Class Notes

Hello gals! Here is the news from classmates who dared write something of their doings and whereabouts.

Cynthia Lowdermilk claims she is leading the most boring life imaginable, but that makes me think she has a quiet life with no drama…isn’t that what we are all after? You go, girl!

Pam Hogan Baynard just got back from Switzerland, which she noticed is a very expensive place—$36 for chicken enchiladas, and that was before she ordered Swiss chocolate for dessert! Laura “Tee” Johnson Atherton and her family will be visiting Pam and Chuck at their Nags Head beach house this summer. (Maybe we should all make our beach reservations with Pam now!)

Regina Sneed is enjoying being a museum guide (formerly called docents) at the recently remodeled San Francisco Modern Art Museum. She has been doing this volunteer work for 32 years, even while she was a full time lawyer. She is now taking full advantage of retirement and is more involved with art organizations.

Dr. Sharon Dobie (American Studies major, like myself) is relieved that her older son living in Orange County, California, has recovered from a stem cell transplant and has his life back. Her younger son lives in Seattle close to her. Sharon is on a slow fade toward retirement by reducing her work by 20% with no night or weekend calls and no more delivering babies. (Who knew an American Studies undergrad degree could take one so far?!) In 2017 she will fully retire, except for teaching.

Sharon was awarded the Gold Humanism in Medicine Award by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. In between all this work, she had a bike barge trip in France and a family wedding in New Zealand. She plans to swim in two open water contests in between her biking activities. Who knows what she does in her spare time? Whew!

Phyllis Newby Thompson is quite a gardener at home when she is not traveling to New York with her husband, John, or staying in their vacation home in Kona, Hawaii. She and John also travel often to South Boston to be with John’s mother, who is still living independently.

Her beloved service dog, Kona, spends time in the pool when it gets too hot to be with Phyllis in the garden.

Marianne DeBlois Zentz has been enjoying visits with her family and is looking forward to her daughter’s wedding in October. She had a wonderful visit with Anne Hoskot Kreutzer, whom she says is a house guest par excellence. Marianne has joined a “meet up” group to practice speaking French. (She lived in the UMW French house in our college glory days.) She does her best to only swear in Spanish, as when you swear in French, it just does not have the same “oomppff!”

Speaking of French, Karen Ralston Kilgore has been in France recently.

She also has been to London and New Zealand, with American jaunts to Florida to visit her daughter who is on the Research Faculty in Ocean Engineering at Florida Tech. Then she went on to Cincinnati and Charleston for weddings—all of this in a six month period. Not wanting to sit still for long, she is planning a trip to the South Pacific and Antarctica before 2016 is over, with a Denver stop-in to see her grandkids. “Life is good,” and obviously very busy!

Joan Gillis Baker, Patricia Adair Spangler, and Franceen Huddleston King attended their Robert E Lee 50th high school reunion last fall and had a blast. Joan also keeps in touch with Gail Balderson Dice ’67 when she visits her daughter in D.C. Joan remarried her high school sweetheart 15 years ago after 30 years of separation. (Wouldn’t that make a wonderful movie screenplay?) They went together on a Pacific cruise recently to Australia and New Zealand.

Anne Witham Kilpatrick has had one of those quiet years. She and Roger (high school sweetheart) recently went to Bryce Canyon and Zion, Utah, to personally experience American National Parks so generously and wisely given to us by President Teddy Roosevelt, who recognized the need for preserving our geographical heritage in this country. Her dear college friend, Jeanine Zavrel Fearns, and her two UMW suitemates, Suzie Bender Winterbie and Toni Turner Bruseth, will all travel to Washington, D.C. for their annual reunion. They are renting a cabin and will be trekking, talking, eating, walking and napping—great way to reconnect with UMW soulmates.

Linda Eadie Hood now has two new titanium knees. She sets off airport alarms and has no knee reflexes, but is delighted to be pain-free once again. The first surgery was in November and the second was March 30. She was walking within hours of each operation. She has been substitute teaching for 15 years, and she and her husband Rick are traveling to New Zealand (both islands) in November for three weeks.

As for me, I am totally enjoying my new role as a retired contractor in an active over-55 community in Santa Rosa, California, two hours north of my home in Silicon Valley where we lived for 30 years. No one calls me up here about their bathrooms or remodels, which is refreshing. Now I have time to be a client for a big remodel on my own house, which we are making totally accessible for aging in place. I am also playing pickleball (a great new sport for seniors), golf, yoga, and square dancing at a gay/straight club in Sebastopol. You probably didn’t know I am “bi-dancual.” Those American Studies majors from UMW class of ’69 are quite versatile! And Ann and I used to sing together when we first met in Dallas 37 years ago, so we have created a five-piece folk music band (fiddle, piano, bass, and acoustic guitar with vocal harmonies) and have revived our musical interests with the same original band name called More Joy. We perform concerts twice a year. After traveling extensively for three years (Africa, France, most of Europe) we have narrowed our interest to all of the American Presidential libraries and National Parks.

Write to me girls! Even if you are quietly at home enjoying living without drama, we want to hear from you!