.)

Bruce Spain, living in Westminster Canterbury in Richmond, is keeping “super busy” and was even a flower girl in her grandson’s wedding. After that she went with her daughter on a theater trip to NYC. Her son, Quigg Lawrence, is a bishop in the Anglican Church of North America. Not everyone has such variety in her life.

Joan O’Shaughnessy Kaufman is reported to have been very ill, and has now recovered!

Bobbi Falkenbury Wright has lived in many places since graduating, among them, Japan; Alexandria, Virginia; Newport, Rhode Island; and now Spartanburg, South Carolina, where their daughter lives. Bobbi and Jim live in a retirement community there. They have traveled with Jim’s work, and have gone on Viking River Cruises in Europe and on trips to such places as Greece, Israel, China, and Russia.

Bobbi and her sister, Patty Cook of Suffolk, Virgina, keep in touch by visiting with their roommates, Nancy Moore Cavins and Patsy Whitmire Culberson, both of Florida, and Mary Frances Pierce Burton of Rochester, Minnesota.

Jean Durham Busboso enjoys river boat cruises, and has written about some of these in former notes. In June 2016 she was in France. With floods and threats of airline strikes, the itinerary had to be altered, but the trip was still enjoyed. She found the most memorable part was the visit to the American Cemetery of Normandy. Also, she was treated to a marvelous lunch in the countryside by a Frenchman whom she had last seen in 1967 when he spent a week as an exchange student with Jean and husband Buz in Fairfax, Virginia.

Mary Montague Sikes is still painting and writing. She participated this summer in an alumni book signing in Fredericksburg and in events in Mathews and Gloucester on the same day. Her art has been displayed at several locations. She has eight published novels, a coffee table art book, and more.

We are saddened to learn of the loss of Barbara Hitchings Gresham on June 6, 2016, and of Foncie Lawrence Williamson on June 12, 2016.

Ellen Hertz Hewitt commented that we will probably be seeing more and more of these notes. “It makes me so sad,” she remarked; a feeling of so many. Ellen and Charlie are healthy, but traveling closer to home. This summer’s plans included Cape Cod; Newport, Rhode Island; Virginia Beach; and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, before returning home for more Bridge and French lessons.

Barbara Craft Grantz, enjoying life in Virginia Beach, is doing well.

I am still in Chesapeake. Like Ellen, we are traveling closer to home this year. My husband and I are visiting Alaska again in August, as we like to keep a check on the glaciers there. My church choir in Great Bridge took no summer vacation from rehearsals, in preparation for a concert in observance of the fifteenth anniversary of the 9-11 event.

I hope to hear from you again in a few months as we prepare for the spring class notes.